Bill aims to streamline premier's duties before Putin takes over

Apr 25, 2008, 12:39 GMT

Moscow - Russia's State Duma has drafted a bill to redistribute more than one-sixth of government duties to lower bureaucratic organs in a move designed to free future prime minister Vladimir Putin from mundane duties.

Russian newspapers Friday read the draft as the first sign of a state reshuffle to ease Putin's transition from the president's office to the white house when his successor-elect Dmitry Medvedev takes over as president in May.

Putin had said he would assume the premiership without transferring any of the considerable power he accumulated in the executive over his eight-year presidency, but analysts are skeptical that he would step into a role that in Russia has historically been a weak and thankless job.

However, Putin promises he will breaks this mould and be Russia's strongest premier ever as he takes the office in an open bid to retain influence.

The bill works to streamline the post for Putin by ridding it of all that is routine, and obscuring who can be held to account for poor legislation, newspapers said Friday.

If enacted, it will change 150 existing laws to transfer about 500 of the government's 3,000 duties to lower level bureaucratic committees and ministries.

The bill's authors insisted the legislation was purely 'technical.'

'The draft law has nothing to do with personnel matters, it's all about the effectiveness of the functioning of the government, something that we have long been saying is necessary,' one of the authors, State Duma Chairman Vladimir Pligin, said.

Some observers hailed the law as a bid to increase effectiveness by leaving the responsible committee or ministry in charge of their own affairs.

But business daily Kommersant said Friday that the bill fell in line with Putin's preferences to be 'a leader focused on strategy with a technical executive body that is subordinate to him.'

Reports highlighted that the transfer of duties affected all fields except those prioritized by Putin, namely 'defence, security and the protection of public order.'

Under the headline 'Not Tsarish concerns,' independent newspaper Nezavesimaya Gazeta wrote: 'Translated into human language it means only one thing - the prime minister can now always find a specific official guilty of failures and mistakes if there is a need to extinguish national discontent.'