Is Putin getting an opening to return as president?
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MOSCOW: The Kremlin's plan to extend the term of the Russian presidency to six years from four years received final legislative backing on Monday, but speculation over what the change meant for Vladimir Putin's future showed no signs of abating.
Both Putin, the prime minister and former president, and his protégée, President Dmitri Medvedev, have said the longer term is intended to strengthen the presidency. In recent weeks, they have both brushed aside questions about whether its real goal is to pave the way for Putin to return to the presidency relatively soon.
The speculation is that Medvedev would resign in the coming months and cede the post to Putin, who could then serve for six years.
On Monday, after the upper house of Parliament acted on the constitutional revision, the chamber's speaker, Sergei Mironov, a close Putin ally, also sought to dampen questions about the proposal.
"The fact that these changes are being carried out in the first year of a presidency and of a Parliament," Mironov said, "indicates that they are not opportunistic, not occurring because of impending elections and not aimed at specific people. They respond to a request of Russian society for the stability of government and political development."
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Medvedev introduced the proposal in November, only six months after taking office. He also called for increasing the term of members of Parliament to five years from four years. Medvedev was elected president with the endorsement of Putin, who was barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive presidential term.
The two have been ruling as a tandem, though Putin is widely considered Russia's paramount leader.
The Kremlin pushed Medvedev's proposal assertively, and it encountered little opposition as it was approved by Parliament and regional legislatures.
Still, people in political circles have continued to debate it, in part because Medvedev introduced it so soon after taking power. The conjecture has only deepened with the financial crisis, which has touched off a wave of capital flight from the country, reversing years of strong growth when the price of oil was high.
The prime minister, rather than the president, has traditionally received the blame in Russia in times of national distress, and some analysts have said Putin would prefer not to continue in the job for that reason during the financial crisis.
"The goal of the 'amendments' special operation was to rescue the national leader from the prime minister's responsibility for the state of economy and give him a chance to dance at the new old post," Andrei Piontkovsky, a Kremlin critic, wrote on Monday in Grani.ru, an online journal.
Anti-graft laws advance
Senators passed anti-corruption laws proposed Monday by Medvedev, but some lawmakers expressed doubts that the measures would be successful after being watered down, Reuters reported from Moscow.
Corruption is widespread in Russia and many Russians mistrust the state.
The anti-corruption bill, approved earlier by the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, was backed by 139 members of the upper house, or Federation Council. One senator voted against and two abstained.
Some senators, usually loyal to the president, said the changes offered few weapons for fighting graft.
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