Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 16.11.2004

Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of November 16, 2004 on the Case of Constitutionality of Provisions of Item 2 of Article 10 of the Law of the Republic of Tatarstan on the Languages of the Peoples of the Republic of Tatarstan, Part 2 of Article 9 of the Law of the Republic of Tatarstan on the State Languages of the Republic of Tatarstan and Other Languages in the Republic of Tatarstan, Item 2 of Article 6 of the Law of the Republic of Tatarstan on the Education and Item 6 of Article 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation Pursuant to the Appeal of Citizen S.I.Khapugin and Requests of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan

The applicants challenged the constitutionality of provisions of the mentioned Laws of the Republic of Tatarstan stating that the Tatar and the Russian languages as the state languages of the Republic of Tatarstan are being studied in pre-school institutions, schools of the secondary education and institutions of special secondary education in equal amount. Proceeding from the mentioned norm, the bodies of education of the Republic of Tatarstan issued appropriate educational schedules making it obligatory for the students of institutions of the secondary education with the Russian language to study the Tatar language in large amount, thus restricting opportunities of enhanced study of other subjects of the educational schedule for such students, as well as the mustering of the subjects of choice if they observe available maximum load requirements and the obligatory minimum of the main educational programs.

They also challenged the constitutionality of Item 6 of Article 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation stating that the alphabets of the state language of the Russian Federation and the state languages of the constituent republics are based on cyrillic graphics, with other alphabet graphics of the state language of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation being specified by the federal laws.

The Constitutional Court explained that issues of legal status of state languages of the republics pertain to both the rights of citizens being the native speakers of the appropriate language of the republic and the citizens living on the territory of the republic without being able to speak this language. Regulation of the rights and freedoms of man, including the rights in the language sphere, and the fixing of the fundamentals of the federal policy in the sphere of cultural and national development of the Russian Federation, including the fundamentals of the language policy, are qualified by the Constitution of the Russian Federation as the sphere of reference of the Russian Federation, and the issues of protection of the rights and freedoms of man and the general issues of education, culture and language as their components - as the common sphere of reference of the Russian Federation and its subjects. In this connection, the federal legislator may specify the fundamentals of the legal regulation of the l anguages of the peoples of the Russian Federation.

To provide for the use of the Tatar language on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan in all spheres of official relations, the legislator of the Republic of Tatarstan may envisage its study as the state language in the Republic of Tatarstan in the framework of the secondary education. However, its study as an obligatory subject must be implemented with strict observation of the federal state educational standards, i.e. without affecting the federal component and the component of the educational institution, and may not prevent the implementation of the right of students for enhanced study of other subjects of the educational schedule, subjects of choice, facultative subjects.

The Constitutional Court emphasised that the prohibition for the republics of the Russian Federation to independently change the graphic basis of their state language is in compliance with the constitutional principles of federal arrangement, first and foremost, the principle of state integrity.

Proceeding form the above, the Constitutional Court recognised the challenged provision of the Laws of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Law of the Russian Federation as not contradicting the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The Decision is entered into force immediately after annunciation.

Federal Law No. 136-FZ of November 10, 2004 on the Amendments to the Federal Law on the Federal Budget for the Year 2004 and on Invalidation of Some of the Provisions of Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation

The amendments increase the incomes (from Rbl 2,742,850.4 million to Rbl 3,273,844.6 million) and the expenses (from Rbl 2,659,447.0 million to Rbl 2,768,085.8 million) parts of the budget. The forecasted volume of the gross domestic product is increased from Rbl 15,300 billion to Rbl 16,130 billion. The level of inflation is not changed - 10% (December 2004 to December 2003). The surplus of incomes over expenses of the federal budget amounts to Rbl 505,758.8 million (earlier, Rbl 83,403.4 million) with the provision stating that the mentioned amount is allocated to build the Stabilisation Fund of the Russian Federation being omitted.

The key changes are introduced in the following sections of the functional classification of expenses of the budgets of the Russian Federation: international activities, national defence, law enforcement and state security, prevention and elimination of consequences of emergency situations and natural disasters, agriculture and fishing, culture, arts and cinematography, means of mass communication, public health, financial aid to other budgets of the budget system, highway maintenance.

The Federal Law is entered into force from the day of its official publication.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 628 of November 12, 2004 on the Amendments to the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 379 of June 30, 2003

Amends the Decision introducing additional restrictions for the investing of resources of accumulated pensions in individual classes of assets and defining the maximum portion of individual classes of assets in the investment portfolio. In particular, specifies the particulars of committing transactions pertaining to the investing of resources of accumulated pensions in the bonds of external bond loans of the Russian Federation.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 627 of November 12, 2004 on the Amendments to and Invalidation of Some of the Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation Pertaining to the State Registration of the Rights for Immovable Property and Transactions with It Pursuant to the Federal Law on the Amendments to Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation and Invalidation of Some of the Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Pursuant to the Adoption of the Federal Laws on the Amendments to the Federal Law on the General Principles of Organisation of Legislative (Representative) and Executive Bodies of State Power of the Subjects of the Russian Federation and on the General Principles of Organisation of Local Government in the Russian Federation

The amendments entering into force from January 1, 2005 specify that the keeping of the Uniform State Register of the Rights for Immovable Property and Transactions with It is vested in the Federal Registration Service and its territorial bodies. The Federal Registration Service shall provide for the registration of the rights, restrictions of the rights (encumbrances) for the enterprises as property complexes, objects of immovable property located on the territory of more than one registration districts and transactions with them, and its territorial bodies - for the registration of the rights, restrictions of rights (encumbrances) for other objects of immovable property.

The state registration of the transaction for the immovable property, as well as the proprietary right or another proprietary interest emerging from the transaction is certified with the registration stamp posted on the original of the document expressing the essence of the transaction. In cases of the state registration of the transaction, the stamp of the registration record on the documents is used to enter after the words "State Registration Done" the type of the registered transaction, the date of the state registration and the number assigned to the transaction in the Uniform State Register of Rights.

Besides, the Federal Registration Service and its territorial bodies shall provide for the registration and removal from records of the objects of immovable property.

The Decision lists the acts of the Government of the Russian Federation pertaining to the state registration of the rights for immovable property and transactions with it invalidated from January 1, 2005.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 625 of November 12, 2004 on the Non-Application of the Rate of the Export Customs Duty for Cellulose

Specifies that the rate of the export customs duty for wood pulp or other fibrous cellulose materials, paper and paperboard of waste (codes according to the Foreign-Trade Commodity Nomenclature 4701 00-4707) in the amount of 10% of the customs cost do not apply to cellulose of wood, sulphate, other than dissolving grades, bleached or semi-bleached, coniferous (code according to the Foreign-Trade Commodity Nomenclature 4704 21 000 0).

The Decision is entered into force one month after the day of its official publication.