Russia’s Constitution will be amended by year’s end to extend the presidential term to six years, lawmakers have promised — a move that could pave the way for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin.
It would be the first change to the Russian Constitution since its adoption in 1993. A six-year term could mean 12 more years as president for Putin, who has not ruled out getting his old job back.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin protege, had suggested raising the term from four years to six on Wednesday in his first state of the nation address.
The respected business daily Vedomosti quoted an unnamed Kremlin official as saying Medvedev may even step down as early as next year to get Putin back at the helm.
“Under this scenario, Medvedev could resign early, citing changes to the Constitution, and then presidential elections could take place in 2009,” the paper said son Thursday.
Spokesmen for Putin and Medvedev could not be reached on Thursday.
Vedomosti reported that Putin’s spokesman denied that the term extension was designed was linked to Putin’s return.
Work on the amendments has already begun in the State Duma, parliament’s lower house, speaker Boris Gryzlov said on Thursday.
As Russia’s president for eight years, Putin had declined to amend the Constitution to allow himself a third consecutive term or to extend the length of his term. Vedomosti said this unpopular task may have been given to Medvedev, a former law professor who professes deep respect for the law.
Regardless of his title, Putin has continued to wield significant power in Russia since leaving the Kremlin in May.
A constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house, where pro-Kremlin parties dominate. It would then need to be approved by two-thirds of Russia’s regional legislatures, which also would not be expected to pose any difficulties for the Kremlin.
While supporters said there was nothing undemocratic about a six-year presidential term, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov called the plan “extremely dangerous.”
“It is directed at the perpetuation of Putinism,” Nemtsov said at a news conference, defining Putinism as “corruption, inflation and international isolation.”
Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, a prominent anti-Kremlin activist, said the move was a sign the Kremlin was afraid of Russia’s increasingly emboldened opposition movement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing