Vedomosti: Putin Can Rule Russia until 2026

Below is an exclusive translation of an frightening/amusing article from Vedomosti on the perpetual power fantasies of Sergey Mironov, who hopes to see no changes in leadership for decades.

Vladimir Putin will be able to rule Russia until the year 2026 By Alexey Nikolsky Vedomosti 12:56 21.01.2008 The chairman of the Federation Council, Sergey Mironov, did not rule this out. In an interview with «Moskovsky komsomolets», published today, Mironov reported that in the autumn, «A Just Russia», as he had promised last year, will introduce a draft law on extending the term of presidential powers to 5-7 years. If the term will be extended to 7 years, Vladimir Putin will be able to be elected anew in the year 2012 and to lead the country until the year 2026, after which Dmitry Medvedev will once again be able to occupy the post of president.

Mironov declared that the idea of advancing Dmitry Medvedev as president arose “simultaneously” with him and State Duma chairman Boris Grizlov on 8 December and was proposed to Putin by telephone from Gryzlov’s office in the Duma, after which on 10 December about this was announced publicly.The introduction of such a bill in the State Duma is completely realistic, but the presentation of this idea by Mironov lowers confidence in its reliability, asserts vice-president of the Center for Political Conjuncture Vitaly Ivanov. Sergey Mironov has already not once presented “plans of the power” which later were not confirmed. Therefore, Mironov’s words can be understood as evidence that such talks are taking place upstairs, and Mironov is hurrying to stake out a claim of initiative for himself in this question. However, how this problem will be resolved in reality is something even the chairman of the Federation Council himself most likely doesn’t know, asserts the expert.Article written by a correspondent of the newspaper «Vedomosti» especially for the site vedomosti.ru.