Tatar-Bashkir Report: June 29, 2001

Kozak Wants Power-Sharing Treaties To Be Harmonized
Deputy presidential administration head Dmitry Kozak on 28 June said that �power-sharing treaties are subordinate to the Russian Constitution and federal laws so all contradictions [in them] must be removed,� polit.ru reported. He recognized that �there are difficulties with the Tatarstan Constitution� but added that �Shaimiev�s political wisdom fills with optimism concerning harmonization of the republic Constitution.�

Mukhametshin Concerned About Nuclear Fuel Import
Speaker Farid Mukhametshin on 28 June called to be �a deceit of the people� the refusal by the Russian Federation Council to discuss the draft law on import of spent nuclear fuel, Efir-inform reported. Mukhametshin said that the Federation Council leaders had carried out �manipulations� to remove the issue out of discussion.

New Tax Code to Cost Tatarstan 3 Billion Rubles
Finance Minister Robert Musin on 28 June told a parliamentary session that the introduction of the new Tax Code will result in a loss to Tatarstan�s budget of 3 billion rubles ($103.8 million), tatnews.ru reported.

Government Preparing to Introduce Latin Script
Kim Minnullin, the governmental official in charge of languages development, said that the law on restoration of the Latin Tatar script will go into force as of 1 September 2001, �Vremya i dengi� reported on 27 June. He said that orthographic rules are being developed and computer programs adapted and that new text books for first grades of secondary schools will be issued by September.

Interior Ministry Reports Rise in Heroin Imports
Valery Krasilnikov, the acting head of the Tatarstan Interior Ministry anti-drug board, said that his body had seized so far this year 33 kilograms of heroin while during the whole 1997, only 12 grams were found, �Vremya i dengi� reported on 27 June. He said that 8783 drug addicts had been registered in the republic but according to surveys, their real number is some 80,000-120,000. But he said he opposed using capital punishment against traffickers.

Will Be Russian Constitution Harmonized Together With Tatar Basic Law?
Presidential press secretary Irek Murtazin said that amending Tatarstan�s Constitution will be a two-way street, �Vremya i dengi� reported on 27 June. He commented on the recent report that Tatarstan�s leaders agreed to harmonize the republic Constitution in September. He said that Tatarstan�s parliament will likely appeal to the Duma to amend the Russian Constitution. Parliamentary spokeswoman Lyubov Ageeva said �it is unlikely that Tatarstan leaders confirmed clearly that they are ready to change Tatarstan�s Constitution unilaterally.�

Scholars Call for Union of Russia with Islamic World
Participants in the Moscow international conference �Islamic Threat or Threat to Islam?� said that unity of the Islamic world with Russia would help both deal with threats, RIA-novosti reported on 28 June. They stressed that widely used expression �threat of Islam� is insulting and said that extremism and Wahhabism represent a threat for Islam itself.

Tatars Follow Muslim Rituals
The Tatarstan Academy of Science History Institute said that 88 percent of questioned Tatars consider it necessary to follow Muslim ritual of marriage and 79 percent praying must be conducted after person�s death, Islam.ru reported on 28 June.

Mufti Concerned About Inter-Ethnic Relations In Russia
Russian Muftis Council chairman Ravil Gainutdin in the statement �On strengthening national integrity in Russia� published in the May-June issue of �Musulmanskaya gazeta" said that Russian and local media, among them those owned by the state, have become increasingly anti-Islamic. He stressed that political and economic crimes are reported as connected to Islam, a falsehood that promotes Islamophobia. He also protested existence now in Russia of the only sample of state awards that carry Christian symbols while even before 1917 non-Christians had been permitted to receive awards without such symbols. He sharply criticized the inclusion of the Kulikovo battle on the list of state holidays saying that this fact can destroy friendly relations between Russians and Tatars that survived over centuries. He said that some official documents and textbooks present Russian history as the story of the Moscow principality and its victories over other principalities and khanates.

Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova

Russian Paper Says Tadjutdin Unable To Unite Muslims�
�NG-religii� reported that Nationalities Affairs Minister Aleksandr Blokhin recently held consultations with leaders of all Muslim boards, including contending with each other muftis Talgat Tadjutdin and Ravil Gainutdin, calling on them to unite. Blokhin proposed forming a new joint body and electing a single person that had not been involved in the conflict to head it. Meanwhile, the paper wrote that Tadjutdin is one of the main opponents of uniting muftis as equals and seeks to be acknowledged a �supreme� mufti. According to the publication, a major section of Muslim communities in Russia had left him over the past decade and formed alternative boards. His attempts to tie the Russian Islam to pre-Islam pagan cults and to promote cooperation with Orthodoxy evoked sharp protests among Muslims. Tadjutdin accused his opponents of radicalism and Wahhabism. During a recent meeting with Vladimir Putin in Ufa, Tadjutdin reportedly criticized Putin for his weakness in fighting a �global Wahhabist threat� coming from Tadjutdin�s rivals among Russian muftis. The paper cited experts� comments on the Ufa meeting as a sign that the Kremlin had chosen Russia�s �chief Muslim.� But it noted that an attempt to force Tadjutdin upon Russian Muslims while a half of them do not accept him will inspire opposition moods among them.

�Though Reports That Majority Of Them Support Him
�Figury i litsa� supplement to �Nezavisimaya gazeta� on 28 June in a pro-Tadjutdin article reported that 1859 Russian Muslim communities of the total of 3048 are members of the Tadjutdin-headed Central Muslims Religious Board so the latter is the biggest organization of Russian Muslims. The paper wrote that Tadjutdin�s opponents are campaigning against him by accusing him of the misuse of $1.5 million from Saudi Arabia and of heresy. But in fact, the paper stressed, severance of his relations with Saudi Arabia was connected to his disagreement with Wahhabism.

Ufa, Paris To Cooperate In Labor Protection
A delegation from the French Employment Ministry visited Bashkortostan to promote a joint project on preventing industrial accidents in the petrochemical sector, Bashinform reported on 28 June.

Bashkir Delegation Visits Izhevsk
First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Sigakov is visiting Udmurtia to promote cooperation with Izhmash-Avto and the republic's other industrial companies, strana.ru reported on 28 June.

Government Unhappy With Inefficient Agriculture
Agriculture Minister Grigory Gorobets on 28 June sharply criticized officials in the Baimak and Alsheev districts for inefficient agricultural production and failure to promote reforms of farms, the governmental press service reported.

Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova