RUSSIA - Sep 13 - Putin's Anti-Terror Plan Centralises State Power.

Putin convenes the meeting of the cabinet, top security and military officials, and the nation's governors as authorities and lawmakers are considering how to tighten security following a series of terror attacks including the three-day hostage-taking in a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where more than 330 people were killed. Pres Putin announces a series of far-reaching initiatives aimed at combating terrorism, which will significantly strengthen the Kremlin's control over the country's political life. Talking to the officials gathered in the governments's HQ's, he said: "The organisers and perpetrators of the terror attack are aiming at the disintegration of the state, the breakup of Russia". Putin said that topdown control from the central government was key, and that strong political parties must become one of the tools for mobilising the entire society to conduct the fight against terrorism. He recommended changing the system of electing the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, to a purely proportional system. That would eliminate the individual races that currently fill half the chamber's seats, and would further increase the clout of the pro-Kremlin faction and its allies, who already enjoy an overwhelming majority. Putin also said he would propose legislation to the State Duma before the end of the year providing for regional governors to be elected by regional legislatures on the recommendation of the head of the state. In a Sep 4 televised address to the country, Putin said measures would be taken to strengthen Russia's unity, create a more effective crisis management system, establish a new network to control the situation in the Caucasus, and overhaul law enforcement organs, which he admitted were corrupt. Putin said Sep 13 he had ordered the country's security services to increase their international cooperation, and that Russia needed a new federal agency to coordinate the fight against terror. He said: "We need a single organization capable of not only dealing with terror attacks but also working to avert them, destroy criminals in their hideouts, and if necessary, abroad". He proposed setting up a new structure called the Public Chamber to engage non-governmental organisations and other groups to mobilise society in the fight against terror and to strengthen public oversight of the government and actions of law enforcement agencies. He named one of his closest confidants, Dmitry Kozak, the cabinet chief of staff, as his representative in the southern federal district, which oversees the Caucasus region. The former governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev, who had held that position, was named minister of nationalities. Russian media reported Sep 13 after meeting with his Security Council on Sep 12, Putin ordered the firing of North Ossetia's interior minister and the regional head of the Federal Security Service, the agency that is supposed to spearhead anti-terrorist efforts. Three other major terrorist attacks in the days before the school hostage crisis claimed 100 lives: the bombing of two airliners and a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station. In all, some 430 people have been killed in terror attacks over the past three weeks, and Russians appear to be supportive of harsher measures to combat terrorism. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov reaffirmed in an interview on Sep 12 that Russia had the right to strike terrorists outside its territory. He reiterated an earlier statement saying that a "pre-emptive strike may involve anything except nuclear weapons". Asked what specific weapons and tactics Russia could use, Ivanov said that "we have permanent readiness units, precision air-launched weapons and so on". He added, "They have declared a war on us, we are under attack, so all means are good in a war".