Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that could keep him in office until 2036, the government said on Monday.
The legislation allows him to run for two more terms, each being six-year, once his current stint lou in 2024. In accordance to the changes to the constitution last year.
Those changes were backed in a public vote last summer.
Putin took part in the signing ceremony of the general agreement between the All-Russian unions of trade unions, employers and the government of the Russian Federation, via a video conference call, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on March 31, 2021.
Putin, 68, is currently serving his second consecutive term as president and his fourth in total. the constitutional changes backed by public vote last summer can potentially extend his power until the age of 83.
The reform, which critics cast as a constitutional coup, was packaged with an array of other amendments that were expected to garner popular support, such as one bolstering pension protections.
Although the law signed by Putin resets his term count, it limits any future president to two terms in office. It also prevents anyone who has held foreign citizenship from running for the Kremlin.
The legislation was passed in the lower and upper houses of parliament last month.
