MOSCOW, Sept 13 (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin's move to shore up central control after the Beslan school hostage tragedy reflects his long-standing goal of rebuilding a strong Russian state, analysts said Monday, but critics warned that it will place too much power in one man's hands.
"Just imagine that after September 11, 2001, George Bush had come to the Senate and proposed that in order to catch (Osama) bin Laden, state governors should no longer be elected by direct suffrage but appointed by Washington," independent lawmaker Vladimir Ryzhkov told Gazeta.ru online news.
A stern-faced Putin on Monday summoned regional governors, ministers and officials to inform them tersely that the war against terror necessitated a radical change to political structures.
He proposed removing voters' right to elect the chiefs of Russia's 89 regions and republics through universal suffrage, instead making them virtual Kremlin appointees.
The Russian leader also announced plans to introduce full proportional representation for elections to the lower house of parliament -- giving small opposition parties no chance to get deputies elected to the State Duma on independent tickets.
After a series of terror attacks blamed on Chechen militants in the space of 10 days that claimed more than 400 lives, most during a three-day hostage siege at a school in southern Russia, Putin insisted Russia had to overhaul its administration.
"The fight against terror is our shared duty and it requires mobilization of all the resources of the state," he said.
With corruption among regional authorities often blamed for ineffective security, the president's proposals could strike a popular chord but commentators say his aim is more far-reaching.
"Putin has planned to centralise power and tighten the screws from the time he came to power," commented Yuri Korgunyuk of the Indem think-tank in Moscow.
"Terrorism is the pretext. The goal is to place the entire power apparatus under his personal control."
A former KGB colonel who has expressed nostalgia for the strong central authority of the Soviet era, Putin in 2000 set up seven super-regions with his personal envoys to bolster Kremlin authority across the nation.
The upper house of parliament, the Federation Chamber, was stuffed with political appointees.
And the once unruly lower chamber then became a more pliant body after elections criticized for strong state media bias in December handed the pro-presidential United Russia party a two-thirds majority.
But the latest move has sparked alarm about a re-emergence of the strong autocratic tradition in Russia.
The president "is taking away the right of citizens to elect their representatives," the liberal Yabloko party said in a statement.
"This is taking away the last checks and balances preventing the concentration of power in one person's hands," it added.
Although a senior figure in United Russia, deputy Duma speaker Vladimir Pekhtin, praised the president's initiatives, there were dissenting voices even within the pro-Putin party.
"The idea of ending direct gubernatorial elections is yet another step towards the past. We end up with something akin to an absolute monarchy," United Russia deputy Alexander Khinstein said.