The law «On the General Principles of the Organization of Public Power in the Regions of Russia», better known as the Klushas-Krasheninnikov law, has come into force. This law grants the Kremlin powers that are not only lacking in the central government of the federal subjects, but also in many unitary states. For example, it allows direct intervention in the activities of departments subordinate to regional authorities, as well as the dismissal of regional leaders without any justification (previously, violations on their part were required). This includes the removal of those nominally elected by local residents.
Of course, all this has been happening in practice for a long time. However, the formalization of this in the text of the law officially abolishes the federal character of the nominally «Russian Federation». In other words, it makes its current name meaningless.
One of the main goals of this law was the symbolic appeasement of Tatarstan. According to it, the head of the constituent entity of the «Russian Federation» can no longer be called president, so as not to challenge the sole president. This is like an EdRossovian «Shahada»: «…there is no president but Putin…»
Until this moment, among all the heads of the constituent subjects of the «Russian Federation», only the head of Tatarstan was still called president, after the others followed Ramzan Kadyrov’s call and abandoned this position in favor of the colorless «head of the region». Tatarstan resisted until the very end, until it was forced to do so by this law.
Considering possible reactions to this law, the Tatar community is currently trying to find a way to call the head of Tatarstan something that does not resemble a governor («head of the region»), but is not called «president» either. They joke that it could be «khan», «emir», or «illbashi». They think this is a way to «troll» Moscow.
But officials don’t like such humor, so it will most likely remain in social networks. In real life, they will simply rename it «head of the republic».
What’s next? If everyone continues to behave like this, the republic will have to be renamed into a province, and not Tatarstan, but Kazan. With a governor from among the fanatical «Orthodox Tatars» who dream of Christianizing the Tatar people.
If we continue to joke in such situations, it will all end like this. But there is an alternative — finally get together and start resisting. First of all, stop the falsification of votes in favor of «United Russia» during the elections and the suppression of the opposition. Especially the national movement, and on the contrary, start supporting it. If not directly on the territory of Tatarstan, then at least abroad, indirectly. It won’t take much money compared to what they have, and such small sums can easily be transferred to the necessary wallets without anyone noticing. And then start funding media and political projects that oppose the Putin regime and advocate federalism in general and the sovereignty of Tatarstan in particular.
It’s high time to do this now, while there are still resources available. The next step will take away theirs, and then those who start doing this at their own risk will simply not be needed by the current owners of Tatarstan.