In his lifetime
Trump must be chewing the carpet with rage that he never managed to do this: Putin passes law that benefits Putin.
Vladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow him to run for the presidency twice more in his lifetime, potentially keeping him in office until 2036.
I wish news outlets would stop saying stupidly redundant things like “in his lifetime.” Obviously in his lifetime; he’s not going to pass a law saying he can run for office after his lifetime, now is he.
But the point is: behold the man, making laws that grant him more power.
The Russian president signed the legislation on Monday, ending a year-long process to “reset” his presidential terms by rewriting the constitution through a referendum-like process that his critics have called a crude power grab.
What do his admirers call it? An elegant power grab?
Officially, the new law limits Russian citizens to two presidential terms in their lifetime, outlawing the kind of shuffling between the presidency and the role of prime minister that Putin employed earlier in his career.
But the law specifically does not count terms served until it entered into force, meaning that Putin’s past four terms (including the current term) do not count and he can still serve two more.
Yep, that’s crude all right.
And, conveniently, that leaves him plenty of more time to pass yet another law, to allow him to run for president in 2036.
I think the point of “in his lifetime” and “in their lifetimes” is to differentiate between restrictions on consecutive terms and restrictions on total terms. (Possibly also restrictions on terms within a certain period, like: can’t run again within a decade of the previous term end.) I agree the phrasing is awkward, particularly in this weirdly-constructed case.
Let’s not be hasty.
“Obviously in his lifetime; he’s not going to pass a law saying he can run for office after his lifetime, now is he.”
I think, per Christopher Hitchens, that the official leader of North Korea is still Kim Il Sung. A thanocracy, if you will. I can see Putin’s ego as being big enough?
My agents report that in the 7th basement level of the Lubyanka, Russian scientists are close to perfecting an elixir of youth. Naturally, it has not come cheap, and its distribution will be confined to he Politburo, and their familes, flunkeys, indentured servants and the rest.
Putin will of course be first in line for it, after it has been tested in the upper levels of the Lubyanka.
Russian history was ever thus.