Citing Terror Fight, Putin Seeks Political Overhaul explains Putin’s suggested changes:
Speaking before a special meeting of top government and regional leaders, Mr. Putin called for eliminating direct elections for Russia’s 89 regional governors. Instead, he wants them to be nominated by himself and confirmed by local legislatures. He also advocated eliminating the district elections that account for half the composition of the 450-member lower house of Russia’s parliament, or Duma, and virtually all its opposition members. Instead, all members would be elected through national party slates.
Why?
Mr. Putin has been under pressure to respond to recent attacks by terrorists demanding independence for the republic of Chechnya, especially the assault on a school in Beslan two weeks ago that left more than 300 dead, many of them children. After that attack, Mr. Putin said that the government had failed to protect its citizens and called for new approaches to law enforcement, which he said had been paralyzed by corruption.But critics pointed out that yesterday’s initiative mainly targeted regional governors and parliament, not Russia’s notoriously ineffective police and intelligence services.
You’re not alone if you don’t see the connection between strangling democracy and fighting terrorism:
“This would be like Bush saying after Sept. 11 that from now on, governors will be elected by state assemblies rather than by the people,” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the few opposition legislators left in parliament after Kremlin-backed parties swept last year’s elections. “What has this got to do with fighting terrorism? Putin is exploiting these terror attacks to strangle democracy and strengthen his personal power.”