Pootie Poot wants more power in the War on Terrah

[Hamel]

Will Bush gaze into his eyes once again?

Putin Tightens Grip on Power in Russia
Russian President Says Moves Necessary to Combat Terrorism

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 13, 2004; 11:14 AM

MOSCOW, Sept. 13 -- President Vladimir Putin outlined plans Monday to "radically" change the Russian political system in a way that would increase his own power, portraying the moves as a means of combating terrorism in the aftermath of this month's deadly school seizure.

Putin's plan would eliminate the popular election of governors and individual members of parliament. The president would appoint governors, subject to the confirmation of regional legislatures. All members of the lower house of parliament, known as the State Duma, would be drawn from party lists rather than elected in individual districts.

"State authority must not only be adjusted to work in crisis situations," Putin said at a televised meeting with his cabinet. "The mechanisms of its work must be radically reviewed in order to prevent crises."

He added that "the terrorists' long-term plans are aimed at disintegrating the country and shaking the state" and that "the country's unity is the main condition for resisting terrorists."

Putin's announcement came 10 days after the tragic conclusion of a 52-hour hostage crisis in the southern town of Beslan, where terrorists seized a school and 1,200 children, parents and teachers. The confrontation ended in a flurry of explosions and hours of gunfire that left at least 328 people dead, half of them children, and many more still missing.

In response, Putin promised to restructure security agencies but offered few details. He did reshuffle administrators in the North Caucasus region of the country to install one of his most trusted lieutenants. He removed the presidential envoy for southern Russia, Vladimir Yakovlev, and replaced him with Dmitri Kozak, a longtime Putin aide, and simultaneously put Kozak in charge of a new commission charged with security of the southern region that includes Beslan as well as wartorn Chechnya.

In eliminating the election of governors, Putin would formally take charge of naming administrators of the 89 regions that make up the Russian Federation. Since taking office on New Year's Eve 1999, Putin has constantly worked to rein in independent-minded governors, who under his predecessor frequently defied Moscow's authority. He kicked the governors out of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, and appointed seven presidential envoys, sometimes called super-governors, to supervise the governors in their regions.

Putin's plan to restructure the State Duma would strengthen the power of his party, United Russia, and the surrogate or allied parties dominated by the Kremlin. Under the current system, half of the 450 members are elected in individual districts and the other half from party lists according to the share of the vote each party gets.

Under the party list, or proportional system, political structures such as United Russia carry far more sway. The only two Western-oriented democratic parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, were both knocked out of the Duma in party-list voting in last December's election; the only members of those parties who made it into parliament were elected in individual districts.

Putin did not explain why such a change would combat terrorism, except to say that authorities needed to suppress terrorism and "national parties must serve as one of the mechanisms for this."

Putin's changes would require parliamentary approval, but since he already controls both houses, legislators and analysts predicted he would have no problem passing them by the end of the year.

[Illuminatus Primus]

How the fuck does the popular elections of officials breed terror in seperatist regions?