Old guard goes as Putin eyes early election
Vladimir Putin is considering calling early presidential elections to give him a free hand to push through unpopular economic reforms as he steps up a purge of some of his longest-serving comrades in favour of younger and more deferential aides.
Sources close to the Kremlin leader said Putin was being urged to bring forward the March 2018 presidential election by a year.
‘‘Some inside and outside the Kremlin are telling Putin that the reforms can’t wait another two years,’’ said a source. ‘‘Putin is sceptical but hasn’t rejected the idea and is weighing up his options.’’
Among those backing the proposal is Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister, whom Putin recently brought back into the Kremlin as an economic adviser.
Russia is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since Putin came to power in 2000 as a result of western sanctions imposed over its seizure of Crimea and covert war in eastern Ukraine.
Its woes have been exacerbated by a sharp fall in the price of oil, which has pushed down the rouble.
The planned reforms – which could include increased taxes and a rise in the retirement age – could go down badly with voters. For that reason, analysts say, Putin might want to get the election out of the way first.
In order to bring forward the poll, the Russian leader would have briefly to step down and hold the poll within three months or else change the electoral law. Either way he is widely expected to win comfortably, allowing him to rule for a further six years.
Putin is no stranger to such constitutional manoeuvres: after serving his first two terms as president, he got round a ban on a third term by taking the lesser job of prime minister, before returning to the Kremlin in 2012. The discussion comes as Russia prepares for parliamentary elections next month.
Kremlin-watchers, meanwhile, have been trying to digest the implications of recent personnel changes in the Kremlin – among them the removal this month of Sergei Ivanov, Putin’s powerful chief of staff. Ivanov, who like the Russian leader is 63 and from St Petersburg, has known Putin since the 1970s, when they both served in the KGB. A former defence minister, he had once been spoken of as a possible successor.
A source close to the Kremlin said that Ivanov, who has been demoted to special envoy for transport and the environment, ‘‘wasn’t up to the job any more’’.
Ivanov’s post has been taken by Anton Vaino, 44, a relatively unknown aide.
Analysts said it was part of a broader policy by Putin of replacing older loyalists with younger ‘‘yes men’’. ‘‘Putin does not want faithful advisers, he wants acolytes,’’ wrote Tatyana Stanovaya, a political analyst.
Last month Andrei Belyaninov, another old ally, was forced to resign as head of the customs office after security services found hundreds of thousands of dollars in shoe boxes in his house.