Putin’s Moves Leave Russian Opposition With Few Options

January 18, 2020 9:16 am

MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced what many see as a strategy for staying in power well past the end of his term in 2024. The proposed constitutional reforms might allow him to remain in charge as prime minister or as head of a body known as the State Council. Putin also executed a swift, unexpected reshuffle of the Russian leadership, replacing his long-serving prime minister with a low-profile official. Still, those moves didn’t elicit much public outrage. That’s very different from 2011-2012, when efforts to engineer Putin’s return to the presidency crushed Russian hopes for political reform and sparked massive protests in Moscow.