Five months after the Russian upper house’s rejection of a power-sharing deal with Tatarstan, the lower house brought the topic back on the agenda with a new almost identical deal.

Below is an article published by Radio Free Europe:

The Russian lower house of parliament [State Duma] has approved a power-sharing deal with Tatarstan, which gives the oil-rich republic more autonomy than other Russian regions.

It also obliges the regional leader to speak the Tatar language in addition to Russian and allows regional authorities to issue "internal passports" with an insert in Tatar.

Observers say the legislation backed by the State Duma today [4 July 2007] was largely unchanged from a proposed treaty that was turned down by the upper house [the Federation Council] in February.

It was unclear when the Federation Council would vote on the legislation.