Under Yeltsin, Russia was a borderline failed state. Putin pulled them back from that brink.
Yeltsin's 1993 Constitutional Referendum drastically enhanced the powers of the President, he doesn't wield quite as supreme executive power as the office of POTUS, but it's comparable:
The referendum"approved the new constitution, which significantly expanded the powers of the president, giving Yeltsin the right to appoint the members of the government, to dismiss the Prime Minister and, in some cases, to dissolve the Duma.
It could be argued Putin has used that power as it was intended for the benefit of the Russian people. Perhaps he feels he cannot rely on anyone who comes after him to be as diligent.
By dis-empowering the role of President before he leaves office, he ensures that anyone who follows, be they a US-educated plant, a corrupt billionaire, or a hard-line hawkish nationalist can't undo all the good his administration has accomplished.
Whether or not Putin wants to be in "power for life" is an answer known only to the man himself, but there's nothing to suggest it in this speech, and none of the reforms put forward would appear to help in that regard at all. It looks more like a man securing his legacy.
Perhaps the question becomes not "does Putin want another term?... but rather...does Putin even intend to serve all of this one?
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