Vladimir Putin Is Leaning on Two Russian Museum Heads to Help Him Rewrite the Country’s Constitution So He Can Stay in Power

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stunning plan, announced
Wednesday, to institute widespread constitutional reforms, will
rely in part on two major Russian art-world figures.

Among those named to a 75-member working group tasked with
drafting constitutional amendments are two of the country’s leading
museum officials: Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of
the Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg, and Zelfira Tregulova, the director of
the Tretyakov Gallery in
Moscow.

Political analysts say the plan to rewrite the constitution,
which Putin revealed during his annual state-of-the-nation address,
is his attempt to retain power past the end of his term in 2024. In
a surprise move, prime minister and former president Dmitry
Medvedev announced that the country’s entire government would be
stepping down to help make way for Putin’s proposed these
changes.

Putin previously counted the heads of the two state museums
among his “2018 presidential campaign confidants,” according to
the Art Newspaper.
The working group met today outside Moscow at Novo-Ogaryovo,
the Russian presidential estate.

Piotrovsky has led the Hermitage for close to 30
years, taking over in 1992 from his father, Boris
Borisovich Piotrovsky, who ran the museum from 1964 to 1990.
The government appointed Tregulova to her post in 2015.

As of press time, neither institution answered inquiries
regarding the directors’ involvement with the constitutional
amendment process.

When Piotrovsky turned 75 last month, Putin issued an official
press release wishing the
museum director a happy birthday and praising his “significant
personal contribution to the development
of the famous museum and the preservation
of our rich historical, cultural, and spiritual
heritage.”

Putin also presented Piotrovsky, whose current contract at the
Hermitage runs through 2022, with the Order of Friendship in
2016.

The constitutional-amendment committee includes politicians,
scientists, and other public figures, such as two-time Olympic
pole-vaulting champion Yelena Isinbayeva, pianist Denis
Matsuev, and Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian Union of
Journalists.

Putin was first elected president in 2000, and served two
four-year terms. He then served as Prime Minister under Medvedev
from 2008 to 2012, and has since been re-elected to two additional
six-year terms.

The post Vladimir Putin Is Leaning on Two Russian Museum
Heads to Help Him Rewrite the Country’s Constitution So He Can Stay
in Power appeared first on artnet News.