A soon to be former Russian governor has become the first to break ranks over Kremlin plans to abolish elected regional heads and replace them with appointees, attacking the proposals as "undemocratic and unconstitutional". Vladimir Tikhonov, the governor of Ivanovo region, told The Telegraph that the reforms announced by President Vladimir Putin last week in the wake of the Beslan school siege, and the hijacking of two airliners, were against the law. "From the point of view of development of democracy this is a step back," said Mr Tikhonov, who was summoned from Ivanovo, 200 miles north-east of Moscow to a special cabinet meeting last week. Mr Putin's proposed new legislation will replace the elected heads of the 89 regions with satraps appointees, confirmed by regional assemblies, as part of a package of measures to increase security and "unify state power". "I have just received word that President Putin has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."
"But that's impossible. How will he maintain control without the bureaucracy?"
"The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line." |
Opponents say that it is a sign of the creeping authoritarianism that reflects Mr Putin's past as a KGB spy.
The Tsar's New Clothes are stunning, no?
| Tikhonov may shortly have a premier cell in the Lubyanka. |
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