Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has said it was up the West to choose between confrontation and cooperation as he is sworn in for a new six-year term.
Putin was sworn in on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and many of its allies.
Reuters reports that more than two years into the war in Ukraine, Putin said he wanted to “bow” before Russia’s soldiers there and declared in his inauguration speech that his landslide re-election in March was proof the country was united and on the right track.
“You, citizens of Russia, have confirmed the correctness of the country’s course. This is of great importance right now, when we are faced with serious challenges,” he told dignitaries in a gilded Kremlin hall where a trumpet fanfare sounded to greet his arrival.
“I see in this a deep understanding of our common historical goals, a determination to adamantly defend our choice, our values, freedom and the national interests of Russia.”
Putin won Russia’s stage-managed election by an overwhelming majority in March, securing for himself another six-year term that could see him rule until at least his 77th birthday.
With most opposition candidates either dead, jailed, exiled or barred from running and with dissent effectively outlawed in Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Putin faced no credible challenge to his rule.
The inauguration ceremony, held Tuesday in the Kremlin, was attended by Russia’s top military and political brass, but the United States and many European nations declined to send a representative after dismissing Russia’s elections as a sham.
“We certainly did not consider that election free and fair, but he is the president of Russia and is going to continue in that capacity,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday.
Putin’s first inauguration ceremony, held in 2000, was heralded as the first time in Russia’s history that power within the Kremlin changed hands through an electoral process. In his speech then, Putin said his election “proved that Russia is becoming a modern democratic state.”
Twenty-four years on, Putin has since remained in power as president or prime minister, and tinkered with Russia’s constitution to remove term limits and extend each term’s length from four years to six.
While Putin received 53% of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, deemed by the US Embassy in Moscow to be “reasonably” free and fair, he won 87% in March’s election – a figure the US called “farcical.”
In the days after March’s vote, Putin appeared on stage in Moscow’s Red Square alongside the three opponents allowed to run against him. The men sang Russia’s national anthem shoulder to shoulder, as if to confirm the illusion of competition.
In a terse speech Tuesday, held the day after he again rattled his saber by announcing a non-strategic nuclear weapons exercise, Putin said Russia does not refuse dialogue with Western countries, but “the choice is theirs” whether to pursue aggression or peace.
“Do they intend to continue trying to restrain the development of Russia, continue the policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace?”
Among those in the audience were the Russian-installed leaders of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – four occupied regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2022.
Putin’s inauguration comes as Russia is attempting to press home its vast manpower and ammunition advantages in Ukraine before the bulk of a long-delayed US aid package arrives to bolster Kyiv’s depleted forces.
