Putin: Russia’s Prime Minister?

Russian President Vladimir Putin will head the United Russia party in December elections, assuring that after leaving office, he will maintain power as Prime Minister.

While people searched all day Monday for results from the extremely close parliamentary election in Ukraine (and we are still waiting for the final results), Vladimir Putin surprisingly announced his agreement to head the federal list of Russia’s largest political party, United Russia, in the upcoming December State Duma elections.

Why is this announcement a big deal? Putin has found a way to change the country’s political system without changing the Constitution. The Russian Constitution prevents Putin from running for a third consecutive term as President, but does not preclude him from becoming Prime Minister, which will happen if United Russia wins the election. The Russian people seem to love Putin, so this move virtually insures United Russia’s victory in the election.

The interesting twist is that Putin now has freedom to pick his presidential successor. We could see several things happen:

1. There is a good chance that Putin will back someone who will function somewhat like his presidential puppet.
2. Whoever Putin chooses as his successor may cede some of the presidential power to the Prime Minister.
3. Would Putin be daring enough to have his successor assassinated? According to Russian law, if something were to happen to the President, The Prime Minister ascends to the presidency. Putin has been suspected of having people killed, and while shocking, I would not be surprised to see the new Russian President die in office.

We will have to wait and see what develops after the December election, but the winning party is already known. The only question is who will succeed Putin as President in March.