IT’S PUTIN UNTIL 2036
Patriot parade before vote to tighten his grip on power
IT was a parade meant to stir patriotic passion and help Vladimir Putin keep his iron grip on Russia until 2036.
But there may have been another reason why the hearts of the elderly war veterans standing alongside Mr Putin yesterday were beating a little faster than usual.
Strutting across Red Square in Moscow in short white skirts and high boots was a legion of young women soldiers, many of them smiling proudly as they passed the Russian president and his entourage of generals and old soldiers.
They were among thousands of troops as well as tanks, missiles and a flypast, displayed in the sun to mark the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. The traditional May 9 Victory Day celebrations were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and have now been hijacked by Mr Putin
A week of voting will begin today on controversial constitutional reforms, the biggest of which would reset the limit on presidential terms.
This would allow Mr Putin to run for two more terms when his current period expires in four years and potentially stay in the Kremlin until 2036. The vote is a ‘done deal’, say experts.
At the weekend, Mr Putin advised on Russian television against looking for a replacement, saying: ‘We need to get on with work, not look for successors.’
Russia lost more than 20million civilians and troops during Hitler’s invasion and occupation but eventually threw out the German army and drove it all the way back to Berlin. ‘It is impossible even to imagine what the world would be if the Red Army hadn’t come to defend it,’ the Russian president said after a minute of silence to remember the soldiers who died fighting on the Eastern Front.
Some 14,000 soldiers took part in the parade. Veterans had isolated for two weeks to make sure they were free of coronavirus.
Mr Putin had announced the new dates last month for both parade and vote despite Russia still being in the grip of coronavirus. Critics accuse him of rushing ahead with public events to pursue his own political ends. Opposition figure Alexei Navalny said: ‘One crazy, greedy man who has gone mad with power is making the whole country engage in delirium.’
‘We don’t need to look for successors’