Putin re-establishes federal control

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, MAY 18. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, has launched a massive drive to tighten federal control over the sprawling country and cut to size powerful regional governors.

Ten days after taking office, Mr. Putin announced plans to introduce a packet of legislation to Parliament that would deprive the Governors of their seats in the Upper House and give the President the right to sack them from their posts and dissolve regional Assemblies. The proposed administrative reform amounts to the most sweeping changes in the way Russia is governed since the inaction of the 1993 Constitution, which gave the then President, Mr. Boris Yeltsin, vast powers over federal branches of government but allowed elected Governors to run their regions like virtual kingdoms.

Mr. Putin said one-fifth of local laws were at variance with the country's Constitution. ``Such violations are fraught with catastrophic consequences,'' the Russian leader said, revealing his plan in a televised address to the nation late Wednesday. They ``breed separatism, which sometimes becomes a springboard for a still worser evil - international terrorism'' - a clear reference to Chechnya. Under Mr. Putin's plan, the Federation Council, or the Upper House of Parliament, which is now made up of regional Governors and the heads of regional Assemblies, will be filled with their appointed representatives, who will work full time, rather than several days a month as at present. The idea is to deprive Governors of parliamentary immunity to prosecution they enjoy as members of the Upper House.

Mr. Putin also seeks to gain the authority to dismiss Governors and dissolve local legislatures whose policies break the Russian Constitution and federal laws. As a sop to Governors, Mr. Putin proposed giving them the right to sack elected Mayors in their regions.

The plan came hard on the heels of a Presidential decree that carved Russia into seven ``federal districts'' under control of Kremlin-appointed watchdogs with broad powers to control the regions under their jurisdiction. The proposal to change the Federation Council is likely to run into fierce opposition from regional bosses, even though few have dared to voice their protests publicly. One of the exceptions was the powerful Mayor of Moscow, Mr. Yuri Luzhkov.

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Section  : International
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