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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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One month after the bloody standoff in Southern Russia and almost 400 dead, half of them children, Russia is on the verge of becoming a new country. It isn't that the country looks with different eyes at the world, its few friends and its many foes. It's because this easy predictable tragedy was used as a trigger for turning the multinational federation into something that even the die-hard friends of Putin abroad couldn't call a true democracy.

First came his proposal to appoint the so far elected by popular vote regional governors. The lower chamber of the parliament, the State Duma, will also be reshaped by putting all MPs into party lists. The third idea, not so highly popularized, is to put the judicial branch under de facto control of the presidency. All these measures will make Russia a country where there is only one voice and one only real decision-maker, the president. But will this be the goal in itself or just a small step toward his giant leap?

To understand the new proposals we have to look back to the Russian political life as it has developed since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The first president Yeltsin, who feared so much the possible communist electoral victory, tried to decentralize as mush power as possible among the regions and among the parliament. A simple communist victory in parliament elections didn't mean a lot given the political counterweights erected by Yeltsin. He could rule or at least he could be the most important decision-maker even without parliament majority.

These times are gone. Since late 1999 and rising of Putin first as Prime minister, then as acting president and later as an elected president changed the rule of the game. He decided to gradually eliminate the other centers of independent decision-making. It was him as a supreme arbiter who decided which governor would stand for reelection and who would be withdrawn and given to the prosecution. It was him that emasculated the second chamber of parliament, turning it into mere continuation of his administration.

Once this chamber was eliminated as independent center of power, the next step was to begin appointing the governors. The paradox is that what could spark political tensions in any other country; in Russia was accepted by the victims with joy and happiness. Even the most independent regional oligarchs hailed the idea of cutting their electoral links with the local population. Their power will have different legitimacy; they will be parachuted from Kremlin instead of democratically elected. We can only guess how unpopular some of them might have become if they prefer to put an end to the democratic comedy that surrounded their autocratic power.

Another step toward concentrating Putin's power will be to organize all members of parliament into large party groups. No more room for independent legislators, most of which de facto have been supporters of Kremlin. With the communist political threat dissipating and Putin's electoral commission watchdogs standing firmly as the entry gates deciding who can run and who can't, the parliament support for Kremlin will be taken as granted.

After the legislative power the next step of Putin will be to reduce judges to a group of political sycophants. Their tenure of office will become less independent of political interference, key levels will become appointed by the president himself instead of been recruited by other means. The Putin's regime will look more like the absolutist monarchy of Louis XIV rather than a constitutional government. Even the blindest supporters of his rule abroad won't be able to call it democracy. The man in Kremlin will ordain laws by his sycophants in the parliament, and nobody will be able to challenge his power because he will be the final judge via his proxies in the judicial branch.

But could this trend toward political absolutism be the goal in itself? What if the communists or whoever win the presidential election, if not in 2008, perhaps in 2012 or 2016? Allowing the possibility of political change can lead to a political change no matter how long the current regime is hoping to last. It was Mussolini who left the Italian King with the power to remove the Prime minister from office and in 1943 the King used this power to remove ... Mussolini. That means allowing the Russian people to elect their president will become the last remaining problematic chain within the absolutist political structure. It should be removed. At the same time it should be done in a way not to remove the democratic principle itself.

It seems to me that the president election of early 2004 was the last chance the Russian population had to elect the person in the highest office of the land. Merging the presidency with the regional governments and the State Duma will make them more exposed to a new political legitimacy, de jure democratic, de facto authoritarian. As the governors will have their legitimacy coming from the democratically elected president, the president will be elected by the "democratically" elected regional bosses and by the "popularly" elected parliament. Everyone could claim to be elected indirectly by the people, as a special electoral college elects the U.S. president by constitution.

In reality the Russian president, the regional governors and the majority in the State Duma will elect or rather appoint each other. The political oligarchy masked as indirect democracy and owing the huge natural resources of the country, will replace what's called now democracy in Russia. There will be no political surprises and Russia will fall into decades of political sleep. Putin and his successors with or without crown on their heads will give the world another example of Russian political uniqueness and will challenge again those who have tried to put the country into one or another easy understandable political models.

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