If Russia's elites were to choose a new successor, Vladimir Putin would be vulnerable. His constitutional ploy eliminates such a risk
becoming president in 2000, the 48-year-old Vladimir Putin pondered how he would one day leave office. Riding in a presidential limousine through Moscow at night, he confided to an interviewer: “I very much hope that one day I will manage to go back to a normal life and that I will have some private future. I can’t say that the life of a monarch inspires me. A democracy is much more viable.”
Mr Putin’s other amendments curb the power of parliament and courts and position him as “not only the head of the state but the head of the executive branch as well, attributing to him the co-ordination of all public authorities and affirming his dominance in the judiciary”, as Mr Rogov explains. The power-grab is shrouded in the language of God, tradition, heterosexual families and Russia’s great victory in the second world war .
agent, he defined his role not merely as the defender of the constitution , but “the guarantor of the country’s security, domestic stability and evolutionary development”—evolutionary because “Russia had its share of revolutions.” It hardly needed saying that he was the only man capable of averting such mortal dangers. Still, it was said, and by none other than Valentina Tereshkova, a famous Soviet cosmonaut who is now anaged 83.
While Mr Putin’s intention of staying in power was never much in doubt, the timing and the rush with which the changes to the constitution have unfolded have been striking. Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist, attributes this in part to the mood of Russia’s elite, who were feeling nervous about their own future. Mr Putin’s cronies depend on him for their positions. Uncertainty about his plans makes them fearful of losing their money, status and possibly their freedom.
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