GROZNY: Chechnya’s pro-Moscow leader on Sunday renamed a Grozny street in honour of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin nearly a decade after Russian forces virtually flattened the city.

“This avenue is being renamed after Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin because he is the saviour of the Chechen people... He saved us from genocide,” pro-Moscow administrative chief Ramzan Kadyrov said at the Soviet-style ceremony where thousands of residents gathered waving balloons and placards.

“I am sure 99 per cent of the Chechen people support me in this because he deserves to have the main street renamed after him,” said Kadyrov, adding that Putin’s 1999 military intervention had saved Chechnya from unspecified “international criminals.” Putin, the former president, launched an all-out military assault on Chechnya in 1999 including aerial bombardments in order to wrest control from a separatist leadership that sought independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the conflict, which continues today in the form of low-level attacks on soldiers and police.

Sunday’s renaming of Victory Avenue to V.V. Putin Avenue came on a local holiday officially marking 420 years of Chechen friendship with the Russian people.

“The renaming is wonderful news... a wonderful gesture by the whole Chechen people,” said Medvedev’s envoy for southern Russia, Vladimir Ustinov.—AFP