Bashkiria is the leader among violators
By December 31, the office of the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District will complete the harmonization of local laws with federal ones - with the exception of those that will require conciliation procedures, litigation and, possibly, even political decisions. This was stated yesterday by Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative in the Volga District Vladimir Zorin. “But we hope that it will not come to the removal of heads of executive power and the dissolution of local legislative bodies,” he announced.

As Zorin said at yesterday's press conference, over two months of work, the plenipotentiary's office identified 567 regulations that do not comply with federal legislation and the Russian Constitution. Of these, 304 are provisions of the constitutions and charters of the republics and regions included in the district. The leaders among the violators of Russian laws have also been identified. The first place is occupied by Bashkiria and Tataria: in these republics, 70 and 40 regulations, respectively, contradict federal ones. Udmurtia is in third place, with 30 laws to work on. By the way, it’s not just the republics that violate federal laws—in the Novgorod and Orenburg regions, about two dozen laws each are subject to revision.
Approximately 15-20% of local laws, according to Zorin, are either outdated or will be amended in the very near future. There are also regulations that the republics consider to be of higher quality than Russian ones. This is also recognized in the plenipotentiary’s office. Among such laws, Zorin included, for example, the Tatar law on a state of emergency (during the hurricanes that raged in Tatarstan not so long ago, it was appreciated by the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu) and the “very advanced” land code of Tatarstan. He, as they believe in the plenipotentiary’s office, could well become a prototype of the Russian one. In such cases, the district leadership expects to work together with the State Duma Committee on Legislation, which will make the necessary amendments to similar Russian laws.
Some of the regulations of the district's entities will require conciliation procedures, litigation and even political decisions. First of all, we are talking about the constitutions of Tatarstan and Bashkiria, which proclaim the supremacy of republican laws over federal ones. Until the end of this year, the plenipotentiary's office intends to conduct "civilized" consultations on these issues. But even if the negotiations fail, the presidential office does not yet plan any political sanctions against the rebel governors. “By removing some mines, we don’t want to lay others,” Zorin explained. “Shaimiev is not a chess piece. He cannot just be removed and moved to another place.”

ALLA Kommersant-Barakhova

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 166 dated 09/07/2000, p. 2

Authors:

Alla Barakhova