MOSCOW, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - On Saturday, Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiyev, who is a co-chairman of the United Russia party, criticized the State Duma and United Russia's leaders for adopting the law on the new procedure for electing the heads of Federation constituent members in the first reading.

"How can the State Duma, where United Russia has a majority, pass a decision to dissolve a republic's parliament which consists of United Russia members?" he asked, referring to United Russia majority in the Tatar parliament.

Mr. Shaimiyev is not the only high-ranking member of United Russia in the current standoff with the Kremlin, Novye Izvestia writes. Under the patrimony of Murtaza Rakhimov, a United Russia Supreme Council member and Baskhortostan's president, the deputies of the regional parliament also objected to individual provisions of the bill passed by the State Duma.

Moscow City Duma deputies did not unanimously back the presidential initiative either. Just like their Tatar colleagues, they objected to a provision on the dissolution of a regional parliament if it does not approve a candidature proposed by the president. It is known that Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, a co-chairman of the Supreme Council of United Russia, made the same remarks.

Interestingly, all three men once led the Fatherland-All Russia movement, which was the main rival of the Kremlin-backed Unity. After losing the 2000 parliamentary elections, Fatherland merged with the new party of power but, it seems, not completely.

Alexander Dugin, a political scientist and the leader of the International Eurasian Movement, believes that United Russia members are only united by the fact that all of them belong to the nomenclature. However, the interests of specific representatives of the nomenclature sometimes differ radically. According to him, the idea of appointing regional heads, which is backed by United Russia, buries the sovereignty of such constituent members as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Such prospects cannot satisfy United Russia members who belong to the regional nomenclature.

Source: RIA Novosti