Russian President Putin signed a law prohibiting regional leaders from being called presidents
Photo: Sergey Guneev / RIA Novosti
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law “On General Principles of Organization of Public Power in the Subjects of the Russian Federation”, which prohibits the heads of regions from being called presidents. The document was published on the official portal of legal information.
The new law also establishes a single term of office for regional heads and allows them to serve for more than two consecutive terms.
Earlier, the law was approved by the Federation Council and the State Duma
The bill regulating the general principles of the organization of public power in the constituent entities of the country was introduced by the chairman of the constitutional committee of the Federation Council Andrei Klishas and the deputy of the State Duma Pavel Krasheninnikov.
On November 9, the Duma adopted the initiative in the first reading. On December 14, she successfully passed the second and third readings.
The Federation Council approved the law on December 15. It was supported by 146 senators, four opposed it, there were no abstentions.
In Tatarstan, where the head of the region is called the president, they opposed the law
After the introduction of the draft law “On the general principles of the organization of public power in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation” to the State Duma, the authorities of Tatarstan openly opposed the initiative.
In particular, this was stated by the head of the profile committee of the state council of the republic Albert Khabibullin. He suggested that the deputies of the regional legislative assembly not hold debates on this bill until it is considered in the first reading in the State Duma.
In addition, during the consideration of the initiative in the lower house of the federal parliament, deputies from Tatarstan voted against.
In the 1990s, many regional heads were called presidents. The process of renaming the heads of republics was launched by Ramzan Kadyrov
After the collapse of the USSR, the heads of many republics within the Russian Federation began to be called presidents. The presidents were in Mari El, Mordovia, Yakutia, Chechnya, Udmurtia, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Tuva, Ingushetia, Kalmykia, Dagestan, Bashkiria and Tatarstan.
In 2010, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who did not want to be called president and called on his colleagues to follow his example, launched the process of abandoning such a designation of top regional posts in 2010.
As a result, to date, the positions of all the leaders of the republics within Russia have been renamed, with the exception of the President of Tatarstan, who is now Rustam Minnikhanov.
The issue of the name of the leader of the republic has been raised several times, but so far Tatarstan has managed to defend the title of the post. At the end of 2010, the State Duma adopted amendments prohibiting the leaders of the subjects of the federation to be called presidents. However, the region was able to circumvent this norm, taking advantage of the fact that then there was an agreement on the delineation of powers with the federal center.
President Putin in 2015 said that the residents of Tatarstan should choose the name for the post of the head of the republic themselves.
