Tatarstan Leader Again Takes Lead in Defending Federalism in Russia

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 28 – In the 1990s, Mintimir Shaymiyev, the then-president of Tatarstan, was the republic leader most frequently associated with the defense of federalism in Russia. Given Putin’s centralizing rule, his successor, Rustam Minnikhanov, has been less forthright. But now he too, in what may be a harbinger of a sea change in Kazan, is again defending federalism.
    Admittedly, there is a big difference. Shaymiyev was on the offensive, seeking greater autonomy and power not only for himself but also for the leaders of other republics and regions, while Minnikhanov has been on the defensive and has now dug in on an issue that is far less significant in its likely consequences – the fate of local slef-government.
    But having yielded on so many points, Minnikhanov is now fighting in the trenches to block Moscow from destroying local self-government as the Kremlin and Duma appear set to do and giving in the course of it a full-throated defense of the reasons Russia needs to become a real federal state and not just one in name only.
    Minnikhanov and the federal subjects are likely to lose on this issue as well, even though they have managed to delay Moscow’s destruction of local self-government for two years since the early days of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine given the Kremlin’s transparent concern that such a move could destabilize the country, a fear it apparently no longer has.
    However, the current Tatarstan leader, who now has the title rais rather than president, offers a two-pronged defense of federalism that others may pick up and that may challenge the Kremlin in the future, even if Moscow does steamroller the federal subjects on this issue as seems likely in the coming month.
    On the one hand, Minnikhanov makes the point in a message to Moscow that Russia is too diverse to be “governed by one template.” He admits “that there have been and will be some changes; we need to treat this normally and don’t mind.” But “our territories are different” and must make their own choices (ng.ru/politics/2024-11-28/1_9145_destabilization.html).
    And on the other, regional governments in fact need the advantages that local self-government offers: “Over the years, we have formed a layer of authoritative people” at the local level. “Are we going to lose them now? Who are they bothering? Are there no other problems the country should be addressing” especially as they’re a key link between the people and the power.
    Again, while Moscow almost certainly will push the new law through, it has already made a concession that suggests it takes such objections more seriously than many assume is possible under Putin. As drafted, the new law will give federal subjects ten years to make this change, an unusually long time to  adapt to something Putin wants.