This comes as no surprise to people who watch Russian politics. The way is open for Putin to do this. The Russian constitution says that a president may serve no more than two consecutive terms. It makes absolutely no mention of a person being in the presidency after that. So Putin could in fact run for (and likely win) the Russian presidency after having already been in office for eight years. Although current president Dmitry Medvedev is seen as having done a fairly competent job, the speculation has long been that Medvedev was a placeholder for Putin.
Most importantly, if Putin’s reelection is successful, this would continue the “chrome dome syndrome” that has been seen in Russo-Soviet leadership since the time of Tar Nicholas II… which I’ll work on showing later which I now have for your viewing pleasure. Nicholas isn’t in on this picture, but rest assured he had a fine coif of hair.
And here they are! In the Communist era: Lenin (bald), Stalin (not), Khrushchev (bald), Breshnev (not), Andropov (receded), Chernenko (not), and Gorbachev (bald).
In the bottom row showing the post-Communist Russian Federation era, we have Yeltsin (not bald), Putin (bald yet so badass), Medvedev (with a fine haircut), and presumably Putin (the badass baldy) once again.
Putin confirms he may run for Russian president in 2012 « Haas414
Dec 03, 2009 @ 09:23:33