MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law allowing him to hold power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes approved in a vote last year.
The July 1 constitutional vote included a provision that reset Putin’s previous term limits, allowing him to run for president twice. The amendment was stamped by the Kremlin-controlled legislator and the relevant law signed by Putin was posted on an official legal information portal on Monday.
The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades – more than any other Kremlin leader under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin – said he would later decide whether to run again. 2024, when his current six-year term ends.
He claimed that the reset of the counting period was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their work, instead of “looking for possible successors”.
The constitutional amendments also emphasized the primacy of Russian law over international norms, banned same-sex marriage and mentioned “a belief in God” as a core value. Almost 78% of voters approved the constitutional changes during the week-long election, which ended on July 1. The participation was 68%.
Following the vote, the Russian parliamentarians methodically amended the national legislation, approving the relevant laws.
The opposition has criticized the constitutional vote, arguing that it has been tainted by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities, as well as a lack of transparency and obstacles to independent monitoring.
In the months leading up to the vote, Russia imprisoned the country’s most important opposition figure, Alexei Navalny,
Navalny, 44, was arrested in January on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nervous breakdown he blames on the Kremlin. The Russian authorities rejected the accusation.
In February, Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating probation during his convalescence in Germany. The sentence comes from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny rejected as fabricated – and which the European Court of Human Rights ruled to be illegal.
His team says Navalny lost a substantial amount of weight just before the hunger strike began on Wednesday to protest the authorities’ failure to provide adequate treatment for back and leg pain.
Navalny complained about the refusal of prison officials to administer the appropriate medication and allow the doctor to visit him. He also protested against the hourly checks a guard makes at night, saying it was a lack of sleep.
On Monday, in an Instagram post, Navalny said that three of the 15 people in his room in the criminal colony were diagnosed with tuberculosis. He mentioned that he had a strong cough and a fever of 38.1 Celsius (100.6 Fahrenheit).
Later on Monday, the newspaper Izvestia carried a statement from the state penitentiary service in which it said that Navalny was moved to the health unit of the prison colony, after a check found him with “signs of a respiratory disease, including high fever” .
In a scathing note, Navalny said he and other inmates had studied an opinion on tuberculosis prevention, stressing the importance of strengthening immunity with a balanced diet – advice that contrasts with a prison ration of “glue-like porridge and frozen potatoes.”