Wayofthegods
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Vlad the indefinite
Russia’s president reluctantly agrees to 16 more years in power
Vladimir Putin has no plans to retire. Poor Russia
What a convenient thing a tame parliament is. On March 10th, acting on a proposal from the first woman in space (now a celebrity mp), the Russian Duma approved an amendment to the country’s constitution that would reset the clock barring anyone from serving more than two consecutive terms as president.
As it happens, that would allow Vladimir Putin, at present ineligible to run for another term when his current one expires in 2024, to stay on for two more six-year terms after that date, assuming he can win two more elections on top of the four he has won already.
By then, in 2036, he would be 83, and would have ruled Russia for 36 years, as long as Ivan the Terrible. Two of the world’s biggest military powers, China and Russia, now have what look like presidents-for-life. Such leaders seldom improve with age.
A few technicalities remain (see article). Russia’s Constitutional Court still has to rule on whether Mr Putin’s changes are indeed constitutional. It is a sign of how completely Mr Putin has packed and bent Russian institutions to his will that no one imagines that he will fail to get his way, just as no one imagines that Valentina Tereshkova, who took her giant leap for womankind back on June 16th, 1963, was acting off her own bat.
The third hurdle is an “all-people vote” of doubtful legality on the newly adjusted constitution, which Mr Putin has scheduled for April 22nd. That, perhaps, is a little less in the bag, but the Kremlin’s operatives are dab hands at suppressing protests and neutering the press.
And the rest of the changes to the constitution are designed to enhance its popularity with tradition-minded Russians, for instance by stressing that Russian law must have primacy over international law, that state pensions must be inflation-proof and that gay marriage will never be permitted.
Russia’s president reluctantly agrees to 16 more years in power
Vladimir Putin has no plans to retire. Poor Russia
What a convenient thing a tame parliament is. On March 10th, acting on a proposal from the first woman in space (now a celebrity mp), the Russian Duma approved an amendment to the country’s constitution that would reset the clock barring anyone from serving more than two consecutive terms as president.
As it happens, that would allow Vladimir Putin, at present ineligible to run for another term when his current one expires in 2024, to stay on for two more six-year terms after that date, assuming he can win two more elections on top of the four he has won already.
By then, in 2036, he would be 83, and would have ruled Russia for 36 years, as long as Ivan the Terrible. Two of the world’s biggest military powers, China and Russia, now have what look like presidents-for-life. Such leaders seldom improve with age.
A few technicalities remain (see article). Russia’s Constitutional Court still has to rule on whether Mr Putin’s changes are indeed constitutional. It is a sign of how completely Mr Putin has packed and bent Russian institutions to his will that no one imagines that he will fail to get his way, just as no one imagines that Valentina Tereshkova, who took her giant leap for womankind back on June 16th, 1963, was acting off her own bat.
The third hurdle is an “all-people vote” of doubtful legality on the newly adjusted constitution, which Mr Putin has scheduled for April 22nd. That, perhaps, is a little less in the bag, but the Kremlin’s operatives are dab hands at suppressing protests and neutering the press.
And the rest of the changes to the constitution are designed to enhance its popularity with tradition-minded Russians, for instance by stressing that Russian law must have primacy over international law, that state pensions must be inflation-proof and that gay marriage will never be permitted.
![Power of Justice [JG]](/data/avatars/m/21/21556.jpg?1705626106){kind=avatar}
