SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that could keep him in office in the Kremlin until 2036, according to the government.
The 68-year-old Russian leader, who has already been in power for more than two decades, signed off on the bill Monday, according to a copy posted on the government’s legal information portal, AFP reported.
The legislation allows him to run for two more six-year terms once his current stint ends in 2024. It follows changes to the constitution last year, Reuters said.
Those changes were backed in a public vote last summer and could allow Putin, 68, to potentially remain in power until the age of 83. He is currently serving his second consecutive term as president and his fourth in total.
The reform, which critics cast as a constitutional coup, was packaged with an array of other amendments that were expected to garner popular support, such as one bolstering pension protections.
The law signed by Putin limits any future president to two terms in office, but resets his term count. It prevents anyone who has held foreign citizenship from running for the Kremlin.
The legislation was passed in the lower and upper houses of parliament last month.
Putin was first elected president in 2000 and served two consecutive four-year terms. His ally Dmitry Medvedev took his place in 2008, which critics saw as a way around Russia’s limit on two consecutive terms for presidents.
While in office, Medvedev signed off on legislation extending terms to six years starting with the next president.
Putin then returned to the Kremlin in 2012, winning re-election in 2018.
Kremlin opponents have criticised the legislation allowing him to run for two more terms, calling it a pretext to allow Putin to become “president for life”.
