Russian President Vladimir Putin is not pursuing efforts to stay in office once his current stint expires in 2024, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, even as lawmakers weigh amending their constitution to let leaders serve more than two consecutive terms.
“This is a constitutional question,” Mr. Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday when asked about the proposed amendment, The Moscow Times reported. “It is not an item on the president’s agenda.”
Mr. Peskov referred reporters to president’s earlier statements about staying in office, The Associated Press reported from Moscow.
“It’s a bit ridiculous,” Mr. Putin, 65, said previously. “Shall I sit here until I turn 100? No!”
Only days since being re-inaugurated to start another six years in office, however, lawmakers in the southern region of Chechnya are already advancing efforts to legally let Mr. Putin seek a third consecutive term once this one expires.
The Chechen parliament unanimously voted to draft a constitutional amendment that would let the same person remain president for three consecutive terms instead of two, and lawmakers subsequently sent the bill to Moscow to be reviewed, Russian state-owned media reported Friday.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic and a devout Putin supporter, previously endorsed letting the current president stay in office indefinitely.
“As long as our incumbent president is in good health we must not think about any other head of state. This is my personal opinion and I am not changing it. Right now there is no alternative to Putin,” he told Russian media in March. “Why can China do this and Germany can do this, but not us? If this is in the people’s interest, why can’t we make changes to the law?”
Russian law permits presidents to serve unlimited terms in office, albeit only two in a row. Mr. Putin served two consecutive four-year terms as president from 2000 through 2008, then assumed the role of prime minister before successfully reclaiming his old job in 2012 and serving another six years in the Kremlin. He was re-elected in March and started his fourth term in office earlier this month.
Mr. Putin is currently Russia’s longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin, and he’ll have spent nearly a quarter-century as either president or prime minister if he stays in office until his current term expires in six years.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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