This January, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed some reforms to the Russian Constitution, which serves to transfer power away from the presidency to the various legislative organs of the Russian government. Putin’s propositions included amendments to the two-term limit on the presidency and restricting the role of international law, something Russia has traditionally struggled with. As of now, Putin has said that he plans to step down in 2024, after a lengthy twenty-five years in power, and will serve as head of the National Security Council after the current term ends. However, since one of the proposals is to change the term limits, he could be looking to retain his presidency beyond 2024.
Along with the proposed changes to the Constitution, Putin also took an unexpected and radical move: he fired the entire Duma. The Duma is the legislature of the Russian Federation, similar to the US Congress. After outlining his plans for the Constitution in his State of the Nation speech, the entire Duma, including the prime minister and former president, Dmitry A. Medvedev, abruptly resigned. Putin has since replaced the Duma with known Putin loyalist Mikhail Mishutin, former head of the Tax Service. The official reason, given by Medvedev, for the resignation was that the Duma must “give the President of our country the opportunity to do everything necessary for this decision [to change the Constitution].”
This move has not been very popular across large segments of the Russian population. Putin is increasingly being seen as a corrupt dictator, sparking protests. Putin and his United Russia party lost popularity after they banned opposing candidates from running in local Moscow elections. After the announcement of the constitutional changes, protesters took to the streets of Moscow demanding change and for Putin to leave power. The protests were the culmination of the disillusionment of a sizable chunk of the Russian population, fed up with decades of apparent corruption and the more recent economic downturn.
As Putin makes his attempt to retain power, protests in Moscow and other major cities pop up against what critics of the regime call a “constitutional coup.” However, the opposition to Putin’s regime is fragmented, split between various slices of the political spectrum. For example, the Communist Party of Russia and the far-right Liberal Democratic Party are both considered Putin’s opposition, even though they disagree with each other on almost every level. The constitutional changes have not been passed yet; they have yet to go through the legislative process and gain the majority vote in the national referendum on April 22.
