Czar. Czar, by the way, comes from Caesar, which was both the name of Julius Caesar, and more importantly how the Roman emperors were referred to ("Give the Ca

Czar. Czar, by the way, comes from Caesar, which was both the name of Julius Caesar, and more importantly how the Roman emperors were referred to ("Give the Caesar's what belong to the Caesar"). In other words, Czar is a word for Emperor. When Peter the Great took the name of Emperor (1721), there were lots of princes and kings in Europe, but a single Emperor - the sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire (i.e. Austria), which at the time was Charles VI. It was quite an audacity, and lots of monarchs did not recognize the title, including obviously Charles VI himself. In time they came around. The point is, for hundreds of years following Peter the Great, the Russian Empire has perceived itself as the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire (which had the Orthodox Christian religion). So, maybe it's not official, but Putin sees himself as a Czar, or an Emperor, not as a mere King.