This from the New York Times:
As a bill extending Russia’s presidency to six years from four barreled through the Russian legislature on Friday, it fell to the old-timers from the Communist Party to put up a fight.
But the money quote comes in the second graf:
“Why do we have to do this today?”Viktor I. Ilyukhin, a Communist legislator, said during discussions Friday in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament. “Why are we in such a hurry? A strict authoritarian regime has already been established in this country. There is already an unprecedented concentration of power in one person’s hands.”