Putin sets path to stay on as Russia’s president to 2036

Bloomberg

Vladimir Putin set the stage to stay on as Russia’s president for potentially another 16 years, reversing his past opposition to scrapping term limits so that he — and only he — can continue to rule the country.
“I fully recognise my own personal responsibility towards the citizens of this country,” Putin said in an unscheduled speech before the lower house of parliament. “I see that people, certainly most of society, await my own views and decisions on the key question of governing the state, both today and after 2024” for a fifth and possibly sixth presidential term.
He spoke after a surprise appeal by ruling United Russia lawmakers for him to stay on as president once his current term ends in 2024. Their proposal to reset the term limit under a revised constitution, allowing Putin two more six-year terms, “may be possible but on one condition — that Russia’s Constitutional Court give an official ruling” that it wouldn’t contradict the country’s basic law, Putin said.
Already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Putin has previously repeatedly rejected the idea of scrapping term limits, including as recently as last week. His supporters, though, argue that constitutional changes currently being adopted mean that Putin’s existing terms shouldn’t count under the new settlement.
The Constitutional Court ruling — along with a national vote scheduled for April 22 in support of the plan that Putin also set as a condition — is all but certain to go the Kremlin’s way in Russia’s tightly-controlled political system. It opens the way for Putin, 67, to rule potentially to 2036, when he would be nearly 84.
Noting that the US imposed presidential term limits only in 1951 — “that’s practically yesterday in historical terms” — Putin said Russia was still strengthening its political system after the turmoil that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
In such times, “stability is probably more important and should be the priority,” he said. Once the country has become stronger, rotation of leaders “takes priority,” he added, without specifying when that would be.
“Putin is achieving his main goal of staving off the day when he will have to give up power,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of R Politik, a political consultancy. “He wants to get the elites and society used to the idea that he may stay on.”
The president addressed the State Duma after Valentina Tereshkova, a respected United Russia lawmaker who was also the first woman in space, made the proposal to reset the term limit under the revised constitution, saying “Putin needs to be there — in case something goes wrong.” Shortly after Putin spoke, the Duma passed her proposal by 380 votes to 43.
It looks that after playing with ideas of State Council and Security Council Putin has finally decided in favour of running again in 2024. Which would probably make eventual transition, whenever it happens, less smooth.
The president’s reversal of his opposition to changing term limits came as markets have been roiled by the coronavirus outbreak and the oil-price war that followed last week’s collapse of the accord on output cuts between Russia and Opec states.
The overhaul to Russia’s 1993 constitution, announced in January, was widely seen as an effort to create options for Putin to retain control even after he steps down as president.

But until Tuesday’s announcement, confusion surrounded his plans as initial expectations faded that the presidency would be weakened by moves to bolster the powers of parliament and the State Council, an advisory body that Putin heads.

The decision to turn to the Constitutional Court also followed unsuccessful Kremlin efforts to pressure neighboring Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to agree to merge his country with Russia, allowing Putin to sidestep term limits as head of the new unified state.
“He doesn’t want to become a lame duck,” said Evgeny Minchenko, a Moscow political consultant. While Putin’s likely to remain in office, the constitutional changes still “leave a lot of room for maneuver and there could be other moves.”
Putin appears to have “finally decided in favor of running again in 2024,” Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, said in a tweet. That may make the “eventual transition, whenever it happens, less smooth.”