Putin signs law allowing him to serve 2 more terms as Russia's president

Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Monday a change to the country's constitution that will allow him to run for two more six-year terms, granting himself the chance to remain in power until 2036. The Russian leader, 68, has already run the country for more than two decades, and with his recent crackdown on political opponents and civil society, he has made it clear that there's little room for dissent.

A copy of the new law was posted on the government's legal information website on Monday, confirming that the legislation — the success of which was really never in doubt — had been finalized. Prior to the new law, Putin would have been required to step down after his fourth and current term in 2024.  But in March last year, lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova, a lawmaker from Putin's ruling party, proposed the constitutional change during a discussion in the State Duma (congress). After Tereshkova, who is a Soviet astronaut and was the first woman to go to space, suggested the amendment, Putin himself showed up in the parliament building and offered his backing for the idea, undermining earlier speculation that he might seek to maintain power by taking another role.