Vladimir Putin plans to run for a new term as President of Russia if the electorate makes constitutional changes that allow him to do so, Russian news agencies said in an interview on Sunday.
Russia will hold a national vote from June 2 to July 1 on the proposed changes to the constitution, adding an amendment that would allow Putin to run for two more than six years as president when his current term affects in 2024.
Opponents say the bureaucracy is designed to allow Putin to suspend force until 2036 and become a constitutional coup. The Kremlin says they have to assume the role of parliament and impose social policy and public administration.
“I do not rule out the possibility of running for office, if this (option) comes up in the constitution. We’ll see,” Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with state TV that was shown in Russia’s far east before airing in western Russia. “I have not decided anything for myself yet.”
The changes that the Russians will vote on, in a position approved by Parliament and the Constitutional Court, would set Putin’s presidential best friend to zero. He is unable to seek a new mandate to provide constitutional limits. The amendments will be widely adopted in the vote.
Putin, who has been in force for two decades and is now 67, reported that locating a candidate to succeed him can also be a distraction if he doesn’t run again.
“If this doesn’t happen, in about two years, and I know it for non-public pleasure, the normal speed of the executive’s large-block paintings can be replaced through a look at imaginable successors,” the Interfax news firm cited through saying. “We’ll have to paint, not look for successors, ” he said.