Russian President Vladimir Putin could stay leader of Russia for many years to come.
The Russian parliament passed a constitutional amendment that would allow Putin to run for two more terms as president, altering current laws preventing him in 2024 from running for his third presidential term in a row and his fifth overall. A Russian lawmaker proposed the change on Tuesday.
The State Duma passed the changes by a large margin with 383 votes. No lawmaker voted against the measure. The upper house, the Federation Council, passed the amendments with 160 voting in the affirmative, three abstentions, and only one vote against the measure.
Putin drew comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms as president during a speech before Russian lawmakers on Tuesday.
“There are precedents for elections for more than two terms, including in the United States,” he said. “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.”
Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of the upper house, referred to Putin by his first and middle name and said he has “raised the country from its knees” to argue for the changes, according to Reuters.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich must have the right to run in new competitive nationwide elections,” Matviyenko said. “We must recognize what was done by Vladimir Vladimirovoch Putin for the country’s development in the last 20 years. He has raised the country from its knees.”
Now that the measures have passed parliament, they must be approved by the Constitutional Court, although that is largely seen as a formality. From there, the country will hold a nationwide vote on the changes.
If it is enacted, Putin’s term limit would be reset, and he would be free to run for two additional six-year terms.
Putin, 67, was president for two terms from 2000 to 2008 and then used Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a one-term holdover to break up the term limitation. Putin regained power in 2012 and started a new eight-year cycle.
In January, Medvedev and his cabinet resigned, and Putin spoke about amending the constitution to give more power to prime ministers and Cabinet members.
The move was seen as a means of potentially weakening the presidency so that he could maintain control of the nation’s government, although those notions are now fading as speculation grows of him trying to remain president beyond 2024. In addition to the term-limit reset, the changes passed this week include measures to do the opposite and move to strengthen the presidency.
Additionally, the changes prioritize Russian law over international law, ban same-sex marriage, and add “a belief in God” to Russia’s traditional values.
If Putin is elected to two more terms, he has the potential to rule Russia for 36 years, which would make him the longest-serving leader of Russia since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
