Russia’s Putin indicators invoice giving ex-presidents lifetime immunity | Vladimir Putin Information

Bill grants immunity from prosecution to former presidents and their families for crimes they committed while they were still alive.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that gives former Russian presidents enhanced immunity from prosecution and allows them to become senators for life in the upper house of parliament once they leave the Kremlin.

The new law follows the extensive reforms of the Russian political system that Putin initiated earlier this year. Among other things, he can run for two more six years in the Kremlin if he so wishes.

The legislation was part of constitutional amendments passed in a nationwide vote this summer that allowed Putin to remain president until 2036. Otherwise he would have had to resign in 2024.

The reforms will be analyzed for clues as to what the 68-year-old Putin might do at the end of his current term in office. This is his second consecutive term and fourth overall.

Former presidents have already been eligible for immunity from prosecution for crimes they committed in office, but the new law grants them life-long immunity and says they cannot be arrested, searched, questioned or prosecuted.

The new legislation also makes it more difficult to lift a former president’s immunity.

The process includes, among other things, the upper house of parliament voting overwhelmingly to repeal it over allegations by the lower house that the president committed treason or some other serious crime.

The other laws that Putin signed allow the presidents to appoint up to 30 senators to the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia, and to join the council itself once they have resigned.

On Tuesday, the Lower House State Duma also passed laws that keep information confidential about employees of the Russian judicial system, law enforcement, and regulatory and military authorities.

The bill now requires Putin’s signature to become law, a move that is seen as a formality.

It comes a day after the opposition said Alexey Navalny called a suspected security agent and got him to admit that the Federal Security Service (FSB) tried to poison him to kill him in August.

Navalny said he had access to the security agent’s phone number from leaked logs and travel documents.

The Kremlin critic later released the agent’s alleged address and phone number, measures that would become illegal under the newly proposed law.