The Russian parliament overwhelmingly backed President
Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for prime minister on Thursday after what one
daily called a “January revolution”, a major political overhaul that some say
could set Putin up as leader for life.
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave its
backing to Mikhail Mishustin, a 53-year-old with almost no political profile,
endorsing his nomination with 383 votes of 424 cast. Nobody voted against him;
there were 41 abstentions.
Mishustin, who has headed the country’s tax service and
played ice hockey with Putin, said he would name his cabinet in the near
future. Putin signed a decree appointing him prime minister soon afterwards. His elevation is part of a sweeping shake-up of the
political system announced by Putin on Wednesday, which led to the resignation
of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister along with his government.
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| Russian parliament backs Putin |
The changes are widely seen as giving Putin, 67, scope to
extend his grip on power once he leaves the presidency in 2024. He has
dominated Russian politics, as president or as prime minister, for two decades. The sudden and radical overhaul cements Putin’s control of
the transition process and is seen by some as an attempt to reduce intra-clan
infighting between now and 2024.
The abrupt departure of Medvedev’s government also allows
Putin to show he is responding to public discontent after years of
belt-tightening and an unpopular pension age hike.
Medvedev, head of the government since 2012, has been a
lightning rod for Russians’ frustrations as he has played steward to an economy
buffeted by a 2014-16 downturn, Western sanctions and swings in the price of
oil, Russia’s life blood.
Real wages have been falling for over five years and have gradually
eroded the government’s popularity ratings, raising the prospect they could
start bleeding into Putin’s own ratings, analysts and critics of the Kremlin
said.
That was seen as a concern for the Kremlin ahead of a
parliamentary election next year and as something that could make a smooth
transition for Putin harder to achieve.
“There were large suspicions that if this stagnation
continued and everything remains as it is, then the make-up of the new
(parliament) would be considerably less friendly toward the Kremlin,” said
Vladimir Tikhomirov, chief economist at the BCS Financial Group.
Critics have long accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of
plotting to stay on in some capacity after his term ends to continue to wield
power over the world’s largest nation, which is also one of its two leading
nuclear powers.
The constitutional reform proposals, which he set out on
Wednesday and suggested should be put to a referendum, would give him the
option of taking an enhanced role as prime minister after 2024 or a new role as
head of the State Council, an official body he said he was keen to build up.
Opposition politician Leonid Volkov said it looked as though
Putin was digging in.
“It’s clear to everyone that everything is going exclusively
toward setting Putin up to rule for life,” he wrote on social media.
The Kommersant business daily on Thursday called Putin’s
shake-up “the January revolution”. The proposals looked, Kommersant wrote, like
the start of many more changes to come.
Under the current constitution, which sets a maximum of two
successive terms, Putin is barred from immediately running again for the
presidency in 2024, but his supporters find it hard to imagine Russian
political life without him.
Putin remains popular with many Russians who see him as a
welcome source of stability, even as others complain that he has been in power
for too long and that their pensions and standard of living are being steadily
eroded.
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