(Newswire.net— June 22, 2020) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering joining the race for a new presidential term if voters approve the constitutional changes that will enable him to do so in a referendum, Reuters reported on Sunday, referring to Putin’s interview for state television.
Russia will hold a national declaration on the proposed changes to the constitution from June 25 to July 1, including an amendment that will allow Putin to run for two more six-year terms when his existing presidential term expires in 2024.
The opposition says the constitutional changes will guarantee Putin’s rule until 2036. According to their assessment, the constitutional changes were conceived in order to enable Putin to stay in power until 2036.
“I do not rule out the possibility of running for a new term if that option is introduced in the constitution. We will see,” Putin said in an interview with state television, which was broadcast in Russia’s the Far East – the western part of the country.
“I have not decided anything yet,” Putin added.
Constitutional changes to allow the Russian president to run for presidency once again are expected to pass in the national referendum.
The Russian president condemned the dangerous attempts to rewrite the facts about the Second World War:
“We are witnessing dangerous attempts to rewrite the facts about the Second World War and its outcome, and “today European politicians, especially the Polish leadership, want to hide the Munich betrayal under the carpet,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a review in the American newspaper Nation.
The Russian president gave, according to the American paper, a “comprehensive assessment of the legacy of World War II” and underlined that rewriting its history and the outcome of the war “is dangerous because it maliciously distorts the understanding of the principles of peaceful development.”
“The greatest historical achievement of Yalta and other decisions at that time is the agreement on the creation of a mechanism that will enable the leading forces to resolve differences through diplomacy,” Putin said.
The Russian president pointed out that the leaders of the victorious forces of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain then managed to “put true interests before different ideologies, state aspirations, interests, cultures” and were able to make an agreement from which all humanity benefited.
Putin warns that “today the world is going through turbulent times, everything is changing, from the world balance of power and influence to the social, economic and technological foundations of societies, nations and even continents.”
He notes that changes of this magnitude in the past could almost never have unfolded without major military conflicts.
The Russian president has made it clear that it is important that China, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom support Moscow’s initiative to hold a summit of the world’s five nuclear powers who are also permanent members of the UN Security Council “to consider steps to establish common principles in world affairs “.