«The federative reform started by Vladimir Putin is on the verge of collapse,” said Deputy of the State Duma, Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Local Self-Government Issues, Sergei Mitrokhin (the Yabloko faction) in an interview with journalists on November 16, 2000.

“Basically, the reform failed to affect the financial basis of the absolute rule of governors”, added Mitrokhin.

Mitrokhin believes that successful reform requires an elimination of the

financial dependence of local self-government from the regional authorities. He added, “This dependence is the main reason behind the governors’ arbitrary rule.”

He stressed: “One gains the impression that after launching the reforms the President had hardly conceived the architecture of a steady federative state, the foundation of which is formed from the stable revenues of the

local budgets.”

Mitrokhin said that the following urgent measures were required to resolve this task:

- transfer to a local level for all property taxes; - establish the level of income tax with the local budgets; - double pensions and wages for individuals entitled to concessions and simultaneously abolish such concessions.

“To perform these measures, we need the Presidents’ political will, which is still lacking,” added Mitrokhin. “Unfortunately, - he added, - in this issue Vladimir Putin continues to follow the road of his predecessor who built a semi-feudal state in Russia”.

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