A bill that would allow Russia's regional leaders to serve more than two consecutive terms in office and abolish the title of president in the autonomous Russian republic of Tatarstan has been approved after two final readings by the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
The bill was approved by 330 lawmakers in the State Duma on December 14, with 89 members voting against the bill and two abstaining.
Lawmakers representing the Communist Party and A Just Russia voted against the bill.
The bill must be approved by the parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, and then signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
The bill was proposed in September by lawmaker Nikolai Klishas, who said then that the bill envisions the establishment of a single, unified name for posts held by regional leaders and would abolish titles such as president for republics inside Russia. That move would affect Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of the republic of Tatarstan.
In October, Tatarstan's parliament voted to reject the Duma bill on the grounds that it would violate the constitution of the Russian Federation.
A U.S.-based analyst, Paul Goble, commenting on the bill's approval, told RFE/RL that "Russia should not be called a federation" now.
"Putin has gutted the few provisions that remained from the 1993 constitution already. What he is doing now is attacking the few remaining symbols,” Goble said.
“The reality has already been changed. But he is doing so in such a clumsy and heavy-handed way that the Kremlin leader is going to produce exactly what he doesn't want -- more resistance in the regions and republics and even a revival of talk about separatism."
