The gloss comes off as Putin seeks to rule for life
Over an illegal coffee in central St Petersburg, Alexander Konovalov explains how he cheered for Vladimir Putin for 20years of his life. Sitting at a teak table in his hipster coffee shop, open to the public in defiance of the president’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions, he says that now, for the first time, he has lost faith in the Russian leader who was born and raised just a few miles away.
“I’ve always voted for Putin,” he tells The Sunday Telegraph. “But now I’m ashamed to admit that I had no idea what was happening in the country before I personally ran into trouble.”
His loss of faith comes on the eve of a referendum this week to allow Russia’s president to rule at least until 2036 when he will be 83, the biggest constitutional change in the country since the Soviet Union fell.
Mr Putin’s approval ratings last month dropped to an historic low of 59 per cent, and support appears to be waning significantly in St Petersburg, where the Covid-19 crisis has bitten hard. Nevertheless, there is little chance his new powers to rule for at least two more terms will not be granted. The president’s broad support – coupled with alleged vote-buying and ballot irregularities – is likely to be enough for a comfortable victory.
A graduate of the city’s leading law school, Mr Putin made a career in the KGB but swiftly joined the office of the reformist St Petersburg mayor after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The 67-year old leader was born in Leningrad, as the city was known at the time, less than a decade after the deadly siege during the Second World War, and grew up in a rough-andtumble neighbourhood in the former imperial capital that grew shabby and destitute by then.
In the two decades under Mr Putin, the city of 5million people got an expensive face-lift, with boutique hotels, local designer shops and organic food cafes popping up all over town. But the lockdown that began in March threatens to wind back the clock in Russia’s secondlargest city. Hundreds of thousands of people reliant on the hospitality industry were largely left to their own devices in the absence of any significant government aid.
Mr Konovalov, who witnessed the boom of Russia’s economy in the 2000s, has now lost faith after promises of help in the middle of the pandemic turned hollow.
“I can’t stand all these lies: He used to say he wouldn’t run again, and now he’s cancelling the (presidential) term limits,” the businessman said.
On the city’s web of rivers and canals, typically thronged with boats, it is eerily empty this year at the height of the travel season. Nikolai Predtechesnky, 33, who runs a company that owns 120 boats and smaller yachts, said the lockdown and lack of government aid has changed attitudes to Mr Putin for the worse.
“My friends, my own grandmother, my acquaintances who work for the government… everyone is beginning to understand that this system is broken,” he said. “Society needs profound changes.”
The amendment that resets the clock on term limits for the sitting president is one of a myriad constitutional changes that is up to vote, including a pledge to keep increasing state pension payouts and boost the protection of the environment and the Russian language.
Many voting in this week’s nationwide poll are likely to be unaware that they would be essentially allowing Mr Putin to rule for life since state media and election officials have been touting the amendments promising better living standards but have largely avoided discussing Mr Putin’s potential rule for life.
Mr Putin’s current term expires in 2024, and analysts say the Russian leader of 20 years has become irritated by Kremlin insiders who started looking for a possible successor.
Opposition activists have unearthed videos of Mr Putin’s remarks from as much as a decade ago when he pledged that he had no intention of breaking the law or rewriting the Constitution to suit his needs.
“Putin would have been genuinely shocked if someone had shown to him back in 2000 what he would be up to this year,” said Ms Stanovaya at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “But people change, and 20 years is a long time. The closer he gets to the end (of his term), the scarier it is to leave.”
The vote was postponed in view of the pandemic and is now scheduled to run for a week, ending on July 1. The referendum is being held under new, lax rules, criticised for leaving much room for rigging, analysts say.
Reports of potential vote buying as well as complaints from public servants and state firms’ employees about being coerced to vote in the middle of the ongoing pandemic materialised as soon as the vote began on Thursday when several journalists documented how easy it was for them to vote twice – in person and in electronic voting.
Boat owner Mr Predtechensky, a graduate of the St Petersburg law school, like President Putin, has no illusion about his vote making a difference but he still intends to cast his ballot: “I’ll have to put on a mask, latex gloves, bring a sanitiser and some cognac to get over this monstrosity.”