Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 27 – KPRF deputies who voted overwhelmingly against the public power law that gives Moscow near total control over governments in the regions and republics are taking the lead in denouncing the measure not only in parliamentary sessions but in their home constituencies.
Oleg Mikhailov, a KPRF deputy from the Komi Republic, has been perhaps the most active and outspoken. He has told meetings there that the public power law is “a nail in the coffin” of Russian Federalism (thebarentsobserver.com/ru/obshchestvennost/2021/12/deputat-gosdumy-ot-severa-novyy-zakon-likvidiruet-federativnoe-ustroystvo-v).
On his blog, on his weekly talk show, and at public meetings in the republic, Mikhailov has denounced the measure, intended to prevent the disintegration of Russia, in ways that suggest it may have exactly the opposite effect (https://vk.com/nrkomi and 7x7-journal.ru/news/2021/11/20/v-komi-oppozicionnyj-deputat-provel-vstrechu-s-zhitelyami-protiv-zakonoproektov-gosdumy).
That is because it is driving those who simply want their regions to have some control over their lives into an ever-closer alliance with nationalists who have an agenda which in some cases includes independence. Svyatoslav Krasnikov, a member of the New Republic Movement in Komi, speaks for them.
“As an indigenous inhabitant of the Komi Republic,” he says, “I am filled with indignation: I believe Russia needs federalism.” But he clearly wants even more: On the jacket he wears is the flag of the Komi nation (7x7-journal.ru/news/2021/11/11/sam-ty-oshibka-v-komi-aktivist-vyshel-na-piket-posle-vyskazyvaniya-spikera-gosdumy-o-nacionalnyh-respublikah).
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