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Crimean leadership to get federal government powers

The decision has been made that the majority of federal functions will be performed by the local authorities under power transfer agreements

SIMFEROPOL, May 10 /ITAR-TASS/. Crimea will be given some of the federal government powers, Russian Minister for Crimea Oleg Savelyev said on Saturday, May 10.

“The decision has been made that the majority of federal functions will be performed by the local authorities under power transfer agreements, with relevant responsibilities and control over the effectiveness and quality of performance. This is a very high level of trust and one of the first such experiments,” Savelyev said.

He believes that after reunification with Russia “a unique window of opportunities” opened up in Crimea for this experiment. “We will try to create a compact and effective system of public administration on the peninsula. This is a very ambitious task: we would like to make it not just like in Russia but much better than in Russia,” the minister said.

He said the transfer of federal powers to Crimea was not related to attempts to make its incorporation into Russia’s administrative and legislative system smoother. “It’s much easier and faster to create territorial bodies of federal agencies in the region than transfer powers to it. This is why the transfer will not be a temporary measure,” Savelyev said.

The system may be corrected with time. “Since we are talking about the delegation of powers, and if we see that there is a negative result, that there is non-performance or improper performance, the [power transfer] agreements will be broken up. We can also take into account suggestions from the bodies to which the powers will be delegated in order to improve their work,” the minister said.

On March 18, at the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Crimean State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov, Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and Sevastopol Mayor Alexei Chaly signed a treaty under which “the Republic of Crimea is deemed to have been admitted to the Russian Federation.” “From the day of the Republic of Crimea’s admission to the Russian Federation, new constituent members - the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as a city of federal significance - shall be created in the Russian Federation,” the document said.

The treaty applied upon signature and entered into force from the date of ratification.

Under the treaty, a transitional period will continue until January 1, 2015 to solve all issues pertaining to the integration of the new constituent members into the economic, financial, credit and legal systems of Russia, into its government system, as well as issues concerning military duty and military service in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.

Elections in Crimea and Sevastopol will be held on the second Sunday of September 2015. The State Council of Crimea (parliament), the government of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council will continue to perform their functions until then.