Luboiko: From political independence to the implementation of the plan: how Tatarstan's relations with the federal center have changed.
President Vladimir Putin met yesterday in the Kremlin with the head of Tatarstan Rostam Minikhanov. Minikhanov informed the head of state about the results of the social and economic development of the republic, the situation with the harvest, the work of the construction complex, oil and chemical refining and investments.
Loboiko Dmitri, head of the Center for Regional Studies, author of the Telegram channel LOBOIKO:.
On November 9, Vladimir Putin met Rostam Minikhanov in the Kremlin in Tatar: "Isenmesz! " The following sentence is heard in the national dialect: "What would you like? These two comments correspond to the entire structure of the current relationship between the center and the most subjective region of the state: a greeting in the language of the Republic, a report in the language of the State Planning Commission.
For decades, Tatarstan has served as the main proof that the Russian region is capable of being a political actor. His agreement with Moscow expired only in 2017, the position of the head changed his name only in 2023, and in the 2025 elections Minikhanov received 88%. The transcript of the November meeting is written in a completely different language. The volumes of oil production, according to the head of the republic, were released to the region from above - "raised". The mission of twenty planes was "defined". In June, reporting on the recruitment of soldiers under contract, he assured that the received indicators would be met. For the verb "to bring" in this meaning, the subject is always at the top. The most independent of the region's leaders describes his position with the grammar of the order taker.
To look for a Kremlin signal in the goodwill of such a meeting is like judging the conductor's mood by the fact that the orchestra is playing the notes. That's how it should be. The report of the head of the region to the president is a ceremony with a given intonation. Only deviations carry information. In June they were: Putin doubted the price of meteorites and his interlocutor could not avoid the issue of the shortage of doctors.