Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted to the parliament amendments to a law, which will extend the presidential term and the lawmakers' mandate, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
Medvedev proposed the term of president be extended from four years to six years and that of parliament to five years during his first state-of-the-nation address to the parliament last Wednesday.
Speaking to an audience of about 1,000 lawmakers and government officials, Medvedev said the extension was necessary to enable the government to implement reforms more effectively.
The Russian head of state took office in May following a landslide victory in the March election thanks to support from his popular predecessor, Vladimir Putin, now the country's prime minister.
Some analysts say the extension of the presidency and the strengthening of the role of the parliament, where the ruling United Russia party took two thirds of the seats, will pave the way for Putin's return to the Kremlin.
"It is possible that if a plan for holding early elections and returning Putin to the presidency is in the works, it will be carried out not through the Kremlin, but through the United Russia, which Putin heads," Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said in an article in the daily Moscow Times.
Putin has urged the United Russia to support Medvedev's proposals, which also include measures to cope with the global financial crisis and other political means to improve democracy.
A new poll indicates 80 percent of Russian's citizens put Putin, who served two terms as president since 2000, among the top leaders who they believe have led the country in the right direction during the past 100 years, according to the All Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2008)
