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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that could keep him in power until 2036.

The legislation allows him to run for two more six-year terms once his current stint as leader ends in 2024.

He signed it on Monday, following changes to the constitution last year.

Critics have claimed it is a constitutional coup and would let him become "president for life".

The law means Putin, 68, could potentially remain in power in Russia until he is 83.

He is currently serving his second consecutive term as president and his fourth in total.

But it limits any future president to two terms in office, despite resetting his term count.

And it also stops anyone who has held foreign citizenship from running for the Kremlin.

Putin said he would decide later whether he would run again in 2024 when his current term ends.

He claimed the new term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their work instead of "darting their eyes" in the "search for possible successors".

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The changes were backed by a public vote last summer.

They had been packaged with other amendments expected to gain popular support, such as one bolstering pension protections.

The legislation was passed in the lower and upper houses of parliament last month.

Putin was first elected president in 2000 and served two terms back to back.

In 2008 he became prime minister due to term limits but returned to the presidency in 2012.

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He has now been in power for longer than any other leader of the Kremlin since Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin, who died in 1953.

The change to the law comes after reports last month he has issued a new "kill" list including six targets living in Britain.

He plans to remove his rivals in a deadly post-pandemic campaign, a source claimed.

The warning comes hot on the heels of Russia being identified in a defence review by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as being the UK’s "most acute threat".

• Vladimir Putin
• Russia

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