Putin signs the law that will allow him to remain in power until 2036

The approved text states that the modification does not affect the person who holds or has held the position at the time the text enters into force.

How could it be otherwise, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, today signed the law that concretizes and develops one of the main constitutional amendments approved last year, which will allow him to run for two more six-year presidential terms, in 2024 and in 2030.

This means that, if he decides to make use of such prerogative, he would continue in power until 2036, when he would turn 84.

In the midst of a debate in society, in the media, and in the elite, which intensified in the second half of 2019, Putin announced on January 15, 2020, when the then Prime Minister, Dmitri, was removed at the same time. Medvedev, who had to undertake a reform of the Russian Constitution.

The final draft was submitted to a "plebiscite", since having defined it as a referendum would have forced a much more complicated and laborious procedure to be followed, the voting of which lasted a week and was completed on July 1.

The consultation yielded a result of 77.92% votes in favor with an abstention of 67.97%, with which the Kremlin described it as "successful" and approved the new amendments.

The top Russian leader thus stamped his signature on a new Magna Carta that prohibits the "secession" and "cession" of Russian territories, grants new powers to the Council of State, modifies some of the powers of the Government, shields Russia from possible undesirable decisions international tribunals, establishes the union of a man and a woman as the only form of marriage and, the most crucial, allows the current Russian president and Medvedev, who also held the head of state, to make use of two more terms. 

All these constitutional changes are already being translated into concrete laws and now it is the turn of the one that gives Putin the green light to remain at the helm until 2036.

This new law was approved last week in both houses of the Russian Parliament. But, before the reform of last year, the Russian Magna Carta did not allow to continue in power "more than two terms in a row", which for Putin would have meant having to leave the Kremlin in 2024, although later he would have been able to choose again. the Presidency in 2030.

The current head of state was elected for the first time in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. In 2008 he handed over his position to Medvedev, who changed the Constitution so that presidential terms would go from four to six years from 2012, the year in which Putin was elected and reelected again in 2018.

So he has served a total of three presidential terms and the current one, the fourth, expires in 2024. Also, between 2008 and 2012 he held the position of prime minister.

The "eternalization"

Russia's number one opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently imprisoned with a two-year, five-month sentence, which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) defined as "politicized," has made Putin's "eternalization" his chief. a workhorse, besides corruption, which lashes in its various variants. Navalny has even called the top Russian leader "old in the bunker."

The Russian dissident last year deplored the staggered vote on constitutional amendments over seven days, according to the Kremlin, organized in this way to avoid crowds and infections.

He dismissed this procedure as a "drain" of irregularities and as a "pretext" to better rig the result of the consultation, since, according to him, it was impossible to carry out effective control of the electoral process. 

In the same vein, the Golos association, a Russian NGO dedicated to the defense of the rights of the voter, also denounced the existence of mobile polls, of people who voted more than once, and of pressure from officials to which they went to the polls.

The question of the possible permanence of Putin in power until 2036 has been the focus of analysis and speculation by experts and political scientists for a long time.

There are those who believe that the current Russian president will not continue after 2024 and that the constitutional changes are nothing more than insurance in case the political leadership does not manage to agree on a successor capable of satisfying the different factions.

Others, however, are convinced that Putin is not going to waste the opportunity to continue ruling for another twelve years. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov reported yesterday that Putin's annual "State of the Nation" speech will take place on April 21.