Putin’s new constitution: a “tailor made” autocracy
Vladimir Putin has already led Russia for two decades, said Adam Taylor in The Washington Post – “and he is not going anywhere”. Last Thursday, he declared victory in a week-long referendum which saw 78% of voters back a raft of constitutional reforms, in principle allowing him to remain president until 2036, when he’ll be 83. Russia’s parliament had actually already approved the changes in a vote in March, meaning Putin didn’t need to call the referendum at all – but he did so to “build a veneer of legitimacy”. After all, his poll ratings are at a historic low; Russia has recorded 680,000 cases of coronavirus (the world’s fourth highest total) and its economy looks “shaky” at best. Putin faces discontent among both liberal residents of large cities and people in the “impoverished provinces”. Nonetheless, he has now paved the way to surpass Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader since Peter the Great, whose 43-year tenure ended in 1725.
The Kremlin’s “contempt” for voters could hardly be clearer, said Ben Noble in The Moscow Times. Initially, the referendum was sold to them as a vehicle by which to pass some 200 reforms, including a ban on gay marriage, protection for the Russian language and inflation-proof pensions. But once victory for the Kremlin was secured, Putin seized the chance to claim it as a personal triumph – letting Russia’s restless elite know that they should think “more than twice” before daring to contemplate life without him. The whole process was a farce, said Leonid Gozman on Echo of Moscow. Russians received text messages telling them they could win one of two million vouchers worth a total of ten billion roubles (£112m) if they voted; others were lured by prizes such as smartphones, or even flats. Everybody knows the result was fixed; Russians “haven’t loved Putin for a long time” – and his handling of the pandemic has only made matters worse.
Actually, Putin’s policies are still popular, said Ernest A. Reid on the state-controlled RT (Moscow). He has transformed Russia from the lawless and impoverished nation of the late 1990s to the global power of today; it’s only right that the constitution be changed to reflect that. Russia is “coming clean”, said Christian F. Trippe in Deutsche Welle (Bonn). This constitution formalises the Russian state as an autocracy “tailor-made” for Putin. He may well face political resistance in the near future as a result. But Putin can now rule for another 16 years. “I predict he’ll do it – regardless of the political cost, and consequences.”