Grandpa Volodya?
Filed under: Russia
We've previously reported on the effort by senior Russian legislator Sergei Mironov, equivalent to the U.S. majority leader in Russia, to foment a change in the Russian Constitution that would allow Vladimir Putin to remain in office indefinitely. Radio Free Europe has now reported that Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is also in favor of the move, noting "there are no two-term limits for heads of government in Britain or Germany, or heads of state in France" and asking: "Why should we model ourselves on a dubious American democracy that has existed for only 250 years?" It may (or may not) be of interest to Mayor Luzhkov to know that the current forms of government in Germany and France are far younger than America's, and that the American Constitution is only 220 years old. Knowledge of facts, of course, has never been a long suit of the average Russian ruler.
RFE reports that Mironov is now laying out the specifics of his plan, and indicates that 59% of Russians favor vesting Putin with eternal power. According to RFE:
In order to change the constitution, which currently limits the president to two consecutive four-year terms, two-thirds of the Duma and three-fourths of the Federation Council must approve the amendment -- as does two-thirds of the country's regional legislatures. The legislative dominance of the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party could easily ensure the amendment's approval, although party leader and Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, among others, for now remains publicly opposed to the constitutional changes. But assuming the proposal gets full legislative support, the process of amending the constitution, Mironov says, can begin as late as November and be concluded long before the March 2008 presidential vote.
Like sheep, Russia's pundits and leading politicians are supporting Mironov. RFE reports:
The Duma's first deputy speaker, Lyubov Sliska -- an influential member of Unified Russia -- likewise backs Mironov's proposal. So do newly inaugurated Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, Deputy Justice Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov, and other federal and regional politicians from Unified Russia. Writing on the "Yezhednevny Zhurnal" website on April 9, political analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky said the current debate over the third term should be taken seriously as a logical extension of long-standing regimes in the Russian regions. He cites, among others, Orel Oblast Governor Yegor Stroyev, Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev, Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov, and the governors of Novgorod, Omsk, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Yaroslavl oblasts -- all of whom have been in power for at least 16 years. "The unlimited term system of power has already been operational for a long time," Radzikhovsky said.
Commentators in the West are already comparing Putin's rule, and the West's response to it, with that of "Grandpa Joe" Stalin.
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