Putin’s fourth inauguration highlights his vast power
President sells himself as best man to rebuild Russia.
Vladimir Putin took the oath of office Monday for a fourth term as Russia’s president, in a ceremony staged in a gilded Kremlin hall and replete with pageantry that highlighted his vast accumulation of authority after nearly two decades in power.
Putin, a former KGB agent, has ruled Russia as prime minister or president for more than 18 years, and in that time has crafted an image as a steely nerved leader and the man best qualified to rebuild his country after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a theatrical touch, a televised ceremony began Monday with Putin sitting at his desk in the Kremlin, suit jacket looped over his chair, as if hard at work until moments before the ceremony. A phone rang, letting him know it was time for his fourth term; he donned his jacket and walked alone through the red-carpeted Kremlin corridors and into a hall packed with about 6,000 invited, cheering guests.
In a short speech, Putin suggested his focus had now turned to domestic matters and improving Russia’s economy for the “well-being of every family,” though there were no words of reconciliation with the West.
“The security and defense capabilities of the country are reliably supported,” Putin told the audience of government ministers, lawmakers, religious leaders and celebrities.
“Now we will use all the possibilities we have first of all for the resolution of internal, and most essential, tasks of development,” he said. “A new quality of life, well-being, security and health for the people, that is what is important today.”
Putin won re-election in March with nearly 77 percent of the vote, the largest margin for any post-Soviet leader. It was a result his backers said showed widespread support, but one critics dismiss as illustrating the stifling of any real opposition.
Abroad, Putin has sought to restore Russia’s sway in world affairs. During his third term as president, he intervened militarily in Ukraine and Syria, putting him at loggerheads with the West. And, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, he directed Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election to aid Donald Trump.
At home, he has presided over the restitution to power of the security agency he once served, with many high officials and corporate executives now former officers like Putin. But the domestic economy has continued to lag, only recently emerging from a painful recession. He has also clamped down on critics, arresting scores of opposition activists and restricting the media.
Two days before the inauguration, police arrested about 1,600 people at protest actions called “He is not our czar.” Demonstrators wore paper crowns to mock Putin’s long rule, now running longer than any Russian leader since Stalin.
The arrests added images of swinging nightsticks and shoving matches with police to the inaugural events. “A Spoiled Party,” read a headline Monday in Vedomosti, a business newspaper.
The violence included a seeming throwback to an era of crowd-control tactics in Russia. Men in Cossack uniforms and carrying a type of traditional leather whip known as a nagaika had mingled in the crowd, occasionally lashing out. The Echo of Moscow radio station reported Monday that the Cossack group had won municipal contracts to train for and help with crowd control, though it remained unclear whether they acted in an official capacity.