Suchergebnisse

Vladimir Putin's third term as Russian president, which began in May 2012, is unlikely to be his last. The strongman of Moscow, who already served as President (2000-2008) and Prime Minister (1999 and 2008-2012), has announced his intention to stand for re-election in 2018, meaning that he could stay in power until 2024. In that case, with twenty years in the Kremlin under his belt, he would outstrip his distant predecessor, Leonid Brezhnev, who was head of state for 18 years (1964-1982). The similarities do not end there. Like Brezhnev, Putin is an authoritarian leader, deaf to any form of criticism, surrounded by an opaque inner circle mockingly nicknamed the 'Politburo', and convinced that his opponents can only be enemies in the pay of foreign powers. Brezhnev's reign was dubbed a time of 'stagnation'; the same will certainly be true of the Putin era, mired as it is in social, economic and political conservatism that nothing seems able to dissolve. Adapted from the source document.