Kremlin Readies Power-Stripping Bill
Monday, September 26, 2005. Page 3.
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
Dmitry Kozak, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, said Friday that his office had finished drafting a bill that would allow federal authorities to confiscate powers from provincial leaders who fail to raise standards in their regions.
Under the reform, leaders of regions whose budgets are heavily subsidized by the federal government would lose their authority to appoint regional officials and decide how regional funds are spent.
Five impoverished regions in the North Caucasus -- Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia -- received more than 70 percent of their budgets from the federal government last year, while two Siberian regions, Tuva and the Koryak autonomous district, received similar levels of assistance.
The reform would trim the powers of regional leaders and mayors in regions and cities where subsidies account for more than 30 percent of the budget. Dozens of the country's 89 regions receive federal subsidies of more than 30 percent.
President Vladimir Putin complained on Friday that huge cash subsidies from the federal budget had not led to any positive changes in the southern regions. "In the past four years, they have risen to nearly 3.5 times what they were per capita," he said. "But the rift between economic indicators of the region and Russia on the whole has not narrowed."
Putin also harshly criticized authorities in the North Caucasus regions, saying nepotism and corruption were hurting their economies and creating a fertile ground for terrorism.
"Administrative involvement is excessive," Putin told a meeting of leaders from 13 southern regions, including Chechnya. "The authorities are often used as instruments for unfair advantage and, to put it bluntly, are getting corrupt."
Kozak said the reform did not imply "introducing federal rule" in the regions.
"We are speaking about symbolic measures," he said, without elaborating, Interfax reported.
Kozak suggested that decisions on removing and returning powers should be made once a year, saying the worst-off regions should be financially managed from Moscow for at least a year.
"It is necessary to make the [regional] power structures more responsible for the final results of their work," he said.
The bill will need to be approved by the State Duma and Federation Council before Putin can sign it into law.
Alexander Tkachyov, governor of the southern Krasnodar region, praised the reform. "I treat my municipal districts this way," Tkachyov said, Interfax reported.
Kozak, meanwhile, sharply criticized law enforcement agencies in the North Caucasus and said the immediate task was to fight corruption in their ranks and introduce order. Only after that, he said, would it be possible to attract investment to the impoverished region.
"If people don't feel safe, they are unlikely to invest," he said.
Separately, Kozak said he was not planning to run for president in 2008. "I'd like for all those fortune tellers ... to leave my name off the list of possible candidates," he said.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/26/011.html
