Tatarstan admits its constitution contravenes federal legislation

Tatarstan admits that a new wording of its constitution is in contradiction with federal legislation, Mikhail Stolyarov, first deputy representative of Tatarstan under the Russian president, said at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

Simultaneously, such differences are but a few, he believes. The principled differences are clauses on sovereignty, a multilingual status and citizenship, he said.

Asked by the RIA Novosti correspondent, Stolyarov stressed that "sovereignty clauses cannot be unambiguously wiped out".

He did not rule out that, "in prospect, differences can be eliminated but this will take time".

Alexander Zvyagintsev, Russian deputy prosecutor general, has filed a protest at the civil chamber of the Supreme Court of Russia on a decision of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, which has not satisfied his application regarding the failure of the Tatar Supreme Court's to execute court judgements.

Zvyagintsev said that the State Council of Tatarstan has actually ignored the decision of the Russian Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Russia and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan by preserving in the new wording norms which proclaim sovereignty for Tatarstan. These norms regulate organisation and activities of federal courts and prosecutor's offices, which are the exclusive authority of the Russian Federation.

The constitution of Tatarstan contains clauses violating the constitutional right of citizens of the Russian Federation to be elected to organs of state power of Tatarstan irrespective of their mastery of the Tatar language. This limits for many Russians the possibility to advance their candidature to presidency in Tatarstan, he said.