On Wednesday, after learning that Russian President Vladimir Putin was proposing reforms that would strengthen the prime minister’s role after rumors that Putin was planning to shift to Prime Minister, the entire Russian government chucked Putin the deuces and bounced.
Live footage of the entire Russian government:
Because Putin’s reign in office—much like someone else we know—is diabolical AF, he didn’t even give a shit that his entire government just quit on him and reportedly thanked them for their work, adding that “not everything worked out,” CNN reports. Putin did claim that he would meet with each member of the cabinet and probably threaten the shit out them. CNN notes that the mass exodus includes Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
From CNN:
The surprise announcement came after Putin proposed constitutional amendments that would strengthen the powers of the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the presidency.
Handing parliament more power at the expense of presidential authority could signal a power shift that has been long speculated about in Russia.
Putin’s critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain his grip on control after 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended powers. Similarly, in 2008 Putin swapped places with the prime minister to circumvent the constitutional provision banning the same person from serving two consecutive terms.
Medvedev issued a statement on Russian TV about the entire damn government rolling out and made clear that the move was directly related to Putin’s constitutional reforms.
Putin “outlined a number of fundamental changes to the constitution, significant changes not only to a number of articles of the constitution, but also to the balance of power as a whole,” Medvedev said in his statement.
“In this context, it’s obvious that we, as the government...should provide the president of our country with the opportunity to make all the decisions necessary for this. And in these conditions, I believe that it would be right, in accordance with Section 117 of the constitution,” for the government to resign, Medvedev added, CNN reports.
Putin conceded that a president shouldn’t serve more than two consecutive terms, so to continue his stranglehold on Russian politics, the workaround was to give “power to select the prime minister and cabinet from the president to the parliament.”
“I know that a constitutional provision is being discussed in our society that the same person should not be president for more than two consecutive terms,” Putin said in his annual address to the Federal Assembly earlier Wednesday, CNN reports. “I don’t think this is a fundamental issue, but I agree with that,” he said.
“I propose...entrusting the State Duma with the power to approve the candidacy of the prime minister, and then, per the prime minister’s proposal, [appoint] all deputy prime ministers and federal ministers,” Putin said. “In this case, the president will be obliged to appoint them, that is, he will not have the right to reject parliament-approved candidacies.”
The current constitution allows the president to choose all deputies and ministers but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that Putin would maintain power, so, of course, he’s not with that. Now only if America would follow suit.