SAVING MONEY VS. SAVING RUSSIA.

RF Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai said that the number of federal territorial units (89) must be reduced in order to “save a whole lot of money,” Yekaterinburgskie vedomosti (no. 22) reported. But Tatarstan’s President Mintimir Shaimiev told Trud April 26 that the constituent republics of Russia would never accept such arrangements. “I would put it more plainly: Isn’t one Chechnya enough?” Shaimiev added that “the center still wants to control everything,” noting that it was up to Moscow “to become more attractive to the regions.”

Why the Non-Russians Might Rebel.