RUSSIANS WILL BE ABLE TO RENAME CITIES AND SWAMPS

The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography came up with an initiative to choose new names for a number of objects.  These included cities and streets, as well as mountains, rivers and even swamps.  The idea was announced in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and immediately faced criticism.

According to the idea of   the department, it is necessary to create a kind of catalogue, which will contain about 800,000 positions of various geographic objects. Each of them can be renamed through public discussion and subsequent online voting.

It should be noted that not all objects were included in the list.

It will not be possible to rename a bridge or an element of transport infrastructure; the same rule applies to marine objects, as well as cultural heritage objects.

The impossibility of renaming the latter became one of the reasons for the criticism voiced in the Civil Chamber. In addition, proposals were made to exclude people's names from geographical names, as well as to create a separate register of objects, the renaming of which would be impossible.

At the moment, it is not clear how exactly The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography intends to implement the proposed program. Perhaps the practice of the “Great Names of Russia” project will be applied, within the framework of which 46 Russian airports received the names of famous people.

While the bill is still in development, it can get into the lower house of parliament only by next year.