The famous proverb says: ‘There is no time to catch your breath before death. However, the president of Tatarstan and his team seem to disagree. Instead of fighting against the death sentence imposed on them, they are currently postponing its implementation.
Today the law «On the General Principles of the Organization of Public Power in the Subjects of the Russian Federation», also known as one of the Klishas-Krasneninnikov laws, came into force. According to this law, there can be only one president in the whole of Russia. And since Tatarstan has for many years been the only region among all the «subjects of the Federation» to have such a position, it means that they will now have a regular «head» instead of a president.
Just as in the case of the refusal to extend the agreement between Tatarstan and the federal center in 2017, where the region’s leadership weakly resisted and expressed its disagreement through the State Council for the sake of appearances, they have accepted the decision made for them. «It is clear that the law has been passed. We are law-abiding people. It turned out that our voice was not heard on some issues,» said Rustam Minnikhanov after the adoption of this law, promising that it will be implemented.
However, June 1 has already arrived, but the website of the Administration of the President of Tatarstan still bears the old title. «Mutiny on the ship?» Some hoped for it, others expressed their indignation. But no. As the press secretary of the still-existing President of Tatarstan, Liliya Galimova, explained, the law that has come into force provides for a transitional period, which the authorities of the «republic» are using to make the necessary amendments to its legislation.
Of course, if they wanted to, they would have done it since the law was passed. It is clear that they don’t want to and are trying to buy time, like in the joke about Hodja Nasreddin — ‘either the donkey dies or the Sultan’. But the Sultan, despite years of rumors and hopes, is still alive. And if that’s the case, then it’s clear who is the donkey that has to die in this situation. And if that’s the case, all that’s left is to catch one’s breath before death.