Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 5 – It is a
longstanding observation that the power to tax is the power to destroy, but a
corollary of this is now on display in the Russian Federation, where Moscow’s
power to re-allocate resources for regions that can’t raise them on their own
and then blame the regions for that decision will harm if not yet destroy some of
the country’s smallest nations.
Yesterday, the Russian government
announced on its website that it would not send any additional budgetary
transfers to ten regions for work with ethnic minorities because those regions,
Moscow said, had failed to meet the center’s requirements in this sector (government.ru/docs/13530).
Moreover, the Russian government
warned that it would transfer funds from still others if they failed to bring
their programs into correspondence with what the center required.
Using budgetary leverage is normal
in a federal system, but there are three reasons why what Moscow has just done
should be a matter of concern and may generate more tensions. First, in ending
the transfers, Moscow blamed the regional governments for failing to do what
was necessary even though the regions lack the independent taxation powers to
fulfill their obligations if Moscow doesn’t help.
Second, such cutbacks will hit the
non-Russian groups involved especially hard.
They will be the victims of Moscow’s decision however much the center
may present what is happening as the fault of the regional authorities. As a
result, more tensions between these groups and Russian institutions are likely
to grow.
And third, these budgetary moves are
a reflection of what has become an increasingly familiar tactic of the Putin
regime: its use of nominally neutral budgetary decisions to advance an unspoken
effort to undercut non-Russian nations in the Russian Federation and thus avoid
the kind of criticism it might be expected to receive from a frontal attack.
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