Mayor Yuri Luzhkov of Moscow, and presidents Mintimer Shaimiev of Tatarstan and Sergei Katanandov of Karelia are enthusiastic about the idea.
"That will be a major correction of regional executive arrangements. It is justified, and so it has my support," Mayor Luzhkov said to the media following an enlarged-attendance federal government session, at which President Putin introduced his reform blueprints. Regional governors and presidents of Russia's constituent republics took part in the session.
President Shaimiev of Tatarstan, autonomy in the middle reaches of the Volga, also approved the prospective reform. The recent years undermined federal influence on Russia's regions, and something must be done to restore national unity, he stressed. Many countries use patterns like what President Putin is proposing. Parliaments even elect presidents, Mr. Shaimiev pointed out.
Bills will be drafted before the year's end for regional diets to elect governors, he added.
The budding reform will buttress the power vertical all over Russia, said Sergei Katanandov of Karelia in Russia's extreme northwest. "The cup of the people's patience is full to overflowing. Russia is fragmented, and the public cannot fight terrorism in the situation," he exclaimed.
As Mr. Katanandov stressed, President Putin was emphasising constitutional compliance of the prospective reform.
