Wednesday’s news brought a quiet announcement that the entire Russian government resigned.
It was such a little bleep that I personally didn’t even catch it. In fact, my sister texted me and asked my opinion on the matter. All I could think was “surely this is Trump’s fault.”
At least, that’s what I fully expect the left to claim.
This mass resignation happened just as Putin announced plans to completely overhaul Russia’s constitution. Not surprisingly, these changes would allow Putin to stay in office much longer than the Russian citizens planned.
Putin’s term should end in 2024, but I’m guessing, as Dylan Thomas would say, Putin has no plans to “go gentle into that good night.”
Jen Kirby at Vox elaborates:
Putin’s plan for staying in power past 2024 “has been in the works for years,” Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, told me. “It’s not a power grab, it’s a plan to ensure that Putin de facto remains in power for life.”
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his entire cabinet resigned abruptly Wednesday, right as Putin announced the new constitutional reforms. It’s still unclear if Medvedev and the other officials were surprised by Putin’s move or whether they were part of the plan all along.
But Medvedev, a longtime Putin ally, will still have a role in government, as Putin has placed him as the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, a powerful body that advises the president on national security decisions.
Just a few hours after Medvedev’s resignation, Putin appointed a new prime minister to take his place: Mikhail Mishustin, a technocrat who’s been in charge of Russia’s tax services for a decade.
Experts told me that Mishustin is not a well-known or influential figure even within Russia, so Putin likely sees him as a placeholder — a loyalist type who isn’t looking to accumulate too much power for himself.
Which all kind of works out as Putin prepares for his future.
Powers That Be
The way Putin worded his proposal makes it sound legit. His reforms are supposed to limit the powers of the President and strengthen the powers of the Parliament. There are other tweaks as well, such as giving Parliament the job of choosing the Prime Minister. There’s only one problem.
Here Putin wants to limit the powers of the President AFTER he’s no longer President. This ensures his successor won’t be nearly as powerful as Putin is, or was.
So, then the question becomes “where will Putin land.” If he serves as Prime Minister, as he did in 2008, he could end up running the show all over again.
The article continues:
But Brian D. Taylor, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, said all of these constitutional tweaks are clearly designed to give him “multiple options” for how to maintain control of Russia beyond 2024.
“I’m not sure his plan is fully worked out from A to Z,” Taylor added. “He might only know A to E — and we’re at about A to C right now.”
Of course none of this is a done deal. All we know for sure is that Putin is definitely trying to keep his options open.
Blame Trump
Now, I’m guessing you want to know how this relates to Trump. The truth is that it absolutely doesn’t.
But here’s how leftism works. Obama tanked our economy. Trump stepped in and rescued it. But liberals claim Trump is hurting the economy and that our gains were Obama roll-overs.
Then Biden and his son took part in a Ukraine oil scandal. Hunter collected millions of dollars. When the Ukraine started to investigate, Biden threatened to withhold a billion, yes I said BILLION dollars worth of aid. In order to get the money, the Ukraine had to fire a prosecutor looking into Hunter’s fishy job placement.
These are Biden’s own words:
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired…”
Yet, we are holding impeachment hearings for a President who said “you might want to look into that.” Even after the Ukraine affirmed that they didn’t feel pressured, only encouraged.
There are hundreds more examples of how the leftist hypocrisy constantly challenges our President. So watch out. Soon some liberal will claim Trump convinced the Russian government to resign so that he and Putin could rule the world together. In fact, Trump and Putin probably just ordered Best Friend necklaces from Amazon.
