Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that his government was resigning to give President Vladimir Putin room to carry out the changes he wants to make to the constitution.

H/T: Reuters

In announcing the major constitutional reforms during a state of the nation address, Putin signaled he was working to create a new governing position in which to serve after his term ends, leaving details of the reforms vague and open to speculation.

According to a translated statement posted to his Twitter account, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny believes the true goal of Putin's reforms is to remain “the sole leader for life, taking ownership of an entire country, and appropriating wealth to himself and his friends... in his regime.”

Главный итог послания Путина: какие же олухи (и/или жулики) все те, кто говорил, что Путин уйдёт в 2024 году. Оставаться пожизненным единоличным лидером, захватив в собственность целую страну, присвоив себе и своим друзьям её богатства - единственная цель Путина и его режима. — Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 15, 2020

The entire Russian government abruptly resigned immediately after Putin announced his proposed changes to the country’s balance of power.

Here is an illustration of Russia's non-existing politics: yesterday the country's ruling United Russia party unanimously supported their leader Dmitry Medvedev, today it happily voted for Putin's new appointment, a little-known technocrat Mikhail Mishustin. https://t.co/PtQ38e9r8y — Anna Nemtsova (@annanemtsova) January 16, 2020

As Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev gets tossed on the trash heap today, I thought it was worth re-upping this amazing ⁦@navalny⁩ video showing how Medvedev accumulated a corrupt $2B fortune. It has been watched 33 million times https://t.co/wA6BIIPaIC — Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) January 15, 2020