AGAINST PUTIN: A woman in St. Petersburg holds up a poster urging people to boycott the referendum – along with a photo of Vladimir Putin as a tsar. Foto: ANATOLY MALTSEV / EPA
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Russia says yes to new constitution, shows the census after the referendum. That means Vladimir Putin (67) can continue as president until 2036. Opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyj (44) is furious.
77.9 per cent voted in favor of the amendments to the Constitution, while 21.2 per cent voted no. The turnout was 65 per cent, despite being lured with prizes such as apartments and cars in a lottery for those who came to the polling stations.
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The referendum means nothing formal, but has great symbolic value for Putin.
Opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyj called in advance to boycott the election and snicker at the election result.
– The results of the poll are false and a big lie. It has nothing to do with what the Russian people mean, says Navalnyj on their own youtube channel.
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“The only goal for Putin and his corruption friends is to govern for life, to have the whole country as his personal asset and to secure the country’s assets for himself and his friends,” says corruption hunter Navalnyj.
He notifies demonstrations this fall when the corona restrictions are over. It also confirms one of Navalnyj’s closest advisers, Polina Kostyleva, to VG.
“It can happen spontaneously, without the permission of the authorities,” she says.
The election observation group Golos believes there have been a number of violations of the election rules, but the presidential council has dismissed 90 percent of this as “fake news”.
Early Thursday morning Norwegian news agency Tass reports that the Election Commission in Moscow’s Ramenki district has reviewed a video from an election room and revealed errors in voting and counting of votes.
– The Commission has decided to declare the results of the vote on amendments to the Russian Constitution from polling station 2783 to invalid, says leader Aleksey Venediktov.
—Foto: Alexei Druzhinin / Pool Sputnik Kremlin
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Considering re-election
The new constitution means that Putin’s four presidential periods are now “nullified” – so that he can be re-elected in 2024 and 2030. He may thus be sitting as president until 2036 (then he will be 83 years, while life expectancy for a Russian man is 66 years). Putin has been Russia’s strong man ever since New Year’s Eve 1999, when Boris Yeltsin chose to retire.
Putin admitted in a TV interview on Rossija-1 last Sunday that he is considering re-election in 2024, but that he has not yet decided.