In a closely watched March election, Russian President Vladimir Putin easily defeated two opponents of war who had been disqualified for technical reasons.
Due to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, the United States and several Western nations abstained from the Kremlin ceremony when Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a second six-year term.
More than two years after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, where Russian forces have regained the initiative after a string of setbacks and are attempting to expand farther in the east, Putin, who has served as president or prime minister since 1999, will begin his new mandate on Tuesday.
Putin, at seventy-one, controls the majority of internal politics.
He is engaged in a conflict with Western nations on the international front, accusing them of attempting to subjugate and destroy Russia through the use of Ukraine as a means of doing so. Before the ceremony, close Putin friend Sergei Chemezov declared, “For Russia, this is the continuation of our path, this is stability – you can ask any citizen on the street.”
“President Putin will stick to his course even though the West undoubtedly doesn’t like it. He was re-elected. However, he added, “they will realize that Putin is stability for Russia, not some sort of newcomer with new policies, either cooperation or confrontation even.”
avoiding the inauguration
In March, Putin emerged victorious in a closely monitored poll in which two candidates opposed to war were disqualified for technical reasons.
A month prior, his most well-known opponent, Alexei Navalny, unexpectedly passed away in an Arctic prison colony, and several other prominent opponents are either imprisoned or have been forced to escape overseas.
The inauguration event on Tuesday was attended by none other than the United States and other Western nations.
A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, stated on Monday that “no, we will not have a representative at his inauguration.”
“We certainly did not consider that election free and fair but he is the president of Russia and he is going to continue in that capacity.”
While other European Union countries, including Britain and Canada, chose to abstain from the swearing-in, France declared it would send an ambassador.
Ukraine stated the event sought to create “the illusion of legality for the nearly lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship.”
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
