Putin endorses remedy to extend rule
MOSCOW — It looked as though Vladimir Putin had been gearing up to push through obscure constitutional changes as a surreptitious way to remain Russia’s leader after presidential term limits force him to step down in 2024. But Tuesday, Mr. Putin endorsed a proposal stunningly simpler and more brazen: resetting the Constitution’s term-limit clock to zero.
The proposal, passed by the lower house of Parliament just hours after it had been introduced, would allow him to run for an additional two six-year terms when his tenure expires.
The legislation must still be approved by Russia’s Constitutional Court and a nationwide referendum in April. But in Russia’s tightly controlled political system, the choreographed flurry of events Tuesday was the clearest sign yet that after 20 years as president or prime minister, Mr. Putin, the 67year-old former KGB spy and icon of strongman rule, is intent on staying in the Kremlin possibly for the rest of his life or at least until 2036.
If he serves until then, Mr. Putin will have held the nation’s highest office for 32 years, longer than Stalin but still short of Peter the Great, who reigned for 43 years. In finding ways to escape what seemed to be ironclad limits on his tenure, Mr. Putin joined Xi Jinping of China and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as authoritarian leaders who have sought to extend their power.
In the past, Mr. Putin proceeded cautiously, seeking to preserve a veneer of legality. Confronting term limits in 2008, Mr. Putin opted for a four-year hiatus as prime minister while his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, became the caretaker president. In January, he proposed some murky constitutional changes that analysts said pointed to his intention to stay beyond the end of his current term.
The events that unfolded Tuesday were hardly a surprise. Under Russia’s current constitution, Mr. Putin is obligated to step down at the end of his presidential term in 2024. But few in Russia expected him to relinquish power so soon, and analysts and politicians have long been speculating about how he would hold on to the reins.