Russia Map with Bashkortostan highlighted.
Bashkortostan (sometimes referred as Bashkiria) is here
Posted on 04/08/2005 12:50:23 PM PDT by sergey1973
This week, over 200 protesters from the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan gathered in Moscow to call for the dismissal of Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov. Bashkortostan’s opposition accuses the president and the republic’s authorities of human-rights abuses and corruption. But its demands are likely to fall on deaf ears.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
PING !
Why oh why over the past two days has Breaking News become a place to put tabloid headlines - and lots of them? Time, I think, for a posting reminder...
WTF is Bashkortostan?
Sorry for that last post - somehow my FR bookmark got reset to all threads aot breaking news... Mea culpa.
This is not a tabloid headlines. It's from the site RFERL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). It's respected site with news and analysis.
I didn't know Bashkortostan was an independent republic. I thought it was just an oblast.
Russia Map with Bashkortostan highlighted.
Bashkortostan (sometimes referred as Bashkiria) is here
No--it's a republic that is part of Russian Federation.
So they're like Kyrgystan...but with more vowels?
Hopefully the civil movements in Bashkortostan and anywhere else will NOT lead to Russian Disintegration, but will result in decentralization and reasonable distribution of power with checks and balances on Federal and Regional level. Regardless of your feelings toward Russia (love, hate or anything in between), the last thing anyone needs is a Disintegration of the huge country with Nuclear Weapons. Plus, nobody needs an appearence of more and more countries around the world--there is enough trouble with existing ones -:)))))
I don't think that US Model will work in Russia in its entirety, but some of its elements (State Sovereignty, Equal status of States, Division of Power) can translate to equal status for different Russian Regions, restoration of Popular Elections of local leaders and the system of checks and balances on both regional and Federal level. Let's hope it will materialize. Otherwise, gross abuses of State power will become norm once again all over Russia.
Don't forget the small point that the local oblast's assembly must vote to accept the governor. This is exactly, by the way, why this law was put in place, to remove corrupt governors in these tiny or far away oblasts where these men hold all the power and thus guarantee continuous reelection (which, by the way, is something that happens quite often in poor US states...aka Bubba Clinton and Arkansas).
The problem is extreme decentralization. Yeltsin told the regions grab as much power as you want, so guess what? All these little governors rule their regions/republics/oblasts/shires like dictators and some even went as far as putting up tolling booths on the municipal borders. They control the local police, media and utilities and thus they can never loose an election as no one can run against them and live. They are also corrupt enough to allow bands of Chechins through to attack a school. The governor appointment law went in to remove just these types of guys. It was equally used in Italy to crush corruption (except in Italy, the local assembly didn't get to vote on the candidate). Many other nations used this exact same tactic to stop the little dictators/warlords who actively tear nations apart.
State Sovereignty can not work in Russia. There is one simple reason: to many nationalities with to many homelands. In America, all the Indians were exterminated and what passes for Indians now are around 2 million people, many with less then 1/4th Indian blood. Thus they can't start succession issues. No other group in America has a ancestral homeland in America.
You can say this -:))) Another difference from Kyrgyzstan is that Bashkortostan is a republic that is a part of Russian Federation and was a part of Russian Soviet Republic during Soviet Union. That's why it is internationally recognized as part of Russia after 1991.
Kyrgyzstan was one of the 15 Union Republics that Comprised Soviet Union (Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, etc.). Kyrgyzstan and 14 other Union republics of USSR simply used an Article 72 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution (aka. Brezhnev Constitution) that stated the following:
Article 72. Each Union Republic shall retain the right freely to secede from the USSR.
So the split of USSR in 1991 after failed anti-Gorbachev coup into 15 independent countries was perfectly constitutional according to 1977 Soviet Constitution.
Folks, I really recommend you read Soviet Constitution here . Read Chapter 8 at least and if you do this, please Try not to laugh when you read the following:
Article 70 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is an integral, federal, multinational state formed on the principle of socialist federalism as a result of the free self-determination of nations and the voluntary association of equal Soviet Socialist Republics.
Certainly almost everybody knows how "voluntary association" really happened and what "socialist federalism" meant in practice, but this Constitution and the reality of USSR is a good illustration to a nice joke.
--What's the difference between Democracy and People's Democracy" ?
--The same difference as between Chair and Electric Chair.
I mean Decentralization with Checks and Balances on both Regional and Federal Level to avoid turning Putin into a sole source of power or authocrat or having a bunch of local dictators (as under Yeltsin)running their republics like fiefdoms. Under Putin it still happens as what happened in Yeltin. Actually it stil happens and may happen again and again. As long as Rakhimov is loyal to Putin and current Kremlin, Rakhimov should nothing to fear.
"Don't forget the small point that the local oblast's assembly must vote to accept the governor. "
Good point--I should have mentioned it. However,what happens if the local legislature does not accept Putin candidacy? Let's say Putin gives them another guy and if they keep on rejecting, Putin can easily put the law that could allow him to dissolve regional assembly. Hopefully it won't happen, but I wouldn't count on it. When you have the arbitrary rule by one or a few instead of constitutional process, it can happen as it happened with dissolution of local governor elections last year.
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