Vladimir Putin has already chosen new prime minister

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Vladimir Putin has already chosen new prime minister

2:40 CAT | 17 Jan 2020

[Photo file: O País]

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has already chosen a new prime minister: 53-year-old economist, Mikhail Mishustin, head of the Russian Federal Tax Service since 2010, who worked in information technology during the 1990s.

Mishustin was Putin’s choice to succeed Dmitri Medvedev, who resigned Wednesday to “facilitate” a constitutional overhaul that could allow Putin to stay in Russia’s presidential palace a while longer.

Putin and Mishustin met in the Kremlin, where the Russian president “suggested he take over as head of government”. According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Mikhail Mishustin has accepted the post.

Mishustin will now seek parliamentary approval in a vote next week. United Russia party leader Sergei Neverov has told the Russian media he will review Mishustin’s candidacy on Thursday, but it is unclear when the Duma plans to vote.

According to the resigning prime minister, proposed amendments to the Fundamental Law, if adopted, “will bring substantial changes not only to a number of articles of the Constitution, but to the balance of powers”.

Vladimir Putin was first elected to the leadership of the government in August 1999. He served two terms and, as the Russian constitution does not allow a third, campaigned for Dmitri Medvedev who, one day after being elected, elected him as prime minister.

He regained the presidency in 2012, and now seems to want to stay beyond 2024, the end of his fourth term in the Kremlin.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is unequivocal, saying that Putin’s “only goal” is to stay in office for the rest of his life.

Source: O País