Russians back Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036

Russians overwhelmingly approved a constitutional change allowing Vladimir Putin to extend his two-decade rule until 2036.

Vladimir Putin votes in Moscow on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Russians overwhelmingly approved a package of constitutional changes in a nationwide vote, the Central Elections Commission said on Thursday, allowing President Vladimir Putin to ­potentially extend his two-decade rule until 2036.

With all votes counted, the CEC said 77.92 per cent of voters had backed the reforms, with turnout of about 65 per cent.

There had been little doubt of voters backing the changes, which Mr Putin announced earlier this year and critics denounced as a manoeuvre to allow him to stay in the Kremlin for life. But top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny slammed the results as a “huge lie” that did not reflect real public opinion.

The amendments had been passed weeks ago by Russia’s parliament and copies of the new constitution were already on sale in bookshops, but Mr Putin had said voter approval was essential to give them legitimacy.

The reforms include conservative and populist measures — like guaranteed minimum pensions and an effective ban on gay marriage — but, crucially for Mr Putin, also reset presidential limits, allowing him to run twice again after his six-year term expires in 2024.

The Kremlin pulled out all the stops to encourage voting, with polls extended over nearly a week, the last day of voting declared a national holiday and prizes — including flats, cars and cash — on offer.

Initially planned for April 22, the referendum was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic but rescheduled after Mr Putin said the epidemic had peaked and officials began reporting lower numbers of new cases.

In a final appeal to voters on Tuesday, Mr Putin said the changes were needed to ensure Russia’s future “stability, security, prosperity”.

Mr Putin voted on Wednesday night AEST at his usual polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he was handed a ballot by an electoral worker wearing a mask and gloves. Mr Putin was not wearing any protective gear.

At a polling station in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, 79-year-old Valentina Kungurtseva said she supported the reforms.

“For us as pensioners, it’s very important that they will increase our pension every year,” she said.

“As long as we have a good president, life will be good.”

In St Petersburg, 20-year-old Sergei Goritsvetov said he opposed the reforms but doubted it would make any difference. “I voted against and I hope there will be many of us, but I don’t know what it will change,” he said. “At least I expressed my opinion.”

Mr Navalny had said Mr Putin, 67 and in power as president or prime minister since 2000, wants to make himself “president for life” and called for a boycott, calling the vote illegitimate.

“We have just watched a show with a planned finale,” he wrote on his blog after polls closed.

“Putin will not leave himself, not until we begin to come out to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, by millions.”

The opposition divided and failed to mount a serious campaign, with some voting “No” and others staying home. There were only small protests in central Moscow and St-Petersburg on Wednesday. Golos, an independent election monitor, said it had received hundreds of complaints of violations, including people voting more than once and claims employers were putting pressure on staff to cast ballots. Election commission chief Ella Pamfilova denied any problems, saying only a couple of violations were confirmed and they would have no effect on the result.

Mr Putin’s approval rating stood at 60 per cent in June, ­according to pollster Levada, down 20 points from the months after his re-election in 2018.

Analysts say Mr Putin wanted to get the vote over with before Russians — already suffering from several years of falling incomes — are hit by the full economic impact of the pandemic. Mr Putin said recently he had not decided whether to run again but suggested part of the reason for the reforms was to allow Russia’s political elite to focus on governing instead of “hunting for possible successors”.

AFP