Russia’s Constitutional Court has approved the proposed amendments to the country’s constitution, including the one that would allow Vladimir Putin to run again for president in 2024.
The Constitutional Court published the ruling on its website on Monday, two days after Putin signed off the final reform package.
The court had a week to consider its ruling.
The constitutional reforms, put forward by Putin, allow the Russian president to potentially seek re-election in 2024 for two additional six-year terms. It also expands the parliament’s powers and bans senior officials from having a residence permit in other countries, among other stipulations.
Both houses of the Russian parliament as well as regional parliaments have already approved the legislation.
But President Putin has said that in order for the amendments to go through, Russia’s Constitutional Court will have to offer its approval and the Russian people will have to give their consent in a referendum, too.
On Sunday, the Kremlin said the Constitutional Court had been asked to rule on the reforms within the next seven days. And the referendum is also slated for April 22.
The 67-year-old president submitted the bill to the Duma in late January and announced a major shake-up of Russian politics, which the Kremlin described as a redistribution of power from the presidency to the parliament.
Russia’s current constitution, in effect since 1993, allows a president to serve two consecutive terms, obliging Putin to leave office in 2024. But the amendments would enable him to seek a fifth overall presidential term in 2024, and conceivably a sixth in 2030.
Putin has not yet announced whether he will run again in 2024, but he has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life.
Putin has ruled the country as a president or prime minister for more than 20 years.
