Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his fifth term as President of Russia on Tuesday, extending until 2030, with a call to his compatriots to win “together” in the Ukrainian conflict, considered existential.
In a lavish ceremony held at the Kremlin, the 71-year-old leader took the oath of office and delivered a brief speech to Russia’s political elite as well as soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
“It is a great honor, a responsibility and a sacred duty,” Putin said, thanking the “heroes” fighting on the front in Ukraine since February 2022. “We will go through this difficult period with dignity and emerge strengthened,” he said. declared the President.
Amid heightened tensions with Western powers over its support for Ukraine, Putin assured that Russia was not opposed to “dialogue” but stressed that it “depends on them.”
Russia ordered nuclear exercises on Monday in response to what it called “threatening statements” from Western leaders regarding a possible troop deployment in Ukraine.
“We are a great and united nation, and together we will overcome all obstacles, achieve everything that is planned, and together we will triumph,” Putin concluded. He then attended a religious ceremony with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a staunch supporter of his government.
Power without counterbalance
In the March elections, without dissident candidates, the President, in power for almost a quarter of a century, won a landslide victory. Putin will remain in power until 2030. And thanks to a constitutional reform he pushed through in 2020, he could even run for another term until 2036.
