MOSCOW — They already sing his praises in heavy metal and hip-hop songs, plaster his face on T-shirts, peddle his framed portrait from corner kiosks. Now, Russians will troop to the polls to vote in a one-man popularity contest staged around the figure of their beloved president, Vladimir V. Putin.
Today's parliamentary elections didn't start out as an approval poll for Putin. But the race for seats in the Duma became a sideshow when the president's many loyalists ordered the nation to treat the election as a "referendum on Putin."
In a move dredged from the history books, Russia has constructed a neo-Soviet cult of personality around the increasingly strident, aggressive figure of Putin. The election has gotten swept up in the king-making, analysts say, promising Putin a popular mandate to shift his rule of Russia into a new and as yet unclear era.
"It's a vote for a concrete person, for a regime and for the power structure that's been created," said Boris Dubin, head of the Levada Center polling agency's social-political department. "It's not a dress rehearsal. It's not the end of a new period. It's the first night of this new regime."
Strictly speaking, Putin, 55, should be in the twilight of his political career. He's a second-term president with no constitutional right to run for a third consecutive term. But with the Kremlin constantly reminding Russians that their destiny hinges on Putin's longevity, it seems clear that the president isn't about to slip quietly out of power.
But nobody knows which job title Putin will take next; the president's designs on power probably are the most debated issue in Moscow. Popular guesses include prime minister (with a weak president who could be easily outshone by Putin), some sort of latter-day czarist "national leader," or ruling party strongman in the mold of Stalin.
Others predict that Putin will use the popular mandate provided by a landslide vote for his United Russia party to justify amending the constitution, making it possible for him to run for president again.
Putin has repeatedly denied any plans to cling to the presidency, and has vowed to safeguard the constitution.
But many Russians seem exhilarated by the possibility of a third term, and unmoved by the constitution.
