Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 13 – Mintimir
Shaymiyev, the former president of Tatarstan and the most influential
non-Russian leader in the Russian Federation, says that legislation affecting
the non-Russians needs to be considered in a special way so that they will not
always be outvoted by the ethnic Russian majority.
According to the current state counselor
of Tatarstan, “it is impossible by a simple vote in the State Duma to defend
the interests of the national republics because there are always fewer [of
them] and [they] cannot count even on a simple majority.” That is “an
injustice,” he said, and must be remedied by “the participation of the
representatives of the national republics” in Duma deliberations about
legislation affecting the republics (www.kommersant.ru/doc/2088279).
Shaymiyev pointed out that there
existed a chamber of nationalities in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and that
that body was charged with considering “the interests affecting various peoples.” Such an approach would be “appropriate now,”
he said, in order to “exclude the possibility of the adoption of laws which
could increase tensions in society.”
While acknowledging that his
proposal might spark “hot discussions,” Shaymiyev said that he had been
encouraged by the reaction of President Vladimir Putin when the two met earlier
this week. But Putin’s press secretary,
Dmitry Peskov, denied that there had been any serious discussion of this
proposal between the two officials.
Duma deputies told “Kommersant” that they
did not understand what Shaymiyev was suggesting about some kind of “special
order of developing and adopting laws” affecting the non-Russian peoples. Gadzhimet Safaraliyev, head of the Duma’s
nationality policy committee, said that no such order was anticipated by the
Constitution.
The Daghestani deputy agreed that
the views of nationalities and regions should always be taken into account when
legislation is being discussed, but he insisted that Duma deputies already do
that. Consequently, Safaraliyev said, there is no reason to accept Shaymiyev’s
proposal.
Mikhail Starshinov, the first deputy
chairman of the Duma’s nationality policy committee, said that “the very idea
of creating some kind of [officially recognized] nationality lobby contradicts
good sense” (www.km.ru/v-rossii/2012/12/12/vnutrennyaya-politika-v-rossii/699495-natsionalnye-respubliki-khotyat-vzyat-pod-).
Aleksandr Kynyev, a political
scientists, was even more dismissive of any suggestion that the national
republics are not able to defend their interests in the Duma. “The present
electoral system is extremely favorable” for them, he said, and they have more
deputies relative to population than do other groups.
He suggested that Shaymiyev’s
proposal was simply another effort by the former Tatarstan leader to lobby
Moscow, noting that last month, the Tatarstan counselor criticized the federal
authorities for filing to observe the Constitution’s division of powers and the
rights of the republics.
Despite these comments, Shaymiyev’s
proposal, even if it is unlikely to secure the backing of officials at the
center, is certain to garner support in the non-Russian republics because the
central Russian government has been riding roughshod over their interests over
the last several years.
And indeed, the former Tatarstan
president’s proposal, the latest in many ideas he has put forward in the past,
falls well within ideas about the creation of systems requiring concurrent
majorities in order to protect the rights of those who would otherwise not be
able to defend themselves except by withdrawing from the existing political
system.
Because that option is something
that at least some in the republics once again think should be on the table, it
is entirely possible that at least a few Moscow officials will be willing to
consider Shaymiyev’s idea as the kind of compromise that could help hold the
Russian Federation together.
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