Putin plan: more democratic?
If he became prime minister alongside a weaker president, some analysts say that would create a better balance of power.
from the October 3, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
That means Putin is leaving, but he's really going to stay, say critics. "Putin is setting things up so that he and his group will still be in power for a third term after the parliamentary and [March] presidential elections are over," says Sergei Ivanenko, deputy head of the liberal Yabloko party, which was squeezed out of parliament when United Russia swept the field in 2003. "We are against this, and all attempts to extend power," by undemocratic maneuvering, he says.
But leaders of the United Russia party, which has blanketed Moscow in recent weeks with billboards reading: "Putin's Plan Is Russia's Triumph," were jubilant.
Putin's public popularity has seldom fallen below 70 percent since he entered the Kremlin almost 8 years ago, and was holding at 80 percent in August, according to the independent Levada Center in Moscow.
"The fact that Vladimir Putin will go to elections together with the party gives us confidence that United Russia will be able to form a parliamentary majority faction in the fifth State Duma," Andrei Vorobyov, a top party official, told the independent Interfax news agency. Crucially, a two-thirds majority would enable the party to pass amendments to Russia's 1993 Constitution.
Mr. Mukhin confirms the likelihood of such amendments.
"We expect some constitutional changes that will strengthen the hand of the prime minister and weaken that of the president," he says. "Essentially, we shall see a president who concerns himself with foreign affairs and ceremonial head of state functions, while domestic policy will be handled by the government – which means Putin."
Russian law limits a president to two consecutive four-year terms of office, and Putin has insisted he will obey that rule.
But few precedents exist in Russian history for a supreme leader, at the height of his popularity and powers, to walk away from the job. Opinion surveys have shown that consistent majorities of Russians would prefer Putin to stay on as leader.
"There is a strong urge for stability among Russians," says Vyacheslav Belokrinitsky, a South Asia expert with the official Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. "The idea that Putin will still be around to steer the ship will be well received by the public. It solves the problem for him personally because, like other strong leaders, he probably can't imagine his own future not being in charge."
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