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#17 - JRL 6596
BBC Monitoring
Putin aide: administrative reform will pass power down
to local government
Source: RTR Russia TV, St Petersburg, in Russian 0635 gmt 8 Dec 02
[Presenter Aleksandr Korennikov] The new St Petersburg Legislative Assembly will be in session when the administrative reform is implemented in Russia. The reform affects all three levels of government: federal, regional and municipal. The last touches to a bill already being described as revolutionary are being made by a commission charged with demarcating the powers of the various branches. That commission is headed by Dmitriy Kozak, deputy head of the Russian Presidential Administration. In the next few days, the bills, including the one on general organizational principles for the legislative and executive bodies in constituent parts of the Russian Federation, will be shown to the president and later submitted to the State Duma.
In an exclusive interview to St Petersburg Vesti news, Kozak stressed the vital importance of regional legislative bodies in the future new Russian power structure.
[Correspondent] At present some people in Russia believe that legislative power is less efficient than executive power. The president is popular while the State Duma is not. In the regions the governor is popular, legislative bodies less so, to say nothing of local government bodies. How is this situation to be changed? How can representative and municipal power be made more popular?
[Kozak] If we talk about legislative power, and about representative power as a whole, the reason for this is that the activities of the representative power bodies and local government bodies is less conspicuous. These bodies write and set rules. Citizens do not see their work directly, although it is extremely important. In fact, it is more important than the activities of executive bodies because - and this is the president's position which was openly declared in the president's address - all the activities of executive power bodies should be regulated by law. If we take into account the fact that the rules of behaviour of Russian citizens can be regulated by law alone, we should realize that legislative power bodies are the key public power bodies.
As for the St Petersburg legislative assembly, it is an extremely important body.
If we take into consideration the reforms that the Russian president intends to implement, and I mean the reforms of federal relations first and foremost, the legislative assembly is all the more important. It is the assembly which will regulate the bulk of everyday life of the citizens of St Petersburg and other constituent parts of the Federation. It is very important for the residents of St Petersburg to make a conscious choice, for everybody to take part in the formation of the assembly, because the quality of its work depends on us voters. The assembly consists of specific people - politicians. Taking part in the assembly poll, voters will define the quality of those politicians, their views and their decency and diligence.
I would like to say once again that we have no reason to underestimate the importance of the legislative assembly in the life of St Petersburg as a constituent part of the Russian Federation.
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