Russian parliament approves longer presidential terms

Russian lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill extending presidential terms, after a speech on the economy by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin revived speculation over his political ambitions. The bill, which sailed through the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, would extend presidential terms from four to six years and would be the first change to Russia's post-Soviet constitution adopted in 1993.
The reform was proposed little more than two weeks ago by President Dmitry Medvedev, who said it would strengthen political stability, and has since been rushed through parliament amid a spiralling economic crisis. Friday's vote was the third and final reading of the bill in the Duma, where 392 deputies voted in favour and only 57 voted against. The body is dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
Only members of the opposition Communist Party, which has a minority in the parliament, voted against the changes on Friday. Communists have previously complained that the changes are part of an "authoritarian" trend in Russia. "The immovability of the powers-that-be is building up the problems," Nikolai Kolomeitsev, a member of parliament from the Communist Party, told AFP, referring to Russia's mounting financial and economic difficulties.
The legislation now needs to be approved by the upper house, where it is expected to pass easily, and by two-thirds of regional legislatures in a process that one of the bill's proponents estimated would take around a month. The parliamentary session came a day after a congress of United Russia in which Putin, the party's chairman, gave a wide-ranging speech on how the government would deal with the effects of the global financial crisis.
"Putin took the political initiative and responsibility" by giving a speech at the party congress "that was meant to be given by Medvedev," the Vedomosti daily newspaper reported Friday, citing political analyst Dmitry Badovsky. The extension of presidential terms has been seen by some analysts as paving the way for Putin's return to the presidency after he left in May having served the maximum two consecutive terms allowed by the constitution.
"The haste in which the Duma adopted this reform leads one to think that the authorities are speeding up to prepare a return to the Kremlin for Putin," said Yevgeny Volk from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think tank. Vedomosti earlier this month cited two Kremlin sources saying that Medvedev would resign soon after the approval of the amendments and that Putin would then run in a presidential election next year.