Putin "President" for Life? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad . . .
Filed under: Europe ~ Russia
You may remember Sergei Mironov (pictured above), Russia's equivalent to the U.S. Senate Majority Leader. When last we heard from him, he was watching approvingly whilst the security forces practiced pumping round after round into a target made out of the face of poisoned dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
Now, the wires are burning with the news that Mironov has proposed legislation to lengthen the presidential term. The AP quoted Mironov as saying: "Four years is a short period of time for a large country like Russia. It is necessary to prolong the presidential term in office to five or maybe seven years." Presumably, if the constitution is changed to permit seven-year terms, Putin will be allowed to seek at least two of them -- and who says the two term limit would necessarily be retained once Pandora's Box is opened?
The AP quoted Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office saying: "In this nation, where there is no real parliament and the Cabinet is weak, a lame duck president would mean anarchy. Putin is deliberately uncertain about his plans, and Mironov is taking part in this game which Putin needs." Apparently, support for such an idea runs wide and deep in Russia. The AP quoted Chris Weafer, chief strategist with Moscow-based Alfa Bank, stating: "If it were to become a serious issue you would have a major upspike in the stock market. The issue of the third term just won't go away -- it does seem as though there is an eternal debate in the Kremlin."
Many commentators seem to feel it would be a bad sign for democracy in Russia if Putin were to retain the official reigns of power after 2008 when his term in office must end under the current constitution. But they could be wrong. If Putin stays in office, that likely means he is so unsure of the anti-democratic changes he has wrought that he feels he must stay personally in place to preserve them. If he's willing to walk away from the formal corridors of power even though he doesn't have to, that may well mean he's so sure the forces of democratic action have been silenced in Russia that there is nothing to worry about.
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