Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he was not offended when web users referred to him as "Dimon," a diminutive version of his name.
"To tell you the truth, it does not offend me at all. There are things that I do not like. It is understandable. But it is absolutely normal when I am called Dimon on the Internet," Medvedev said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Russians traditionally address their elders and superiors by their first name and patronymic.
"So what is wrong with Dimon? This is how I was called in my childhood. It's all trifle," Medvedev added.
In March, Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said in an interview with Voice of Russia radio that web users must not get too familiar with the prime minister. "He's not Dimon to you — he's the head of the government," she said.
An hour after a transcript of her interview was published, #Dimon and #Don'tCryDimon began trending on Russian Twitter.