RFE/RL Russian Federation Report, No. 2, 2001: excerpts
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RFE/RL Russian Federation Report, No. 2, 2001: excerpts
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL Russian Federation Report
Vol. 3, No. 2, 10 January 2001
A Survey of Developments in the Regions Outside Moscow
Prepared by the Staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
******************Note to Readers*****************
A weekly supplement to "RFE/RL Newsline," the "RFE/RL
Russian Federation Report" features news about the Russian
Federation outside Moscow and the North Caucasus. Those
interested in Russia's regions might also want to look at
Russian-language transcripts of RFE/RL's weekly
"Korrespondentskii Chas" at http://www.svoboda.org/programs/.
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KREMLIN OFFICIAL SAYS REPUBLICS MORE RELUCTANT TO BRING LOCAL LAWS IN
LINE. In an interview with "Obshchaya gazeta" in its issue number 52,
deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitrii Kozak reported
that about 80 percent of the regional laws checked by the
administration have either been brought into compliance with federal
law, or are being considered by the courts. According to Kozak, it
turned out that only some 2,500 laws had to be amended. However, he
revealed that the "it was more difficult to establish order in [those]
ethnic republics, which signed power-sharing agreements with Moscow."
He continued, "we faced major difficulties in Bashkortostan,
Tatarstan, [Sakha (Yakutia)]... We have to hold a referendum in Tuva,
because the republic's constitution must be amended... There are many
regional leaders who want to delay things, but we have not faced any
direct insubordination to federal law and the Constitution."
Bashkortostan presidential analytic department head Amir Yuldashbaev
told RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service on 8 January that Ufa will not
fully satisfy Russian complaints about the republic's constitution
because if it did, "nothing would remain not only of the Bashkortostan
Constitution but even of the Russian Constitution." He said that
Moscow officials who made the complaints do not consider Russia to be
a federation, and he called their comments an example of "professional
idiocy." JAC
MINISTER SAYS LEGISLATION IN THE WORKS ON CHANGING STATUS OF
FEDERATION SUBJECTS. After denying that any plans were afoot to
eliminate Russia's autonomous okrugs and oblast (see "RFE/RL Russian
Federation Report," 3 January 2001), Federation, Nationalities and
Migration Policy Minister Aleksandr Blokhin told "Segodnya" on 4
January that his ministry is preparing legislation on changing the
status of subjects in the Russian federation at the request of the
government. He said that the legislation is currently awaiting
approval from a presidential commission, after which the bill will be
submitted to the State Duma. According to Blokhin, the legislation
will address the problem of the dual nature of autonomous okrugs,
which are administratively subordinate to the krais of which they are
part but are also constitutionally equal to them. Blokhin explained
that the bill calls "not for their merger or assimilation but sets out
a legal basis for interactions between different federation subjects."
Blokhin also noted that "if a federation subject wants to join another
federation subject and delegate to it parts of its responsibilities,
it should have that right." He said that so far Russia does not have a
law on the books or procedure which subjects wanting to do this could
follow. Also on 4 January, Vologda Governor Vyacheslav Pozgalev that
he is certain President Putin "is now preparing the necessary changes
to the Constitution" to reduce the number of federation subjects to no
more than 50. He explained that "this follows logically from [Putin's]
activities." JAC
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TATARSTAN
TWO-HEADED EAGLE REPLACES SNOW LEOPARD AT TATARSTAN SUPREME COURT. As
of 1 January, the snow leopard, a historical symbol of the Tatar
people, was removed from the republic's Supreme Court building in
Kazan and replaced by the new Russian coat of arms, the two-headed
eagle, RFE/RL's bureau there reported on 3 January. The replacement of
the symbols signifies the resubordination of the republic's Supreme
Court to the Russian federal Supreme Court. In addition, the court's
35 justices were given new identification cards signed by President
Putin, replacing those signed by Tatarstan's State Council Chairman
Farit Mukhatmetshin. JAC
STATE DUMA DEPUTIES QUESTION TATARSTAN'S SWITCH TO LATIN ALPHABET. The
Tatar-Inform agency reported on 5 January that the federal Ministry
for Federation and Nationalities Affairs has begun looking into
Tatarstan's plans to switch back to the Latin script, according to
RFE/RL's Kazan bureau. Kim Minnullin, the Tatarstan official in charge
of language promotion, said that some deputies in the State Duma want
to thwart Tatarstan's plans without any discussion or debate. He said
his department is preparing documents for Moscow in favor of the
shift. A Duma delegation is due in Kazan this week to study the issue.
JAC
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REGIONAL VOICES
Evenk Autonomous Okrug Governor Aleksandr Bokovikov in an interview
with "Novaya gazeta," 28 December 2000:
Question: What do people who live in Evenk [Autonomous Okrug] do for a
living?
Answer: They live off the forest and river. Mushrooms, berries, fish,
hunting. What they catch, they eat. If they catch more than they eat,
then they exchange that for clothes and whatever else is necessary.
The meat of wild northern deer is very tasty - better than lamb. It's
kind of like the meat of roe deer. But, work, there is none at all.
Q: The Evenk live mostly as hunters?
A: No, absolutely not. Seventy percent of the population of the okrug,
these are families who have lived here generation after generation.
Evenk, Yakuts, Russians, Kets. Many Angarians, that is Russians who
arrived in Evenk from Angara. There are still Russians from Katanga.
But I am in the category of 'Shvai.' The Shvai came here with their
families from northern Irkutsk Oblast in search of a better life -
when the country was beginning to get bigger and in our villages it
was becoming impossible to live. But in Evenk, the opposite was
happening, geologists were arriving and there appeared to be work.
Q: You are Russian?
A: By blood everything - Evenk, Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish. But you
can, of course, call me Russian. But mainly in my blood there is
something else - a desire to go into the woods and hunt. All of my
ancestors hunted. My father is 70 years old and he still hunts for
sable. In the spring I catch bears in their lair...
Q: After experiencing this simple life of hunting, what do you think
of Moscow?
A: On the one hand, it is difficult and complicated. On the other
hand, I feel proud of the fact that in my country there is such a city
as Moscow. Especially as the city is now - clean and bustling. But it
is troubling to me that if in Moscow there is everything that anyone
could want, why then in Evenk there is nothing? Why do we live so
poorly?
Q: Why indeed? How did that happen, where there is fish, forests,
gold, oil and gas, that people are so impoverished?
A: When the Soviet Union fell apart, the entire North was cast adrift.
Evenk is no industrial giant, which could endure, such as Alrosa in
Yakutiya, or Norilsk Nickel in Taimyr. For 95 percent [of our budget
money] we rely on Moscow. But Moscow gives us a maximum of 30 to 40
percent of the necessary funds. There is not enough medicine or food
products...
Q: What does it mean today to be the "master"(khozyain) of Evenk?
A: To be the master in general that means to have the right to own and
dispose of property. When I started to work as governor, I thought,
what will I get? Nothing, apparently. The property of the okrug is not
much, beside the brick, four-floor administration building. There is
not much else. The oil products belong to Krasnoyarsk. The airplanes
to Moscow. What's in the earth is federal property...
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Copyright (c) 2001. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
"RFE/RL Russian Federation Report" is prepared by Julie A. Corwin
(JAC) on the basis of a variety of sources, including reporting by
"RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. Regular
contributors are Jan Cleave (JC), Liz Fuller (LF), and Paul Goble
(PG). It is distributed every Wednesday.
Direct comments to Julie A. Corwin at [email protected].
For information on subscriptions or reprints, contact Paul
Goble in Washington at (202) 457-6947 or at [email protected]. Back
issues are online at http://www.rferl.org/russianreport
Technical queries should be emailed to:
[email protected]
For information on subscriptions or reprints, contact Paul Goble in
Washington at (202) 457-6947 or at [email protected]. Back issues are
online at http://www.rferl.org/russianreport
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