Russian President Vladimir Putin, 68, signed a law Monday allowing him to serve two more terms as president, meaning he could stay in the Kremlin until 2036 if there are no surprises.
Russia held a referendum on extending the presidency last summer under Putin’s leadership, and a similar law was formally passed by the Russian parliament, dominated by Putin’s party, in March.
The strongman, who has ruled Russia since 2000 and for two decades has eliminated one political opponent after another, greatly reducing the space for the opposition and independent media, has refused to talk publicly about succession.
Under Russian law, presidents may not serve more than two consecutive terms. Putin should quit at the end of his current presidential term, that is, in 2024, after two terms in office. To that end, Putin decided to “amend” the constitution, and his party-dominated Duma State Assembly passed a law to that effect.
Now, according to the law he signed on Monday, which was passed by the Duma a short time ago, the above-mentioned law limiting presidential terms to two does not apply to Russian presidents already in office at the time of the 2020 amendment.
In theory, then, Putin could serve as president until 2036, when he would be 83-84 years old.
Yekaterinburg’s former mayor Evgeny Rozman mocked, “How nice that they gave Putin a law in time to rule for life!” Jailed opposition leader Navalny’s team aired a video aired several years ago in which Putin once vowed that he was adamantly opposed to a president serving two terms in addition to his legal term.
In fact, according to Russian law, Putin should have left the presidency long ago, but Putin changed the law for this purpose to allow himself to continue ruling the country in its legal name.
In 2008, in an attempt to get around the limit of no more than two terms in office, he and his crony Dmitry Medvedev performed a duo, with the latter stepping in as president and Putin being appointed prime minister by the former. in 2012, Putin re-entered the race for a second term. The presidential term was then extended from the statutory four years to six, and Putin was not surprisingly re-elected in 2018.
Putin was supposed to walk away in six years, in 2024, but today he signed a decree that he himself could continue to serve two more terms as Russia’s president.
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