When the laws don’t favor you, change the laws. At least that’s apparently the way Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is approaching a possible bid to regain the presidency that had transferred to Dmitry Medvedev after Putin voluntarily stepped down from that job last year after an eight-year run.

Putin’s Soviet Union symbolically fell with the destruction of the Berlin Wall, an ominous structure that was an icon of authoritarian control. It is therefore ironic that Russia’s gradual creep away from a potential for free democrat governance comes with the erosion of the wall that separates its judiciary from the power-driven halls of the Russian Parliament.

At present, Russian law gives unlimited authority to the head of its judiciary to strike down any legislation it determines to be unconstitutional and that position is elected by secret ballot among the 19 judges constituting the highest Russian court. A proposal under discussion inside the Kremlin would make the head judge an appointment of parliament, potentially subjecting it to the political whims of powerful politicians and less able to provide a check against government overreach.

The London Telegraph reported Wednesday that Medvedev may be backing the scheme to demolish the rules that protect the Russian judiciary’s autonomy. Critics argue that this will politicize the post, and make its holder a tool of the party in power. If brought to fruition, Medvedev’s plans would send a message that the Russian government is taking an official step to consolidate power and walking further away from the democracy that many Russians looked forward to after more than 60 years under an oppressive communist regime. But even if the changes to Russia’s system are pushed through, it would probably not result in any noticeable difference in the way the Russian government behaves. According to The Telegraph:

Practically, the decision is likely to make little difference beyond making an unlikely challenge to Mr Putin’s ambitions impossible. The constitutional court has not challenged a Kremlin-backed law since at least 2004, while its president, Valery Sorkin, last month called on the government to “employ authoritarian methods” to prevent Russia from slipping into anarchy because of the financial crisis.

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