Putin’s inauguration: Russia will emerge “stronger” from this “difficult period”

This is officially the start of his fifth term. Vladimir Putin was inaugurated at noon on Tuesday in Moscow (11 a.m. in France) in a ceremony during which the Russian president took the oath of office on the Constitution and delivered a brief “address to the nation.”

Russia will emerge “stronger” from this “difficult period,” he began. “Our system must be innovative (…). The world is changing very quickly, and we must be competitive and dynamic,” the president continued, assuring that he wants to act for the sake of “stability” of Russia.

Vladimir Putin also insisted on the need to “protect” his country “from all types of threats.” “We will win together,” he said.

The opposition was silenced

This speech is due to the fact that the situation on the Ukrainian front is more favorable for the Russian army, which suffered humiliating defeats in the spring and autumn of 2022, in the first months of a large-scale offensive on Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin was re-elected in mid-March after officially winning the vote with more than 87% of the votes cast in a country where dissenting voices have been whittled away, with major opposition figures in exile, jail or dead. Westerners, led by Washington, denounced the coercive vote, weeks after the death in prison under unclear circumstances on February 16 of Russia’s main opponent, Alexei Navalny.

The speech came two days before the anniversary of the May 9 Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, the commemoration of which is the basis of the power politics of Vladimir Putin, who claims to be fighting “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine.