MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday that could potentially keep him in power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes approved by a vote last year.
The July 1 constitutional vote included a provision resetting the limits for Putin’s previous term, allowing him to run for president two more times. The change was stamped by the Kremlin-controlled legislature, 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 – longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin – said he would later decide whether to re-participate in 2024 as his current term of office. six years ends.
He has argued that resetting the term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their job rather than ‘shooting their eyes for possible successors’.
The constitutional amendments also emphasized the primacy of Russian law over international norms, banned same-sex marriages and listed “a belief in God” as a core value. Almost 78% of voters approved the constitutional changes in the week-long vote that ended on July 1. The turnout was 68%.
Following the vote, Russian lawmakers methodically amended national legislation and approved the relevant laws.
The opposition criticized the constitutional vote, arguing that it was affected by widespread reports of voter pressure and other irregularities, as well as a lack of transparency and barriers to independent oversight.
In the months since the vote, Russia has jailed the country’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, 44, was arrested in January on his return from Germany, where he recovered for five months from a nerve infection he blames on the Kremlin. The Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.
In February, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while recovering in Germany. The verdict stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny dismissed as fabricated – and declared illegal by the European Human Rights Court.
His team says Navalny had lost a significant amount of weight, even before starting a hunger strike on Wednesday, to protest the failure of authorities to provide proper treatment for his back and leg pain.
Navalny complained about prison officials’ refusal to give him proper medicine and to allow his doctor to visit him. He also protested the hourly checks carried out by a security guard at night, saying that this amounts to sleep deprivation.
In an Instagram post Monday, Navalny said three out of 15 people in his room in the penal colony were diagnosed with tuberculosis. He noted that he had a strong cough and a fever of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 Fahrenheit).
Later on Monday, the Izvestia newspaper released a statement from the state jail stating that Navalny had been transferred to the sanitary unit of the prison colony after an inspection found he had “signs of a respiratory illness, including a high fever.”
On a sharp note, Navalny said he and other inmates were studying a tuberculosis prevention communication that underscored the importance of boosting immunity with a balanced diet – advice that contrasted with a prison ration of “gluey porridge and frozen potatoes.”