MOSCOW, July 2 — President Vladimir Putin urged Russians to envisage the country they wanted to leave behind for their children and grandchildren during a historic vote this week to extend his rule. But experts say that by pushing back the crucial question of who could someday replace him, Putin...
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks at a polling station as he casts his ballot in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms in Moscow, July 1, 2020. — AFP pic
It was just such an era of stagnation — the infamous “period zastoya” between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s mainly under Leonid Brezhnev — that precipitated the end of the Soviet Union and threw Russia into chaos for years.“The regime’s weakness is that it doesn’t have a mechanism to transfer power,” says Maxim Trudolyubov, editor-at-large of the Meduza news website.
Then Putin, 67, backed a last-minute amendment that would zero his presidential terms limits and allow him to potentially remain in power until 2036, a move critics denounced as a ploy for him to become “president for life”.For political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, the changes went beyond just resetting Putin’s presidential term limits.
Putin’s approval rating has plummeted to historic lows of 59 per cent in recent months, partly over the government’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic but also over longstanding economic malaise. Putin “is not capable of introducing fundamental economic reforms,” says Alexander Titov, a political analyst and professor at Queen’s University in Belfast.
“Generational change is long overdue in Russia. It’s only a matter of time — when and how,” says Trudolyubov.
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