Putin considers taking Russia to the polls

President could use early vote to push through constitutional reform and wrongfoot opposition

THE Kremlin is considering calling early elections to blindside Russia’s fragmented opposition before dissent grows over sweeping constitutional change that could allow Vladimir Putin to rule indefinitely.

The move would cause further confusion in Russia after the president shocked the country by announcing constitutional change that could allow him to rule beyond the legal terms limit of 2024. In the clearest indication to date of his future, Mr Putin suggested cutting the powers of the Russian president in favour of parliament and boosting the Constitutional Court and the State Council, an opaque body currently without a legal status.

This was viewed by many as a confirmation that Mr Putin is looking for a new role in the system of power.

Across two days this week the president floated his ideas about the constitution, accepted the resignation of the government and nominated an obscure bureaucrat as the country’s new prime minister.

Sources in the presidential administration told respected Russian media outlets that the Kremlin was considering an early election that would allow it to ride the wave of the public’s hopes and confusion over the constitutional amendments.

Russia’s weak opposition, which has taken a back seat after street protests in Moscow last summer, has been slowly gearing up for the election next autumn.

Several opposition figures have criticised Mr Putin’s manoeuvring, accusing him of plotting to “usurp” power.

But no one, including Alexei Navalny, arguably Russia’s most popular opposition leader, has yet offered a strategy for their supporters.

To further muddy the waters, Russia’s presidential administration is thought to have approved about 10 new “spoiler” parties to split the opposition vote.

An early election would allow Mr Putin’s United Russia party to sew up a health majority before criticism of his vague reform grows and the real opposition organises itself.

Tatyana Stanovaya, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Centre and R Politik, said a snap election would make sense as it would allow the Kremlin to bring in fresh faces on the ruling party ticket as well as take advantage of a rise in Mr Putin’s popularity triggered by the purposefully vague reforms, “which is unlikely to have a lasting effect”.

Vitaly Milonov, a United Russia MP, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that an early election would help “to make the Duma [lower house] more up to date” to match the new cabinet.

Alexander Yushchenko, a Communist MP, told The Sunday Telegraph, that calling an early election at this point would be unconstitutional. Vyacheslav Volodin, the Duma speaker, balked at the reports of an early vote.

Mr Putin’s amendments are now on course to breeze through parliament: several Duma deputies say they are to be submitted by the end of March and put to an unspecified kind of popular vote by May.

The pace of implementing the major changes to Russia’s power structure is consistent with Mr Putin’s signature “special operation” style, when all resources are mobilised for an instant result, according to Ms Stanovaya. “An early Duma election would fit into that,” she said.

The changes announced by Mr Putin last Wednesday are likely to be just a prelude to other fundamental political changes, Ms Stanovaya said: “There is going to be an Act Two.”