VLADIMIR Putin is set to receive LIFETIME immunity which will protect him from prosecution outside his time in office.

Russian MPs backed the president's plans which will see the draft law expand Putin's immunity for his entire life, not just during his term in office.

The new law means Vladimir Putin will have lifetime immunity

The proposal is part of a larger set of reforms announced by Putin which were approved in a nationwide vote earlier in the summer.

Officials said that 77.9 per cent of votes across the country, the world's largest, had supported the changing of the constitution.

Critics claimed that the outcome had been falsified on a huge scale, with Russian activist Alexei Navalny saying he did not accept the result.

If the law is passed an ex-president can only be stripped of immunity if the Duma (lower Russian legislative assembly) imposes charges of high treason or other felonies.

The new bill states that an ex-president cannot be held criminally or administratively liable and they cannot be detained, arrested or subject to search or interrogation.