The leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has called for the body of the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, to be removed from the mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square and buried.
Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on November 2 that, if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders the burial of Lenin, then the head of Khadzhi-Murat -- a leader of the 19th century Chechen and Daghestani resistance against Russia -- must also be buried.
With the exception of a few brief periods, Lenin's embalmed body has been on public display to visitors at the mausoleum since his death in 1924.
Khadzhi-Murat's head is kept in a St. Petersburg museum.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists hours after Kadyrov's post that Lenin's burial "is not on the agenda of the Kremlin administration."
"This issue draws a broad public response," Peskov said.
Kadyrov's call for Lenin's burial came five days before the 100th anniversary of the Lenin-led revolution that brought communists to power in Russia in 1917.
It echoed Kazakhstan's 2016 official request to Russia to return the skull of a leader of the Kazakh national liberation movement, Keiki Batyr, to Kazakhstan for burial.
Keiki Batyr, also known as Nurmaghanbet Kokembaiuly, was a key leader of a Kazakh uprising against tsarist Russia in 1916.
He was killed by Soviet authorities in 1923 and his skull was kept in a St. Petersburg museum until it was returned to Kazakhstan in October 2016 and was buried
