The message was handed over on March 9 during the meeting with Mr. Putin in Moscow, Mr. Shaimiev said. The reason was, he said, the changed situation with the election of regional heads (they are approved by the legislative assemblies/parliaments on representation by the federal president).
"Since the election situation has changed and the price of stability in such a republic as Tatarstan is too high, the president expressed the desire that I retain the post for another term", Mr. Shaimiev said (since 1991 Mr. Shamiev, 67, has been elected three times for the supreme post in Tatarstan).
After that, he has written a message in the address of the president of the Russian Federation, Mr. Saimiev said.
He has accepted Mr. Putin's proposal to remain in the post for one more term, Mr. Shaimiev said.
"President Putin asked me to, although, he said, he knows of my repeated lack of desire to go for another term", Mr. Shaimiev said.
Since June 1991 he has been president of the Tatar SSR, later renamed as the Republic of Tatarstan. On March 31, 1992 he did not undersign the federal agreement on the delimitation of powers between the federal center and federation entities, gained recognition of a special status for Tatarstan from the Kremlin, where state sovereignty of the republic on the Volga was in question. Later, under Mr. Putin, he treated in the beginning very negatively the formation of seven federal districts, led by plenipotentiaries of the federal president, seeing the innovation as contradicting the Russian constitution.
