Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Screens display the vote results during a session of Russia's lower house of parliament, which give an approval to constitutional changes in a final reading in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 10:52:12Z
52780655478142

Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Screens display the vote results during a session of Russia's lower house of parliament, which give an approval to constitutional changes in a final reading in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 10:39:46Z
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Putin doesn't rule out another presidential run amid amendment that would 'reset' terms to zero - Fox News

Russian President Vladimir Putin practically has been in office for more than 20 years — and he is not ruling out staying a little longer.

Putin, whose current term ends in 2024, served two presidential terms in 2000-2008, before shifting to the Russian prime minister’s office while protégé Dmitry Medvedev served as a placeholder president.

He reclaimed the presidency in 2012 and won another election in 2018. He would need to step down in four years after having two consecutive terms - according to the current constitution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a session prior to voting for constitutional amendments at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 10, 2020.(Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

RUSSIA'S VLADIMIR PUTIN PROPOSES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS MENTIONING GOD, TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

But lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled State Duma are considering a proposal submitted this week to amend the constitution and basically allow “resetting to zero” the number of presidential terms.

“I propose to either lift the presidential term limit or add a clause that after the revised constitution enters force, the incumbent president, just like any other citizen, has the right to seek the presidency,” lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova said to raucous applause.

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to have flown in space and a lawmaker with Russia's ruling party, proposed Tuesday to scrap presidential term limits in order to allow Russia President Vladimir Putin to run for re-election in 2024. (The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation via AP)

On Tuesday, Putin gave his support to the amendment put forward by Tereshkova, who as a Soviet cosmonaut in 1963 became the first woman to fly to space.

In a speech, the 67-year-old Putin, who is Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, spoke against scrapping presidential term limits altogether. But he backed the idea that if the constitution is revised, a two-term limit should only apply from 2024 on.

THOUSANDS IN MOSCOW PROTEST CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES SEEN AS PUTIN POWER GRAB

He said he is aware of public calls for him to stay on as president and emphasized that Russia needs stability above all.

“The president is a guarantor of security of our state, its internal stability and evolutionary development,” Putin said. “We have had enough revolutions.”

Then he said he supported Tereshkova's alternate proposal to restart the term count when the revamped constitution enters force.

Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, on the podium, speaks during a session prior to voting for constitutional amendments at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. The sweeping reform is widely seen as part of the effort by Putin, who has has to step down in 2024 after having served the two consecutive terms that the country's constitution currently allows, to stay in on power. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

“As for the proposal to lift restrictions for any person, including the incumbent, to allow running in elections, this option is possible,” Putin said.

VLADIMIR PUTIN'S STRANGEST PROPAGANDA MOMENTS

He added that the Constitutional Court would need to judge if the move would be legal, although the court's assent is all but guaranteed.

A series of constitutional amendments Putin proposed in January was widely seen by Kremlin foes as part of his efforts to stay in power. However, it wasn't clear until Tuesday how Putin could achieve that goal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he doesn't want to scrap presidential term limits or resort to other suggested ways of extending his rule, but otherwise, he kept mum about his plans. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Observers had speculated that Putin could use the changes to scrap term limits; move into the prime minister's seat with strengthened powers; or continue calling the shots as the head of the State Council.

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The amendment, as well as others proposed, was approved by the Duma. A nationwide vote is set for April 22.

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2020-03-10 16:31:42Z
52780655478142

Putin backs amendment that could see him run Russia until 2036 - CNN

Under current Russian law, Putin is required to step down as president in 2024, when his second consecutive term in office comes to an end.

The proposed constitutional amendment was brought by MP Valentina Tereshkova, a loyal Putin supporter, and called for the presidential term limit to either be scrapped or simply for Putin to be allowed to run for president again.

Tereshkova added her proposal to a package of other constitutional amendments just 20 minutes before MPs voted on a slew of sweeping constitutional reforms.

The amendments will go through two more rounds of approval in parliament Wednesday. They are seen as largely arbitrary procedures, and will need to get clearance from the Constitutional Court before they are put to the Russian people in a public vote on April 22.

Putin backed the proposed amendment ahead of the vote.

"The second proposal, which means removing obstacles for any Russian citizen, including the incumbent president, and allowing them to run in the next presidential election ... this would be possible in principle but only if the Constitutional Court officially rules that this is not against the main law," Putin said in his address to the Duma.

Putin had previously said he would abide by the law and step down in 2024.

The development comes two months after the entire Russian government resigned to clear the way for a raft of constitutional amendments proposed by Putin which were widely seen as a ploy for him to extend his decades-long grip on power.

Tereshkova, a cosmonaut who became the first woman in space, was more overt about her proposal's intentions on Tuesday, saying it was aimed at keeping Putin in power to promote stability in Russia.

"Why try to be disingenuous or overthink it? People are worried about what's going to happen after 2024 and I understand them. This is not a matter of just the presidential post but also about the person who is trusted and who made decisions in the toughest situations and answered for them, that people could count on. Whatever people say publicly for political reasons, I'm sure everyone in this room too deep down understands this and agrees with me," she said.

"I don't know if the president is ready to run in that election but what I know for sure is that the very existence of this possibility for the current president, given his huge authority, is a stabilizing factor for our society."

Putin is serving his fourth term as president. He ruled Russia from 2000 to 2008 in two consecutive runs, and again in 2012 until now. He served as prime minister in 1999 to 2000, and also in between his two presidential terms, a period in which he was seen to have more power than his allied president at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings in Russia over his long tenure, but in the past two years his popularity has dropped over his pension reforms and the country's stagnating economy.

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2020-03-10 15:54:58Z
52780655478142

Health expert: 'Coronavirus lethality in Italy higher than China' - Al Jazeera English

Rome, Italy - A few minutes after Italy announced unprecedented travel restrictions on its 60 million people on Monday to control the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the country, Al Jazeera talked to Nino Cartabellotta, a leading Italian public health expert, professor and president of Gruppo Italiano per la Medicina Basata sulle Evidenze or GIMBE - Italy's Group for Evidence-based Medicine. 

"Finally, the decision has been taken," Cartabellotta said in an interview by phone, welcoming the extension of the quarantine zone to all of the country.

"It was about time. This is the only way we can tackle the spread of the virus effectively."

His research institute has been gathering data and following the coronavirus outbreak since its onset in China and belongs to a taskforce recently set up to advise Italy's Ministry of Health.

Cartabellotta has been vocal throughout the epidemic, calling for strict containment measures to be implemented since late February.

Al Jazeera: How has the virus has spread so quickly?

Nino Cartabellotta: We noticed that the virus had first extended across the Hubei province, then to its provincial neighbours, and eventually across China. We knew the same dynamic would have repeated in other countries. The more days that passed, the clearer it became that the virus would have reached everywhere, thanks to its high transmissibility and through asymptomatic cases.

The virus arrived in Italy most likely in the first or second week of January, much before the closure of the country's air traffic from and to China on January 30, when people still thought suspending flights might have spared us the infection.

Al Jazeera: Some say the current lockdown should have been implemented earlier. Has a delay made the situation more critical? 

Cartabellotta: Following the announcement of the first few cases in Italy, we immediately understood we would have gone through such a vast epidemic. The COVID-19 outbreak was driven by the spread in hospitals in Italy. In such cases, the number of infected patients skyrockets very fast.

Before Monday, measures had been taken in fits and starts because of political and economic factors amid an attempt to protect the national economy, without considering in full all the evaluations that we had presented at the institutional level.

Italian politics took a wait-and-see approach. More or less rigorous measures have been taken based on what was unfolding on the ground. But the virus doesn't work this way. The virus moves extremely quickly.

We would have needed to take such draconian containment measures for the whole country since March 1. It doesn't make sense to put regional, provincial or city borders in such a situation. A policy of procrastination is not a solution amid an epidemic.

[Courtesy: Nino Cartabellotta]

But Europe is just doing the same. There hasn't been any coordination at the European level on this issue, no preparation plan in case of a pandemic neither at the national nor at the bloc level. I'm not aware of any European country having a plan against a pandemic ready to be rolled out.

Policies like those implemented by China's ruling Communist Party that closed down Hubei for about three weeks are those that really pay off at the moment. We are seeing their positive results as China is now getting out of the tunnel. All other partial containment measures are not proportioned to the speed of the virus.

Politics hasn't understood how this virus spreads yet. Each country thought of itself as being immune from the infection, as if the virus would have never reached its borders.

Decisions are simply taken as events precipitate.

Al Jazeera: How will Italy's health system cope?

Cartabellotta: I am very worried about the resilience of our healthcare system. All measures of social containment are meant to slow down the spread of the virus and distribute the emergence of new cases over a longer period. This could give the health system time to prepare. But this was not possible to do in Lombardy and I fear that we won't be able to prevent the infection escalation also in the other regions.

Italian citizens have been completely undisciplined, the government has been playing at drawing new hypothetical borders on a map, depending on the daily increment of the number of cases. We never acted with a clear goal of preventing the infection from spreading. We have already problems in the south to carry out normal healthcare routines, let's not even talk about coping with an epidemic of this sort. I fear we will witness a very high number of deaths.

Al Jazeera: How would you characterise the current situation?

Cartabellotta: We have been seeing an ever-growing increase of the number of cases in other regions as of March 1. So far, there hasn't been any positive effect resulting from the containment measures previously implemented. Based on the data we gathered, we are recording a daily increase of the cases by 25 percent. Until the moment that the containment measures start showing some results, this rate will stay pretty much stable, unless a new vast outbreak emerges.

Lethality in Italy is higher than China because we are only doing swab tests on patients with symptoms, while we have estimated that asymptomatic cases might be around 15,000 at the moment. We are just scratching the surface of the virus diagnostics here. Also, the 6.1 percent lethality rate registered in Lombardy, shows that the healthcare system no longer holds. More people are dying because the system is saturated.

Al Jazeera: Are you suggesting containment measures are ineffective?

Cartabellotta: Draconian measures are always effective. Still, we cannot predict to what extent, as we don't know how widespread the virus is, especially in Italy's central and southern regions. It is important that other countries understand that the later they implement severe measures, the fewer the results. Every day of delay creates more infected, patients in need of ICUs and deaths. China taught us this.

Al Jazeera: Has Italy ever dealt with a similar crisis?

Cartabellotta: Italy never faced such an epidemic in recent history. This is not comparable to what happened during the 2003 SARS outbreak. There is a generational lack of preparation to fight and handle a pandemic. The absence of a plan set in place will also completely wear out our public healthcare system, which has been already severely hit by cuts and lack of investment in the past decade.

Al Jazeera: What should be done in case containment measures do not work?

Cartabellotta: There are no other measures available. Everyone should stay home and obediently and completely stick to all the behavioural rules given by the government. European countries should also implement our stringent measures as soon as possible, as a similar destiny is coming to their doors. The longer we wait the higher the number of deaths.

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2020-03-10 15:53:59Z
52780657156099

Health expert: 'Coronavirus lethality in Italy higher than China' - Al Jazeera English

Rome, Italy - A few minutes after Italy announced unprecedented travel restrictions on its 60 million people on Monday to control the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the country, Al Jazeera talked to Nino Cartabellotta, a leading Italian public health expert, professor and president of Gruppo Italiano per la Medicina Basata sulle Evidenze or GIMBE - Italy's Group for Evidence-based Medicine. 

"Finally, the decision has been taken," Cartabellotta said in an interview by phone, welcoming the extension of the quarantine zone to all of the country.

"It was about time. This is the only way we can tackle the spread of the virus effectively."

His research institute has been gathering data and following the coronavirus outbreak since its onset in China and belongs to a taskforce recently set up to advise Italy's Ministry of Health.

Cartabellotta has been vocal throughout the epidemic, calling for strict containment measures to be implemented since late February.

Al Jazeera: How has the virus has spread so quickly?

Nino Cartabellotta: We noticed that the virus had first extended across the Hubei province, then to its provincial neighbours, and eventually across China. We knew the same dynamic would have repeated in other countries. The more days that passed, the clearer it became that the virus would have reached everywhere, thanks to its high transmissibility and through asymptomatic cases.

The virus arrived in Italy most likely in the first or second week of January, much before the closure of the country's air traffic from and to China on January 30, when people still thought suspending flights might have spared us the infection.

Al Jazeera: Some say the current lockdown should have been implemented earlier. Has a delay made the situation more critical? 

Cartabellotta: Following the announcement of the first few cases in Italy, we immediately understood we would have gone through such a vast epidemic. The COVID-19 outbreak was driven by the spread in hospitals in Italy. In such cases, the number of infected patients skyrockets very fast.

Before Monday, measures had been taken in fits and starts because of political and economic factors amid an attempt to protect the national economy, without considering in full all the evaluations that we had presented at the institutional level.

Italian politics took a wait-and-see approach. More or less rigorous measures have been taken based on what was unfolding on the ground. But the virus doesn't work this way. The virus moves extremely quickly.

We would have needed to take such draconian containment measures for the whole country since March 1. It doesn't make sense to put regional, provincial or city borders in such a situation. A policy of procrastination is not a solution amid an epidemic.

[Courtesy: Nino Cartabellotta]

But Europe is just doing the same. There hasn't been any coordination at the European level on this issue, no preparation plan in case of a pandemic neither at the national nor at the bloc level. I'm not aware of any European country having a plan against a pandemic ready to be rolled out.

Policies like those implemented by China's ruling Communist Party that closed down Hubei for about three weeks are those that really pay off at the moment. We are seeing their positive results as China is now getting out of the tunnel. All other partial containment measures are not proportioned to the speed of the virus.

Politics hasn't understood how this virus spreads yet. Each country thought of itself as being immune from the infection, as if the virus would have never reached its borders.

Decisions are simply taken as events precipitate.

Al Jazeera: How will Italy's health system cope?

Cartabellotta: I am very worried about the resilience of our healthcare system. All measures of social containment are meant to slow down the spread of the virus and distribute the emergence of new cases over a longer period. This could give the health system time to prepare. But this was not possible to do in Lombardy and I fear that we won't be able to prevent the infection escalation also in the other regions.

Italian citizens have been completely undisciplined, the government has been playing at drawing new hypothetical borders on a map, depending on the daily increment of the number of cases. We never acted with a clear goal of preventing the infection from spreading. We have already problems in the south to carry out normal healthcare routines, let's not even talk about coping with an epidemic of this sort. I fear we will witness a very high number of deaths.

Al Jazeera: How would you characterise the current situation?

Cartabellotta: We have been seeing an ever-growing increase of the number of cases in other regions as of March 1. So far, there hasn't been any positive effect resulting from the containment measures previously implemented. Based on the data we gathered, we are recording a daily increase of the cases by 25 percent. Until the moment that the containment measures start showing some results, this rate will stay pretty much stable, unless a new vast outbreak emerges.

Lethality in Italy is higher than China because we are only doing swab tests on patients with symptoms, while we have estimated that asymptomatic cases might be around 15,000 at the moment. We are just scratching the surface of the virus diagnostics here. Also, the 6.1 percent lethality rate registered in Lombardy, shows that the healthcare system no longer holds. More people are dying because the system is saturated.

Al Jazeera: Are you suggesting containment measures are ineffective?

Cartabellotta: Draconian measures are always effective. Still, we cannot predict to what extent, as we don't know how widespread the virus is, especially in Italy's central and southern regions. It is important that other countries understand that the later they implement severe measures, the fewer the results. Every day of delay creates more infected, patients in need of ICUs and deaths. China taught us this.

Al Jazeera: Has Italy ever dealt with a similar crisis?

Cartabellotta: Italy never faced such an epidemic in recent history. This is not comparable to what happened during the 2003 SARS outbreak. There is a generational lack of preparation to fight and handle a pandemic. The absence of a plan set in place will also completely wear out our public healthcare system, which has been already severely hit by cuts and lack of investment in the past decade.

Al Jazeera: What should be done in case containment measures do not work?

Cartabellotta: There are no other measures available. Everyone should stay home and obediently and completely stick to all the behavioural rules given by the government. European countries should also implement our stringent measures as soon as possible, as a similar destiny is coming to their doors. The longer we wait the higher the number of deaths.

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2020-03-10 14:56:00Z
52780657156099

Coronavirus brings Italy's "darkest hour," and takes a mounting toll in the U.S. - CBS News

As Italians woke up to the most severe restrictions on their every-day lives since World War II, China said it was easing virus-control measures in the province where the COVID-19 disease emerged late last year. The contrasting conditions on two of the biggest battlefronts against the virus showed its severity, and the feasibility of corralling and controlling it.

WATCH LIVE at 12 p.m. ET: Washington Governor Jay Inslee details policies to support workers and businesses impacted by COVID-19, and announces a directive for long-term care facilities — Watch in the player above.  

With the death toll in the U.S. at 26 and infection rates continuing to climb fast there and in other countries, the fight for most of the world was still ramping up on Tuesday.

Health experts are still clambering to turn mountains of data into a firm understanding of how the disease spreads and exactly how dangerous it is. Almost 115,000 people have caught the virus, and it's killed more than 4,000 — but more than 64,000 people have recovered. But in spite of the rising death toll and infection rate in the U.S., President Trump has continued to downplay the threat posed by the virus, repeatedly comparing it to the seasonal flu.   

The lack of clarity on the disease, any medicines to treat or prevent it, and the sometimes conflicting messages have cast a shadow of uncertainty over the world, and nothing sparks fear in financial markets like uncertainty. Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since the financial collapse in 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 8%. While markets showed early rebounds Tuesday morning, several economic road signs were pointing to a possible coronavirus-induced recession.

Italy imposes nationwide coronavirus quarantine

In Italy, which has the largest outbreak outside China, all 60 million people were under travel restrictions, public gatherings and public sports events were cancelled, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told his people to stay home. He called it Italy's "darkest hour."  

For detailed information on coronavirus prevention and treatment, visit the Centers for Disease Control website here. 

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2020-03-10 14:38:00Z
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