: Russians Voters Agree to Extend President Putin’s Rule Until 2036 #WorldNEWS (MOSCOW) — A majority of Russians approved amendments to Russia’s constitution in a weeklong vote ending Wednesday,

Russians Voters Agree to Extend President Putin’s Rule Until 2036 #WorldNEWS
(MOSCOW) — A majority of Russians approved amendments to Russia’s constitution in a weeklong vote ending Wednesday, allowing President Vladimir Putin to hold power until 2036, although the balloting was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.
With most of the nations polls closed and 15% of precincts counted, 71% voted for the changes, according to election officials.
For the first time in Russia, polls were kept open for a week to bolster turnout without increasing crowds casting ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic — a provision that Kremlin critics denounced as an extra tool to manipulate the outcome.

A massive propaganda campaign and the opposition’s failure to mount a coordinated challenge helped Putin get the result he wanted, but the plebiscite could end up eroding his position because of the unconventional methods used to boost participation and the dubious legal basis for the balloting.
Read more: A Bloodless Revolution. Putin’s Plan to Rewrite Russia’s Constitution Could Allow Him to Lead for Years to Come
On Russias easternmost Chukchi Peninsula, nine hours ahead of Moscow, officials quickly announced full preliminary results showing 80% of voters supported the amendments, and in other parts of the Far East, they said over 70% of voters backed the changes.
Kremlin critics and independent election observers questioned official figures.
“We look at neighboring regions, and anomalies are obvious — there are regions where the turnout is artificially [boosted], there are regions where it is more or less real,” Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos, told The Associated Press.

Alexei Druzhinin—Kremlin Pool Photo/APRussian President Vladimir Putin shows his passport to a member of an election commission as he arrives to take part in voting at a polling station in Moscow, on July 1, 2020.
Putin voted at a Moscow polling station, dutifully showing his passport to the election worker. His face was uncovered, unlike most of the other voters who were offered free masks at the entrance
The vote completes a convoluted saga that began in January, when Putin first proposed the constitutional changes. He offered to broaden the powers of parliament and redistribute authority among the branches of government, stoking speculation he might seek to become parliamentary speaker or chairman of the State Council when his presidential term ends in 2024.
His intentions became clear only hours before a vote in parliament, when legislator Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet-era cosmonaut who was the first woman in space in 1963, proposed letting him run two more times.