This is Planet Money from NPR.

Last week Vladimir Putin was on stage giving his annual State of the Nation address.

He proposed a few constitutional changes.

Give lots of new powers to a previously minor state council.

Give more power to Parliament to choose cabinet ministers.

Close the loophole that allows the president to serve for more than two terms as long as

they're not consecutive.

And each of these proposals on their own might sound fairly moderate.

But the Russian Prime Minister, who was once actually a close Putin ally, immediately resigned,

taking his entire cabinet with him.

And that's shocking news, even for Russia.

That's because these proposals taken together are not moderate tweaks.

They actually pave a way for Vladimir Putin to continue to run the country maybe for life.

So we have Planet Money thought now would be an excellent time to re-broadcast an episode

on the early years of Vladimir Putin.

It's by our friends at NPR's History Podcast through line.

Here it is.

Okay, we're going to take you back to 2009 for a minute.

To a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and a bunch of wealthy Russian factory owners.

Now just imagine the scene.

Putin, whose voice we're hearing, is sitting at the head of a long rectangular conference

table.

...