A proposal submitted to the Russian parliament would scrap the constitutional limit of two consecutive presidential terms, enabling Vladimir Putin to remain in power past 2024.
The proposal published on the State Duma website on May 18 would restrict presidents to three straight terms instead of two. It comes less than two weeks after Putin started a new six-year term as president -- his second in a row and fourth overall.
It was submitted by the legislature in Chechnya -- a region whose head, Ramzan Kadyrov, has repeatedly pledged his loyalty to Putin and said he should rule for life.
Putin, 65, has been president or prime minister since 1999. Facing the limit of two straight terms in 2008, he steered ally Dmitry Medvedev into the presidency and served for four years as prime minister before returning to the Kremlin in 2012.
Elected again on March 18, in a vote that opponents said was marred by fraud and international observers said deprived voters of a genuine choice, Putin would be barred from running again in 2024 under the existing constitution.
That barrier has led to widespread speculation about Putin's future moves, with many analysts predicting he will seek a way to keep a hold on power after his current term. The most straightforward path would be to change the constitution.
When lawmakers in Chechnya announced plans for the proposal earlier in April, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue was not on Putin's agenda and that Putin had made his position on changing the constitution clear in the past.
On the day he was elected, Putin said he had no plans to change the constitution "for now."
He also laughed off a suggestion that he might take a six-year break before seeking the presidency again in 2030, when he would be 77 at the time of the vote.
"It's a bit ridiculous. Let's do the math. Shall I sit here until I turn 100? No!" Putin said at the time.
