25 May 1999
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Shaimiev On Vsya Rossiya Movement
The president of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev, told Interfax on 24 May that equality was the main principle behind the political movement Vsya Rossiya. Shaimiev said "none of the regional leaders who joined the movement are interested in running for national office. All the constituents are equals among equals. We are consolidated by a common civil position. Since creating the movement, we now occupy a niche that was previously unfilled."
At Vsya Rossiya's founding congress in St. Petersburg on 22 May, the movement adopted its platform and elected the members of the bloc's executive bodies, Tatar-inform reported. Several delegates from Tatarstan are members of the movement's Political Council, among them Shaimiev, State Council chairman Farid Mukhametshin, State Duma deputy and the leader of Regiony Rossii movement Oleg Morozov, chairman of Tatarstan's branch of Regiony Rossii Nail Khusnutdinov, and Kazan State University rector Yuri Konoplyov. Morozov, who chaired the congress, was elected chairman of Vsya Rossiya's executive committee, and Rafail Khakimov, the state advisor to the Tatar president, was also elected a member. More than 550 delegates from some 80 Russian regions as well as officials from large companies, scientific institutions, youth organizations, and trade unions attended the congress. In a report at the congress, St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev discussed the policy of "new federalism," which has been mentioned several times by the bloc's leaders. The concept is based on, among others, the principles of the legal right of Russia's territorial entities to freely build their relations with the center and with other subjects of the Russian Federation; on the mutual responsibility of federal bodies and territorial entities to each other; the extension of these regional rights and powers in their relations with foreign states; and a strengthening of the Federal Assembly's power.
Shaimiev said in an address at the congress that it is necessary to eliminate any conflicts between different branches of authority. He said "ambition can ruin politicians. This is not the moment for statements about pretensions for the president's armchair." Greetings to the congress were sent by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov, and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Aleksii II. Vsya Rossiya was created a month ago on the initiative of Shaimiev, Bashkortostan's President Murtaza Rakhimov, Ingushetiya President Ruslan Aushev, and the governors of several Russian oblasts, among them St. Petersburg's Yakovlev and Samara's Konstantin Titov.
Rosvooruzheniye Head To Visit Kazan
Grigorii Rapota, the general-director of the Russian state company Rosvooruzheniye, will visit Tatarstan on 27 May, Tatar-inform reported. The aim of the visit is to review Tatarstan's defense industry factories. Rapota is scheduled to meet several defense industry officials during his trip.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova