Moscow Times
September 14, 2005
A Year On, Putin Reforms Still Divide
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
A year after President Vladimir Putin unveiled his controversial electoral reforms in the wake of the Beslan tragedy, opposition politicians and political analysts on Tuesday lambasted the changes as anti-constitutional, "senseless" and aimed only at strengthening the Kremlin's grip on the country.
Meanwhile, several regional governors praised the reforms, under which they are no longer popularly elected but appointed by the president, and State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said appointed governors had performed better this year than elected ones.
"Undoubtedly, this practice has proven correct. These subjects of the Federation are working better," Gryzlov said Tuesday, referring to regions where governors had been appointed, Interfax reported.
Georgy Satarov, head of the Indem anti-corruption think tank, called Gryzlov's statement "utterly senseless."
"How can such judgments be made when 24 governors out of 31 appointed this year kept their jobs?" he said at a round table in Moscow on Tuesday comprising political analysts, opposition politicians and human rights advocates.
On Sept. 13, 2004, 10 days after the Beslan hostage-taking raid that left 331 people dead, Putin proposed scrapping popular elections for governors in favor of a system in which he would nominate them for approval by regional parliaments. He also called for single-mandate elections to the Duma to be scrapped. The changes were proposed as a way to strengthen executive power in the country in response to terrorist attacks, but they also had the effect of making governors dependent on the Kremlin for their tenure and made it tougher for smaller opposition parties to win seats in the Duma.
Putin also pushed for the creation of the Public Chamber, a consultative body of prominent citizens handpicked by the Kremlin. The proposals, aggressively backed by the Gryzlov-led United Russia majority in the Duma, became law on Jan. 1.
On Tuesday, opposition leaders reiterated claims that the reforms had nothing to do with protecting citizens against terrorist threats but served only to further concentrate power in Putin's hands.
"After the shock of Beslan, the nation expected a tough response from the head of state," said Nikita Belykh, leader of the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, party. "Russia needed an enemy, and it turned out to be democracy. Popularly elected governors and single-mandate lawmakers were found to be the major obstacle in the fight against terrorism."
In a report issued Tuesday, Indem and SPS pointed out that the vast majority of regional leaders reappointed this year were United Russia members. The report also cited several surveys, including one by the pro-Kremlin Public Opinion Foundation, in which Russians overwhelmingly disagreed with the scrapping of popular elections for governors.
SPS deputy leader Boris Nadezhdin told the round table there was no evidence to show that the reforms would help to get rid of incompetent and corrupt regional officials. "There is no proof that appointed officials -- from traffic policemen to ministers -- are less corrupt than elected ones," he said.
Nadezhdin said that the Constitutional Court would next month hear a complaint filed by SPS and other groups that the reforms were unconstitutional.
Three regional governors on Tuesday weighed in with support for Putin's reforms.
Tyumen Governor Sergei Sobyanin, a senior United Russia member, said the new system of appointed governors had "demonstrated its workability." Popular elections "have not proven to be correct, and lead only to a loss of control from the authorities' point of view," he said, Interfax reported.
Sobyanin was among the first popularly elected governors to be reappointed by Putin earlier this year.
Murmansk Governor Yury Yevdokimov and the head of the Evenkia autonomous district, Boris Zolotaryov, told Interfax on Tuesday that the regions had become more manageable for governors and the Kremlin under the reforms.