Putin Preparing to be President of Russia Again?

Not so long ago, a relatively young, newly elected president of Russia was presented with a proposal to amend the nation’s constitution and extend the four-year term of the presidency.

His response was unequivocal. “The terms of presidential authority will not be changed under the current president,” Vladimir Putin said in 2001, his second year in office, arguing that amendments to the constitution “dictated by political considerations” were dangerous. “Even in the most difficult times and times of crisis,” he said, “those in power did not succumb to the temptation to correct the constitution for themselves. In the end, this was for the good.” Putin repeated the pledge on the eve of his second term, saying the constitution should be left “untouched.”

Now, months after leaving office and becoming prime minister, Putin is helping another relatively young, newly elected Russian president do exactly what he promised never to do himself — rewrite the constitution to extend the presidential term. The abrupt reversal has sparked speculation in Moscow about whether Putin is preparing to take back his old job as president, and why. Story

To my Russian friends: This is not how a democracy is supposed to be executed. You are supposed to put a constitution in place and live with your choices. Not bastardize your most important document to make it fit your agenda. Just to give you an idea what I mean, we keep ours under twelve inches of glass with armed guards around it. Seems like you guys have yours out on a drafting table and it’s written in pencil.

Looking in from the outside, it doesn’t appear as if you are serious about this whole democracy thing. Can you not find another leader with the same attributes as Putin or is it that he in particular is that strong of a presence both at home and on the world stage that you would allow this type of behavior?

Because honestly, even with your military might the stronghold your country currently enjoys on oil and gas distribution throughout Europe, Russia is still looked upon politically as something of a farce by the West. Foreign investment is beginning to take another look at their exposure in a country that could just as easily revert back to communism while it continues to wrangle with implementing a full blown democracy.

Not to mention the subtle and not so subtle attempts to roll-up former satellite countries back into Russian control makes the rest of us even more skittish. Then there’s Russia’s rants toward the United States which included a speech just hours after Barack Obama was elected president by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who threatened to deploy short-range, high-precision missiles in Kaliningrad which happens to be positioned in a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea located between Poland and Lithuania, two NATO allies - if the Obama administration proceeded with the missile shield.

While I remember distinctly watching Boris Yeltsin jumping up and down on a tank during the failed coup in 1991 I can’t help but replay the words be careful what you wish for because you just may get it in my head. Democracy isn’t free, it isn’t easy, and it should be taken seriously.