Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been awarded a medal "for unselfish work in the name of children."
Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov announced the award on Wednesday, writing on social network Twitter that "not one child in the Chechnya republic was left by a mother in a maternity hospital in the last three years."
All newly discovered orphans in Chechnya find their new homes with relatives and foster parents, the ombudsman said, adding that even children with disabilities are not sent to orphanages.
"The main carer in a Chechen family is a grandmother: wise, experienced, patient, kind, caring, strict and full of love. Mother of a family and a generation," Astakhov said.
Astakhov has been in the media spotlight in recent months, with the so-called Dima Yakovlev law banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children making headlines worldwide.
The ombudsman, formerly a celebrity lawyer, has said that all foreign adoptions are harmful for Russia, since they diminish the number of domestic adoptions and create opportunities for corruption.