Putin Has a Plan to Keep Running Russia Without Being President

Eight years ago, Vladimir Putin appeared to shed tears of relief as he thanked Russians for reelecting him president, despite a stint as prime minister that was marred by the biggest protests against his rule. By 2018, after he stormed to a second consecutive presidential term allowed under the constitution, there was more than a hint of inevitability to his being at the helm. He’s managed to run the country since 1999 by shifting back and forth between being prime minister and president to skirt term limits. When one reporter asked if he would return to the Kremlin in 2030 after he steps down from the presidency in 2024—the quarter-century point of his domination of Russia—Putin shot back defensively, “Am I supposed to be president until I am 100 years old?”

That’s become the question, however, as Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin moved on Jan. 15 to secure his power—possibly for life. He proposed sweeping changes to the 1993 constitution that would allow him to stay in charge even if he’s not president by boosting the powers of Russia’s parliament and the State Council, an advisory body. Under measures to be rushed through parliament by spring, the president will be weakened, limited to two terms total instead of two consecutive terms, a loophole Putin exploited. The State Duma, the legislature’s lower chamber, will get to approve ministers on the prime minister’s instructions, taking that privilege away from the president. “The State Council becomes something like a collective presidency,” says Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council. Putin could become State Council head, parliament speaker, or take another influential post—and rule without being president.