On Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation which formalizes the possibility that he could run for two more six-year presidential terms if he chose.
It’s part of a long-in-process overhaul of the Russian Constitution which the population approved overwhelmingly in a nationwide vote last year. Despite his not indicating plans for another presidential bid, he could now theoretically stay in power until 2036. He would be 83-years old that year.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing him to run for two more terms in the Kremlin once his current term ends in 2024, a document posted on a government website showed on Monday,” Reuters confirms further.
The law now in effect basically “resets” his number of terms already served, which considerably stretches all the way back to 2000.
If it actually happened this would put him up there in Russian history as among the top three longest rulers… to review:
Having first been sworn in office in 2000, Putin served two four-year terms in a row. Hitting the logjam of a ban on three consecutive terms, Putin put Dmitry Medvedev in office as president while effectively ruling Russia in the capacity of prime minister. While Putin was serving as prime minister, Russia’s presidential term was extended to six years. In 2012, Putin rose back to power and won another election in 2018. If Putin stays in power until 2036, it will get closer to the ruling years of Russia’s founding emperor Pyotr Alekseevich (43 years from 1672 to 1725.), far exceeding Joseph Stalin’s 31 years in dictatorship from 1922 to 1953, according to CNN.
The last indicator of his Putin’s intentions came last summer, when he said: “I do not rule out the possibility of running for office, if this comes up in the Constitution. We’ll see.”
He had added at a moment the new Constitution was headed to a vote that “I have not decided anything for myself yet,” according to state television interview statements at the time.
The Biden White House could actually make his extending his rule as president more of a likelihood. As relations between the US and Russia continue to deteriorate, with Biden in an interview last month agreeing that Putin is a “killer” who is “soul-less”, the Russian population will probably gravitate toward desiring a ‘strong’ and ‘proven’ leader that can stand up to the West, and to Washington in particular.