Putin’s plan to extend rule played down in Kremlin vote pitch

Bloomberg

Plans for the most sweeping changes to Russia’s constitution since it was adopted nearly 30 years ago include one big one: an amendment that could allow President Vladimir Putin remain in power until 2036.
Russian voters could be forgiven for not noticing.
In a nationwide ad campaign and the official website that explains the proposed amendments, which are subject to a national vote on July 1, there’s barely any mention of a clause that will allow Putin to reset his term-limit odometer to zero even though he’s already served four.
Instead, the ads and site — funded mainly by the government — focus on amendments that will enshrine family values and make Russian the official state language in the country’s basic law, as well as add a mention of disabled people and even animal rights.
The referendum initially seemed to be a formality after parliament and the Constitutional Court in March rubber stamped the changes that will let Putin serve two more six-year terms when his current one expires in 2024.
However, the coronavirus epidemic and related crash in oil prices caused an economic slump that hit the president’s approval ratings, according to polls from the independent Levada Center.
“They are downplaying it because there are a lot of dissatisfied people at the moment,” Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said of the move to keep
Putin in power. “The Kremlin’s strategy is to try and rally pro-government voters with traditional values.”
A May poll by Levada found only 44% of Russians said they would vote for the plans, while a survey state-run pollster Vtsiom released on June 4 put
support at 61%. The amendments must be approved by a simple majority, with turnout of at least half of voting-age Russians.
Saying the vote “is extraordinarily important for the president,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a majority of Russians support the plan. He brushed off the omissions in advertising and said “technical problems” may have been
the reason there was no mention of Putin’s term limits on the website.
“Surely there are some initiatives that aren’t mentioned in the advertisements,” Peskov said on Monday on a conference call with journalists. “You can’t call any one amendment most important. It’s a package.”
Some prominent opponents to the referendum have come under pressure from the authorities. Sociologist Nikolay Platoshkin, a politically active socialist who has called
for people to vote against the changes, was arrested last week for encouraging mass
unrest and disseminating false information.
Authorities didn’t provide details on the charges, but Platoshkin blamed them on his opposition to the referendum.