Bill on new autonomies of Russian Federation blackballed

11.03.2005, 15.56

MOSCOW, March 11 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian State Duma turned down on
Friday the proposed facilitated procedure for the inclusion in the
Russian Federation, as its new subjects, of the autonomies of the
former Union republics of the USSR.

The majority of MPs were of the opinion that such a document was apt
to jeopardise the territorial integrity of Russia and to give
â~@~the autonomies pseudo-sovereigntyâ~@~].

The parliamentarians blackballed the first reading of the amendments
to the constitutional law on the procedure of admitting new subjects
to the Russian Federation or forming them within it, which were
designed to facilitate this procedure for the autonomies of the
former Union republics of the USSR, the status of which is still
undetermined. Ninety-one Duma members backed the bill, while 300
votes were needed to approve it.

The bill was masterminded by the â~@~Rodinaâ~@~] faction, which
moved to facilitate the procedure of including new autonomies in the
Russian Federation â~@~on the basis of the expressed will of their
population, endorsed by means of a nation-wide referendumâ~@~]. The
two houses of the Russian parliament were to be vested with the right
to submit to the president recommendations on the new subjects of the
Federation.

The authors of the bill noted that â~@~in view of the lately
increasing attempts of some states, namely the former Soviet
republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova, to extend their
sovereignty to the territories of the unrecognised republics of
Abkhazia, Adzharia, South Ossetia, Nagorny-Karabakh and the Dniester
Moldovan Republic, it is particularly timely today to assess the
legality and juridical validity of such claimsâ~@~].

â~@~This problem is aggravated by the fact that the governments of
the listed countries often accuse Russia of backing the
â~@~Xseparatismâ~@~Y of those unrecognised republics,â~@~] the MPs
noted.

However, the parliamentary majority refused to back the concept of
the bill. Yuri Konev, who heads the corresponding committee of the
State Duma, stated that approval of this document would jeopardise
the territorial integrity of Russia and would give â~@~the
autonomies pseudo-sovereigntyâ~@~]. â~@~The document contradicts the
international law,â~@~] he stressed.

–Boundary_(ID_QBGA/JH4J5h81LGlwZ4vMQ)–