![Kremlin opponents have said the constitutional reforms were a pretext to allow Putin to become 'president for life' [Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-04-01T112822Z_1738220538_RC2ZMM9JTOE6_RTRMADP_3_RUSSIA-PUTIN.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
MOSCOW, April 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has given final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms, opening the possibility for him to stay in power until 2036.
The 68-year-old Russian leader, who has already been in power for more than two decades, signed off on the bill on Monday, according to a copy posted on the government’s legal information portal.
Putin proposed the change last year as part of constitutional reforms that Russians overwhelmingly backed in a vote in July. Lawmakers approved the bill last month.
The legislation will reset presidential term limits, allowing Putin to run in elections again after his current and second consecutive term expires in 2024.
Putin was first elected president in 2000 and served two consecutive four-year terms. His ally Dmitry Medvedev took his place in 2008, which critics saw as a way around Russia’s limit on two consecutive terms for presidents.
While in office, Medvedev signed off on legislation extending terms to six years starting with the next president.
Putin then returned to the Kremlin in 2012 and won re-election in 2018.
The term reset was part of constitutional reforms that included populist economic measures and sweeteners for traditionalists such as an effective ban on gay marriage.
Russians voted yes or no to the entire bundle of amendments in a vote last summer that was held over the course of a week, in a move authorities said was aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
Russians ultimately voted 78 per cent in favour of the changes.
Putin would be 85 when he leaves office if he is elected and serves two additional terms to their end in 2036. — NNN-AGENCIES