Posted on 07/02/2020 6:32:04 AM PDT by Salman
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians opened the door to Vladimir Putin staying in power until 2036 by voting overwhelmingly for constitutional changes that will allow him to run again for president twice, but critics said the outcome was falsified on an industrial scale.
Official results published on Thursday, after 100% of ballots had been counted, showed that the former KGB officer who has ruled Russia for more than two decades as president or prime minister had easily won the right to run for two more six-year terms after the current one ends in 2024.
That means Putin, 67, could rule until the age of 83.
The Central Election Commission said 77.9% of votes counted across the world’s largest country had supported changing the constitution. Just over 21.2% had voted against, it said.
Ella Pamfilova, head of the commission, said the vote had been transparent and that officials had done everything to ensure its integrity.
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny had a different view and called the vote an illegitimate and illegal show designed to legalise Putin’s presidency for life.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
So, they’ve come full circle. It’s back to the Romanov Dynasty.
Remember the good old days when Putin at least pretended to follow their Constitution, and became Prime Minister for a term between stints as President?
Once he got put in, he liked it so much he didn’t want to get put out.
He’ll be 80.
I see what you did there. Very good.
The package contains over 100 individual amendments, with the ones the media is myopically focusing on resetting the term clock for the president. What they don't mention is that the office of the presidency is significantly modified (weakened in several ways). Others include permanently defining marriage as been one man and one woman, guaranteeing that any government pension (like SS) is indexed to cost of living, forbidding foreign bank accounts and/or foreign citizenship for civil servants (anti-corruption), and requiring that the president has never had a foreign citizenship and has lived in Russia for at least 25 years.
This was passed through a rigorous constitution process going back almost a year, and the vote was not actually necessary for validity under the current constitution, but Putin insisted that the people have a say. This thing was a slam-dunk in Russia. People consider it a much needed modernization, especially since the main constitution was passed in a hurry in a time of serious strife (1993).
Lol. Remember the good old days when president Obama strictly followed the mighty Constitution and nobody had problem with it.
He should really just change his name to Czar Vlad I.
“Opposition politician Alexei Navalny had a different view and called the vote an illegitimate and illegal show designed to legalise Putin’s presidency for life.”
......
The stupid stooge is very popular in anti-Trump MSM.
Putin is IMO the most influential and powerful Russian leader in history, even outdoing Peter the Great and Stalin.
Unbelievable, that people support a “president” for life.
So? There are lawmakers for life in America. And the chief justice of the supreme court for life, for example, the good old John Roberts.
Those lawmakers for life in the US are a good argument for term limits and a stupid argument to allow the president to be in office for life. President for life Obama?
How nice...lol
How about those the presidents for life who got backed by America? Chiang Kai-shek (in Taiwan), Rhee Syngman and Park (South Korea),...etc?
Papa Doc Duvalier?
and Stalin against Hitler. Its foreign policy. The enemy of my enemy. That does not mean that a "president" for life is the most desirable option for governing a country.
Allowing even the possibility of an 83 year old Putin to run Russia is stupid.
Government isn’t “One Size Fits All”, what works for us requires a different kind of society than what Russia has.
And frankly, I’m not so sure our modern society can handle our system of Government, given recent events.
lately, I've admired Russia more than my fellow Americans...
it used to be we were the good guys....now, not so much....a lot of Americans make me ashamed...
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