JUDY WOODRUFF: The polls closed in Russia today, after seven days of voting on constitutional
changes. One would allow President Vladimir Putin to stand for two more terms in office.
Early indications were that 70-plus percent voted in favor.
As special correspondent Lucy Taylor reports, Russia's preeminent leader for two decades
may be around for years to come.
LUCY TAYLOR: It is a vote on Russia's future, and the higher the turnout, the more credible
it will look.
And to bring voters in, drive some good old electioneering. Each ballot paper comes with
a lottery ticket, with prizes from cash to cars. But the biggest winner will likely be
President Vladimir Putin, with a chance to rule into his 80s. And many of his supporters
don't need incentives.
MAN (through translator): He is the best president of all the presidents. With him, Russia will
survive.
WOMAN (through translator): Even though many people dislike him, I think he's right, and
our country is flourishing.
LUCY TAYLOR: Voters like Tatiana Prokofieva have spent most of their adult lives under
Vladimir Putin's leadership. She was just 30 when he came to power in the year 2000.
But she also remembers what came before, in the 1990s, when Russia's economy collapsed,
and she credits Putin with its recovery.
TATIANA PROKOFIEVA, Voter (through translator): People live well now. The standard of living
has increased. Now each family has at least two cars. That is an indicator he was able
to do it. We had a good Olympics in Sochi, and, after that, I went to Sochi and saw how
it was transformed. Work is under way. You can't deny it.
LUCY TAYLOR: The campaign for the constitutional changes has played on national pride. Vladimir
Putin led a military parade on the eve of polls opening, and says the changes would
reinforce Russian values, like truth, justice and respect for the homeland.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): We are not just voting for amendments
clothed in clear legal rules. We vote for the country in which we want to live, with
modern education and health care, with reliable social protection of citizens, with effective
power, accountable to society.
LUCY TAYLOR: One amendment would outlaw same-sex marriage, with campaign videos portraying
gay people as bad parents.
Others would guarantee the minimum wage and pensions. And one would give President Putin
criminal immunity for life.
And yet, with all that, there's been very little discussion about the amendment that
could extend his time in office. The changes all come as a single package.
There's just one question, yes or no, but this national vote takes in hundreds of amendments
to the Russian constitution. Critics say it's designed to minimize the focus on Vladimir
Putin's power and executed in a way that gives them almost no chance to argue.
Rallies and protests are banned because of the pandemic. And campaigners like Tatiana
Usmanova say Russia's state media doesn't give them a fair hearing.
TATIANA USMANOVA, Activist, Open Russia (through translator): We are not allowed to express
our position to those who are against this vote. Everything that is happening now is
an absolutely strange, illegitimate procedure to recognize results that are simply impossible.
LUCY TAYLOR: But Russia also has a troubled history with outright fraud and ballot-stuffing.
Election monitors say they have witnessed multiple violations. Officials even took the
unprecedented step of announcing early results hours before polls closed, something which
would usually be banned.
Russia under Vladimir Putin has been involved in messy military interventions in Chechnya,
Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, and suffered under international economic sanctions.
His approval ratings have slipped in the last year, but remain high. So far, he has played
coy, and has yet to say if he will stand for another term in office, even if he is allowed
to.
EKATERINA SCHULMANN, Political Scientist: It's necessary to preserve this option, this
possibility, in order to prevent the elites from looking around in search of the successor.
These were his words.
So, what he was basically planning to say is that he can't afford to be a lame-duck,
because it's dangerous, because he is surrounded by whom? By people he can't trust.
LUCY TAYLOR: But not everyone who remembers the 1990s is voting for the amendments.
Sergei Mitrokhin led a liberal opposition party. And he says, just as Russia had its
first chance at democracy, Vladimir Putin led it in a different direction.
SERGEI MITROKHIN, Former Opposition Party Leader (through translator): We understood
that those mistakes and crimes that were committed then would inevitably lead Russia to an authoritarian,
corrupt regime, and so it happened.
Unfortunately, we foresaw this. We already understood that at the beginning of the century.
LUCY TAYLOR: For an older generation of voters, this poll is about whether the relative stability
gained in Putin's Russia has been worth it.
And if the amendments are passed, as expected, their children may live most of their lives
knowing nothing else.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lucy Taylor in Moscow.