Tatarstan decided not to delay with rice – Picture of the day – Kommersant
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The president of Tatarstan will become the head (rais) of the republic in ten days. Such amendments to the regional constitution were approved on Thursday by the State Council with nine votes against. The republic will also remove references to sovereignty and an agreement on the delimitation of powers with the federal center from the main law. At the very end of 2022, the State Council adopted other amendments, according to which the title of president was retained by Rustam Minnikhanov until the 2025 elections. Experts attribute the accelerated refusal of the presidential status to the fact that “Moscow has taken a principled position.”
According to the law “On Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan” adopted on January 26, in ten days the position of the head of the region will be called “head (rais)”. Thus, albeit belatedly, Tatarstan complied with the new federal law on public authorities in the regions, which ordered the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to bring their laws into line with the new document by January 1, 2023 and, in particular, to abandon the name “president”. Tatarstan remained the only region where this name was preserved.
At the session of the State Council, the bill was presented by the head of the State Construction Committee, Albert Khabibullin. He called this document “compromising, taking into account the opinions and positions of all interested parties”, noting that the opinion of the prosecutor’s office was taken into account during its development, and suggested not to open a debate on this issue. “I propose to support the proposal of the committee so as not to politicize this issue now. No speeches,” State Council Speaker Farid Mukhametshin insisted.
In the first reading, the draft was supported by 76 deputies, 8 were against and 1 abstained. Only half an hour was allotted for the amendments to the second reading, but none were received. In the second reading, there were 76 votes in favor, 6 against and 2 abstentions, and in general, 73 deputies supported the changes to the constitution, with 9 against and 1 abstention.
Recallthat on December 23, 2022, the State Council of Tatarstan was already amending the constitution. It was then that the additional name of the head of the region appeared – “rais” (translated from Arabic as “chairman, chief”), but at the same time, the deputies decided on a “transitional position”, according to which President Rustam Minnikhanov will retain the name of his position until the next elections in 2025 . The amendments sparked a lively discussion, but Mr. Minnikhanov urged the deputies not to let anyone think that Tatarstan had “rebelled” under the conditions of a special military operation. The republic must “find a compromise with the federal center,” Mintimer Shaimiev, the first president of Tatarstan, supported him.
When considering the new amendments, Rustam Minnikhanov did not speak. And Albert Khabibullin explained that the “transitional provision” had to be abandoned “after additional consultations.” As a result, it was decided “to start using the new name of the official after the entry into force of the draft law under consideration,” the deputy said. Recall that earlier the senator and co-author of the law on public authority Andrey Klishas stated that “Tatarstan must comply with the provisions of the federal law exactly in time” and “this applies to all provisions of the federal legislation.”
Other articles of the constitution were also amended. Thus, Art. 1, which previously could not be changed without a referendum: the mention of sovereignty and the agreement on the delimitation of powers with the federal center was excluded from it (the first agreement was concluded in 1994, the second – in 2007 for a period of ten years). Now Tatarstan is a “democratic legal state within the Russian Federation”, and its statehood is expressed in “the presence of its own territory, population, system of state authorities, its own constitution and legislation, state languages and state symbols.”
25 provisions of the constitution were declared invalid. Among them, for example, articles on the citizenship of Tatarstan and the constitutional court of the republic. The rule that the republic “rejects violence and war as a means of resolving disputes between states and peoples” is also excluded. In addition, the authorities of the region are deprived of the authority to agree on the candidacy of the prosecutor of the republic, and the State Council of Tatarstan will not be able to interpret republican laws.
Finally, the requirement that candidates for the post of head of the republic speak both state languages, Russian and Tatar, is also removed from the constitution. Now it only says that the head (rais) “uses” the state languages in his work.
At the same time, restrictions on the number of terms for the same person in power are being lifted, so Rustam Minnikhanov, who has already been elected president twice, will be able to run for the next election.
Mr. Minnikhanov signed the law on amendments on the day of its adoption. The new version of the constitution of Tatarstan will come into force on February 6, 2023.
Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev believes that the decision to immediately renounce the presidential status was made after Rustam Minnikhanov met with Vladimir Putin on January 23. “We must meet the president’s expectations,” the expert explains. He points out that now Tatarstan is “the same subject as everyone else, but which was able to bargain for something.”
“As far as I know, there was strong pressure from Moscow. Although there was a preliminary compromise agreement that the status of the president would be preserved until 2025 and a number of other articles of the constitution would not be cut to the quick,” says political scientist Ruslan Aisin. According to him, “Moscow has taken a position of principle,” because of which the State Council “could not show political subjectivity” and “raised its hands.” The expert compares this situation with how in 2017 Tatarstan was forced to agree with the voluntary study of the Tatar language in the republic. “But then the decision of the deputies was unanimous, and now, despite the fact that the situation is tougher, nine deputies showed integrity,” Mr. Aisin concludes.
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