For more detail on Russian regions, see below Regional and local government.
The law is modelled on regional legislation that outlaws "homosexual propaganda" in a number of Russian regions.
This strengthened the Russian regions.
His business offices in 30 Russian regions have helped with the organization.
But the hard-pressed Finno-Ugric minorities in central Russian regions like Mari-El, Komi and Udmurtia are more concerned.
Last year, Kadyrov ordered Chechen security forces to "shoot to kill" if they encountered police officers from other Russian regions on the territory of the republic.
In all other Russian regions, the committee uses local lawyers and consultants, but in Chechnya it sends in rotating groups of outside lawyers, for security reasons.
Astakhov disagreed, and said there were some Russian regions where marriage at 17 or even as young as 14 was still appropriate.
Though usually less violent than it's neighbors Ingushetia and Chechnya — two Russian regions where shootings and bomb attacks occur almost daily — bloodshed in North Ossetia is not uncommon.
Leaders of several Russian regions, including Siberia and Yakutia — both with vast reserves of diamonds, oil, and gold beneath their frozen ground — began to speak openly of seceding.
