Souvenir democracy

Tatarstan will be presented with an agreement with Russia

On Wednesday, the president unexpectedly submitted to the State Duma a new version of the agreement on the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between Russia and Tatarstan. The previous agreement, also endorsed by President Putin, was approved by the State Duma, but rejected in February 2007 by the Federation Council . There are no fundamental changes in the new text, and Tatarstan will now most likely regain its special status. True, in conditions when regional legislation has long been brought into line with federal legislation, and regional leaders are actually appointed by the President of Russia, this status is rather of a purely ritual nature. The agreement, signed by the presidents of Russia and Tatarstan, is dated June 26.

The new text of the agreement gives the right to the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan to enter into agreements with the Russian government, providing for joint resolution of issues related to the economic, environmental, cultural and other features of the republic. Tatarstan receives permission to issue its residents passport inserts for citizens of the Russian Federation in the Tatar language and with the coat of arms of the region. In addition, the candidate for the post of President of Tatarstan proposed by the President of Russia must speak not only Russian, but also the Tatar language. The term of the agreement is ten years.

Sergei Reshulsky, a member of the relevant State Duma Committee for Federal Affairs and Regional Policy, told Vremya Novostey that a few words were added in the preamble stating that the agreement is based not only on the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Constitution of Tatarstan, but also on the federal laws of Russia and the laws of Tatarstan. Also in the second article, a clause duplicating the article of the Constitution was removed (explaining that the status of Tatarstan is determined by the Constitution of Russia and the Constitution of Tatarstan). At the same time, the main controversial proposals of the previous text, according to Mr. Reshulsky, have been preserved - the disposal of the land and subsoil of Tatarstan will be regulated by separate laws.

Let us recall that the first draft agreement on the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between government bodies of Russia and government bodies of Tatarstan was approved at a session of the State Council of the Republic on October 28 last year and submitted for approval to the State Duma by President Vladimir Putin in early November. The State Duma approved the agreement on February 9, but the Federation Council refused to approve it on February 21: with the required 90 votes, only 13 senators supported the document, 93 were against it, and 15 abstained. At the end of February, the republican public movement "Tatarstan - New Century" made an appeal to the President of Russia and State Duma deputies in connection with the rejection of the agreement by the upper house of parliament. According to the authors of the document, the approval of the agreement will serve to legally strengthen the unity of the country.

The agreement with Tatarstan caused a mixed reaction: many politicians thought that it called into question the unity of Russia and that a queue of people would line up behind Tatarstan to sign the same paper , as was already the case in the 90s. But it turned out that it has nothing in common with the treaties of the 90s, in which the regions packed “as much sovereignty as they could carry.” The Tatarstan working group tried to bring the new agreement as close as possible to the open-ended agreement of 1994, which was actually canceled in 2004 by amendments to federal legislation. But in the final version, almost nothing remained of these privileges.

In essence, the Tatarstan elite simply received symbolic recognition of its special status. Which is very important on the eve of the federal elections of 2007-2008 and in light of the inevitable imminent change of president in Tatarstan itself, which was already announced by 70-year-old Mintimer Shaimiev (he has ruled the republic since Soviet times - since 1990, and the last time he was reassigned to this post on March 25, 2005). At the same time, Chechnya, about which the main concerns were expressed, in the person of President Ramzan Kadyrov, publicly renounced claims to an agreement with the center that secures a special status - status in this case does not require a special document. It exists de facto.

Since the previous text of the agreement with Tatarstan, returned to the State Duma without the creation of a conciliation commission, was not removed from the chamber’s consideration, deputies cannot pass a new law. At the plenary meeting on Friday, most likely, this issue will be resolved: the old agreement will be removed from consideration as no longer relevant, and the new one will be considered on July 4. First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Oleg Morozov believes that the lower house of parliament will support the agreement until the end of the spring session. According to the head of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, supported by the vote of the upper house, the original version of the agreement violated the principle of equality of regions. It will become clear before the end of the spring session whether the senators still think so now that the text of the treaty has not essentially changed.

Daria GUSEVA