В.Путин.Послание ФС РФ.Part 6

Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.Part 6 April 18, 2002 The Kremlin, Moscow Послание Федеральному Собранию Российской Федерации 18 апреля 2002 года Москва, Кремль It is clear that the commissions task is not easy. But we expect results from its work. They are needed to increase the effectiveness of state policies, stabilize international relations, and bring more clarity to the organization of Russian power bodies as a whole. Now, a few words on the practice of signing agreements on delimitation of authority between the federal centre and Federation subjects. The possibility of signing these agreements is stipulated by the Russian Constitution and is legitimate. At a well-known moment in our history, they were required, and I think they were essential. However, in practice the actual existence of these agreements often leads to virtual inequality in relations between subjects of the Russian Federation. And in the end, this means between citizens who live in different territories of Russia. And in most cases, the delineation of powers only took place on paper. It is no coincidence that of the 42 subjects that had concluded these agreements, 28 have already annulled them. Of course, in a country like Russia, regional specifics need to be taken into account. And the need for agreements with individual regions may of course arise. But to sign these agreements behind the backs of other Federation subjects, without preliminary discussion, without reaching a public consensus, is in my opinion not right. I think that all agreements on delineation of powers should go through a compulsory procedure of ratification by federal law, by you, dear colleagues. So that everyone knows who has what preferences and why. The Federal Assembly should take this decision. Now on the situation in Chechnya. The military stage of the conflict can be considered to be completed. It has been completed thanks to the courage and heroism of Russian army and special forces. Just a year ago, we counted how many people opposed us there. How many bandits and terrorists: two thousand, three, five or ten thousand. Now it is not important for us how many there are. We need to know where they are. There are still many social and economic problems in the republic, and peaceful life is disrupted by attacks by bandits who remain there. However, an entire people should not have their rights taken away because of this. We cannot allow this. All inhabitants or natives of Chechnya should feel themselves to be full citizens of the Russian Federation. And so the main task of the current stage is to return Chechnya to the political and legal space of Russia. It is to create functioning legal institutions and law-enforcement structures in Chechnya. And in the future, to hold free elections, a free system of republic power and an economically organized life of the Chechen people. Dear Assembly, For a long period of time, federal power has given virtually no attention to problems of local self-administration. As a result, this directly affects the living standard of the population in Russian towns and villages. One of the sources of the situation is the low quality of the legislative base of local self-administration. The Federal law on local self-administration and the according acts of Federation system are only coordinated to a small degree with the real situation in local self-administration, and between themselves. One of the reasons is lack of clarity in the delimitation of authority with regional bodies of power, and also the uncertainty as to what the state bodies should answer for, and what the bodies of local self-administration should answer for.

Added 17 Jun 2026