De-Russification

Tajikistan's President wants a more traditional onomasticon:

"Imomali Rakhmonov announced on March 20 that he wants to remove the Russified 'ov' ending from his name and use the more Tajik spelling 'Emomalii Rahmon,' AP reported the next day. Rakhmonov said, 'In Soviet times, our names were documented according to the rules of the Russian language.' He added, 'I want to return to traditions and change my name to Emomalii Rahmon.' Rakhmonov, who was addressing a meeting of Tajik intellectuals on the traditional spring celebration of Norouz, called on others to change their names in similar fashion and urged a return to the use of traditional place names, gazeta.ru reported."