Putin takes office as President of Russia for his fifth term and will rule until 2030

Vladimir Putin This Tuesday, he swore in his fifth term as president of Russia, until 2030, with an appeal to his compatriots to win “together” the conflict in Ukraine, considered existential. In a lavish ceremony held in the Kremlin, the 71-year-old president took the oath and gave a brief speech to the Russian political elite and soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

“It is a great honor, a responsibility and a sacred duty,” he said. put onwho thanked the “heroes” who fight on the front in Ukraine from February 2022.

WATCH: Putin orders nuclear exercises after statements about sending Western troops to Ukraine

“We will go through this difficult period with dignity and we will emerge stronger,” declared the president.

Russian President Vladimir Putin walks before the inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin. (EFE/EPA/ALEXEY MAYSHEV/SPUTNIK). (ALEXEY MAYSHEV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN/)

At a time of heightened tensions with Western powers over their support for Ukraine, put on He assured that Russia does not refuse a “dialogue”, but said that “it depends on them”.

Russia ordered nuclear exercises on Monday in response to what he described as threatening statements by Western leaders about a possible deployment of troops to Ukraine.

“We are a great and united nation, and together we will overcome all obstacles, we will achieve everything we planned and together we will win”, he concluded. put on.

He then participated in a religious ceremony with Patriarch Cyril, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, a strong supporter of his government.

Soldiers from the Presidential Regiment carry a special copy of the Constitution and the president’s poster during Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony. (EFE/EPA/GRIGORY SYSOEV/SPUTNIK).

A power without counterweights

In the March elections, with no dissident candidates, the president, in power for almost a quarter of a century, won a resounding victory.

put on will remain in power until 2030. And thanks to a constitutional reform approved in 2020, He can still run for another term until 2036.

The investiture takes place two days after the anniversary of the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany, May 9, a date that has regained relevance since the beginning of the offensive against Ukraine, which put on Compare this to the fight against the Third Reich in World War II.

The ceremony also coincides with a more favorable time on the front for the Russian army, after suffering humiliating defeats in 2022, in the first months of the conflict.

Os Russian troops They intensified their offensive in the east of Ukraine and took several towns around the city of Avdiivkawhich they managed to control in mid-February, after a tough battle that lasted months.

For their part, the Ukrainian armed forces face a shortage of ammunition and the exhaustion of their troops after the unsuccessful offensive in mid-2023 and the delay in the arrival of aid from Western powers. Now they hope that the approval of a new US allocation at the end of April will help them on the ground.

Instead, the Russian defense industry is firing on all cylinders to deliver material to the front.

“No peace, no development, no freedom”

Re-election with more than 87% of the votes served to put on evoke the image of a “united” Russia behind him and his army.

Western countries denounced a vote under coercion, weeks after the death in prison in unclear circumstances of Alexey Navalnythe biggest rival put onon February 16th.

The main figures of the Russian opposition are now in exile or in prison, as are hundreds of citizens who have expressed their rejection of Moscow’s offensive against Kiev.

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, accused Putin from exile of being “a liar, a thief and a murderer.”

With put on “In command, our country will not have peace, nor development, nor freedom,” he stated. Navalnaia and criticized the offensive in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has also increased its repression of sexual minorities, as it claims to defend “traditional values” against a West it considers degenerate.

But the last few years have not been without difficulties for the Russian president, who in 2023 had to crush an attempted rebellion by the former head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who later died in a plane crash.

On the economic front, inflation persists, driven mainly by the weight of military expenses in the budget, and the purchasing power of the population, already affected by Western sanctions, is decreasing.

What is more, put on It is trying to shift its entire economy, which is highly dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, to the Asian market, but this requires long and expensive infrastructure construction.

Source: Elcomercio