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(AP Photo)
Putin Moves to Strengthen Kremlin's Power |
MOSCOW Sept. 14, 2004 - President Vladimir Putin ordered an overhaul of
Russia's political system Monday, reacting to a three-week onslaught of
terrorism with plans for the most extensive political shakeup since the
collapse of the Soviet Union. The former KGB spy's directive for revamping
the way Russia is governed included an end to the direct popular election
of governors and a major rearrangment in the rules for selecting members
of parliament, already deeply loyal to the Kremlin.
Critics charged the Russian leader was using the bloody outcome
of the Beslan school siege to grab more power .
Putin, saying the future of the country was at stake, called for
creation of a powerful anti-terror agency "capable of not only dealing
with
terror attacks but also working to avert them, destroy criminals in their
hideouts and, if necessary, abroad."
Some 430 people have been killed in terror attacks in Russia
over the last three weeks, including 330 people in the gruesome climax
of
the school siege in Beslan in southern Russia. More than half the dead
at
the school were children. Ninety people died when suspected Chechen women
suicide bombers blew up two Russian airliners in flight. A woman suicide
bomber killed nine others near a subway station in Moscow.
Curiously, however, the Russian leader's proposals focused
largely on electoral changes. Putin said he would propose legislation
abolishing the election of local governors by popular vote. Instead they
would be nominated by the president and confirmed by local legislatures.
He
said the change was needed to streamline and strengthen the executive
branch
to better combat terror.
Putin also asked for a revision of the method by which Russians
elect their parliament. The entire 450 seats would be chosen from candidates
on party lists. At present about half are chosen that way, meaning many
candidates can win seats while representing no party. The current rules
also
allowed a candidate to win a place in the legislature even if representing
a
party that garnered too few seats as an organization to win representation.
Critics warned that Putin's reliance on central control could
weaken the nation further separating those in power from their constituents.
Since taking office in 1999, Putin has constantly worked to rein
in the governors. He has tossed them out of Russia's upper house of
parliament, appointing seven regional envoys to monitor them.
"Today, all the power agencies that are supposed to fight terrorism
are subordinated directly to the president. ... It's incomprehensible
why on top of that he has to name governors," Sergei
Mitrokhin, a leading member of the liberal Yabloko faction, told Russia's
Ekho Moskvy radio. "It shows that the president doesn't know what
to do, he's at a loss."
Sergei Markov, a political analyst with close ties to the
Kremlin, said the president's move against the governors could help curb
corruption that has flourished in some regions.
"At the same time, it means ... a lowering of (their) general
political authority and a serious lowering of political pluralism,"
Markov
told Ekho Moskvy.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the few opposition deputies in the
State Duma, scorned the president's political proposals and warned that
the
next election would produce a Duma of "marionette party lists and
(that)
won't enjoy any authority."
Russians, however, feel that the elected governors and
legislators are even more corrupt than Communist administrators in Soviet
times. They also have traditionally clamored for a firm hand to restore
order and now want action against terrorism, often telling journalists
terrorist attacks would never have happened under the late dictator Stalin.
Putin also said official corruption had resulted in terrorists
getting official travel and residence documents "leading to grave
consequences." Putin named one of his closest confidants, Cabinet
chief of
staff Dmitry Kozak, to represent him in the southern district that includes
the Caucasus, which he called "a key strategic region for Russia"
and "a
victim of terrorism and also a springboard for it."
He also proposed a new structure called the Public Chamber that
he said would strengthen public oversight of the government and the actions
of law enforcement agencies.
The Russian president, who in 1999 as Russia's prime minister
ordered troops back into Chechnya after apartment bombings in Moscow blamed
on Chechens, made the new proposals Monday to Cabinet members and security
officials convened in special session.
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