Vertical absolutism: what the new law "on public power" threatens the country with

Political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya analyzes extremely important news, which has not received enough attention in the expert community, on the website of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Not satisfied with the constitutional reform carried out a year and a half ago, the Kremlin continued to reform the system of power, and even more radically than it was in the Constitution. Thus, the draft law on public power should revise the relations between the center and the regions, replacing the 1999 law “On general principles of organization of legislative (representative) and executive bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation”, and thus become one of the most important ones adopted this year.

He not only builds the entire hierarchy of power - federal, executive and municipal - into a single vertical, but, in fact, subordinates the legislative power to the executive, regional - to the federal, locking everything back to the president. A clear chain of command emerges, and checks and balances are readjusted in favor of subordination and control. On December 9, the State Duma adopted it in the second reading with significant amendments.

Under the new law on public power now:

- the president can dismiss the heads of the regions without giving any reason;

- issue warnings and reprimands to the heads of regions and suspend laws passed by the governors;

- if the head of the region ignores the warning, the president can now officially simply remove it;

- it seems that the heads of the regions can still appeal to the Supreme Court and challenge the decision to the presidents, but the president now has the right to impeach any judge (therefore, if a judge wants to remain a judge, he will officially do everything that the president says);

- Heads of regions are now officially obliged to coordinate with the center the candidatures of ministers - finance, health, education, housing and communal services.

- at the same time, the limitation on the number of terms of the heads of the regions (those who are unwanted to be removed, those who are pleased to be imprisoned for life) are canceled;

- the same is with regional parliaments: now the president can issue them “warnings” and disperse them if they did not amend the law;

- Prosecutors (this, for a second, the state prosecutor - that is, the party permanently interested in repression) can now come up with initiatives of draft laws;

- many issues of relations between the center and the regions are now controlled by the State Council;

- Governors can now do what the president does in relation to them, in relation to the heads of municipal authorities (reprimands, warnings, arbitrary dismissals + dissolution of the regional parliament);

- in addition, the deputies are now civil servants, and all the same recent restrictions are hung on them (foreign accounts, citizenship, etc.)

- MPs can no longer hold meetings with voters in an arbitrary place, which was used by opposition MPs as a loophole for legally holding rallies - now only by agreement and in a special room;

- they have now come up with a bunch of various possible violations for the deputies, which allow them to be punished, up to and including deprivation of powers, if something happens;

Thus, the expert summarizes, with the adoption of the new law on public power, Russia begins to resemble a giant nesting doll, where local power is embedded inside the regional, regional parliaments - inside the governor, governors and regional ministers - inside the federal government. And all this is covered from above by one big president who leads everything, including the people - no matter how you vote, the president, if anything, will correct.

All this leads not only to tighter subordination and accountability, but also to the destruction of everything political - regional autonomy is curtailed, opportunities for systemic opposition are reduced, local self-government is rolled into the vertical - until recently, the only level available to critics of the government.

Such a structure, strong and cohesive today, becomes monstrously dangerous if one imagines that Russia is headed by a politically weak head of state. Substitution of checks and balances by a system of total mutual subordination and accountability can lead to institutional chaos and legal clinches if the regime becomes weak - without a powerful party in power and Putin's ratings of 60%.

The President dreamed of destroying the opportunistic Yeltsin Constitution and developing a long constitutional Putinism to replace it. But the very first serious political crisis may show that it is Putinism, unadapted to the deconcentration of political power, that will turn out to be opportunistic.

With the absolute verticalization of power, there is also a perfect mutual guarantee, leaving nothing of the system of checks and balances, and even more so from local government.

For the future, a very great tension is laid in the relations "center - regions", entailing many conflicts. So far, this tension is easily compressed from above, but this will not always be so. The pendulum is being pulled back, in the second circle we will one day go through the collapse and breakdown of the vertical - and it is not at all conflict-free.