diff --git a/cinderclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py b/cinderclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py
index f780adeac..b44888c59 100644
--- a/cinderclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py
+++ b/cinderclient/tests/unit/test_utils.py
@@ -228,6 +228,10 @@ class PrintListTestCase(test_utils.TestCase):
 +---+-----+
 """, cso.read())
 
+    def test_unicode_key_value_to_string(self):
+        expected = {u'key': u'\u043f\u043f\u043f\u043f\u043f'}
+        self.assertEqual(expected, utils.unicode_key_value_to_string(expected))
+
 
 class PrintDictTestCase(test_utils.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/cinderclient/utils.py b/cinderclient/utils.py
index 950b4bcdb..86c276e3b 100644
--- a/cinderclient/utils.py
+++ b/cinderclient/utils.py
@@ -182,8 +182,9 @@ def unicode_key_value_to_string(dictionary):
     """Recursively converts dictionary keys to strings."""
     if not isinstance(dictionary, dict):
         return dictionary
-    return dict((str(k), str(unicode_key_value_to_string(v)))
-        for k, v in dictionary.items())
+    return dict((six.text_type(k),
+                 six.text_type(unicode_key_value_to_string(v)))
+                for k, v in dictionary.items())
 
 
 def print_dict(d, property="Property", formatters=None):