Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt’s record-setting victory in four consecutive U.S. presidential elections to defend a surprise plan that could allow him to remain in power until 2036.
“There are precedents for elections for more than two terms, including in the United States,” said Putin Tuesday in an address to the Russian legislature. “And why? Look: the Great Depression. Huge economic problems, unemployment and poverty in the U.S. at that time, and later on, World War II. When a country is going through such upheavals and such difficulties — in our case, we have not yet overcome all the problems since the USSR. This is also clear — stability may be more important and must be given priority.”
Putin made those comments after his legislative allies unveiled a plan to scrap the Russian Constitution’s stipulation that a president shall serve no more than two consecutive terms, which would force him to leave office in 2024. The fourth-term president spent four years as prime minister after two previous terms as president.
“It will basically solidify his power, and he will be a new Stalin,” Alisa Muzergues, a foreign policy analyst at GLOBSEC in Slovakia, told the Washington Examiner.
Putin, 67, dismissed the idea of circumventing the presidential term limits in January, saying that “it would be very worrying to return to the situation of the mid-1980s” when heads of state died in office. He walked back that remark on Tuesday.
“I said then that I did not wish to return to Soviet times,” he said. “I will be straight. This remark was inappropriate because there were no elections in Soviet times. Everything was done behind the scenes or as a result of some interparty procedures or intrigues.”
Putin’s plans for the future have been a subject of intense speculation both within Russia and outside of it in recent months after he forced the mass resignation of his government and jettisoned a long-time political ally. The former KGB officer also has pressured neighboring Belarus, a former Soviet vassal state, to proceed with a plan to unite with Russia — a campaign widely perceived as an attempt to forge a new Russian state that he could continue to lead.
Some Western officials believe that Putin is “afraid to leave office” given the blood-letting that could ensue as rival Kremlin factions jockey to have their preferred candidate replace him.
Russian lawmakers ended the suspense on Tuesday when a prominent member of his United Russia Party proposed an end to the subterfuge.
“It’s not about him. It’s about us, the Russian people, and our future,” former astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, said Tuesday. “That said, why overcomplicate the matter and create unnecessary obstacles? We need to plan everything honestly and openly. … Perhaps presidential term limits should be removed from the constitution.”
Party leaders soon endorsed her suggestion, setting the stage for Putin to come to the Parliament and observe that “it would technically be possible to cancel the restriction” on his presidency. Putin, declaring himself the Parliament’s “humble servant,” backed the idea “on condition people vote … for this amendment.” But while seeking to allow himself to run again for president, Putin said he was opposed to changing the constitution that might grant unlimited numbers of terms to future presidents.
That gesture toward democracy means little, according to Muzergues, given the number of high-profile opposition leaders and journalists who have been assassinated since Putin came to national power in 1999.
“Everybody is being monitored. Everybody is being watched,” Muzergues said. “It’s hard even to say who is the real opposition and who is the controlled opposition.”
That dynamic raises the likelihood that Putin will keep power for “at least” two more terms beyond the current one, putting him on pace to surpass Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who died in office at 77 in 1982 as the oldest Russian head of state in the modern era.
“He’s quite young, especially compared to your current presidential candidates in the U.S.,” Muzergues said.
President Trump is 73, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden are already 77 and 78, respectively. “He’s now 67,” she said of Putin, “so in 2036, he will be 83, and so basically, he can easily do it.”
