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Putin asserts control after school siege
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-14 07:57
President Vladimir Putin ordered sweeping changes to Russia's political
system on Monday to help combat terrorism, but immediately drew accusations of
exploiting this month's bloody school siege to boost his power.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin speaks during a cabinet meeting in Moscow, September 13,
2004. Putin on Monday ordered sweeping changes to Russia's political
system to help combat terrorism, but immediately drew charges he was
exploiting a bloody school siege to boost his personal power.
[Reuters] |
The Kremlin leader, speaking in the
wake of the hostage crisis in Beslan, told top officials he wanted a new
election law to limit the number of political parties and to have full control
over nominating regional leaders.
Putin, 51, said the changes were vital to boost state authority after the
Beslan tragedy, in which children made up half of the hostages killed when
Chechen rebels raided their school in southern Russia.
"The fight against terrorism should become a national task," Putin told
ministers and governors from Russia's 89 regions.
The president later issued a decree giving the government two weeks to draft
proposals to deal with emergencies and a month to prepare "appropriate measures
on foreseeing and preventing terrorism in any form."
It called for proposals to improve the work of security forces, whose
performance in Beslan has been widely criticized, and to toughen controls on
issuing visas and entering Russia.
Critics said Putin's proposed changes were further proof that the former KGB
spy, who has muzzled major independent media and turned parliament and
government into rubber stamps of Kremlin policy, was rolling back post-Soviet
democracy.
"The last link in the system of checks and balances, which has prevented an
excessive concentration of power in one pair of hands, is being abolished," the
opposition party Yabloko said in a statement.
Putin, re-elected to the Kremlin by a landslide in March, said reform was
required in view of the threat from terrorism.
CHANGING THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
He said the State Duma, parliament's lower house, should now be elected
solely from party lists.
After a massive Kremlin-backed campaign against Communists and liberal
parties, the pro-Kremlin United Russia secured more than two-thirds of seats in
the Duma in the last election.
Half the Duma's 450 deputies are elected on party lists and the main parties
also take many of the local constituencies that account for the other seats. But
almost 100 returned independent deputies or members from parties which won no
seats on lists.
"In the interests of strengthening the national political system I deem it
necessary to introduce a proportional system of elections to the State Duma,"
Putin said. "I will soon initiate an appropriate bill in the Duma."
Putin also said the Kremlin should have a decisive say over the nomination of
regional governors.
"Top officials in the members of the Federation should be elected by local
legislative assemblies by nomination of the head of state," Putin said.
His rivals said the changes would entrench the Kremlin's domination of the
legislature but do nothing against terrorism.
"Putin has proposed renting out parliament to puppet Moscow-based parties,"
said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a rare liberal independent in the Duma. "In fact this
will only strengthen his personal powers."
"The will of a single person is imposed on the whole of society," echoed
Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov. "What he is looking for is the usurping
of power."
Independent-minded governors were a major force under Putin's predecessor
Boris Yeltsin, but Putin ousted them from the upper house and replaced them with
nominated proxies.
"The president's proposal will contribute to consolidation of power,"
pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov told Ekho Moskvy radio.
"But at the same time it means an end to direct
gubernatorial elections, which will lead to a diminishing of the role of local
authorities and to a general decline of pluralism in the country."
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