Hail to the Chiefs: Moscow and Tatarstan still can’t agree how many presidents Russia should have

Deputies in the Tatarstan State Council have voted against proposed federal legislation that would force all regional heads across the country to adopt the same title, abolishing Tatarstan's own "presidency." Tatarstan is Russia's last holdout that still calls its regional head of state "president" -- a fiercely guarded totem of local independence. The federal government in Moscow has spent more than a decade pursuing greater centralization and trying to pressure and persuade officials in the republic to drop the title so that the Kremlin alone can claim it. In contemporary Russian politics, it's only mild hyperbole to compare the vote in the State Council to separatism. Meduza explains why the local presidency is so important to Tatarstan and how the federal authorities will likely respond to this affront. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/10/29/hail-to-the-chiefs