Vladimir Putin sworn in for a fifth six-year term as president of Russia

Ruling Russia is “a great honor, a responsibility and a sacred duty”. Vladimir Poutine was sworn in on Tuesday, May 7, during his inauguration ceremony in Moscow for a fifth six-year term at the head of Russia. The country’s political elite and foreign representatives, including the French ambassador, were invited to the ceremony under the gold of the Andreyevsky Hall in the Kremlin. Other European countries, such as Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, have signaled that they will not send representatives, to mark their opposition to Russian policies.

Nearly two months after a re-election presented as triumphant by the Kremlin, but in the absence of a dissident candidacy, the head of state, aged 71, will be able to remain in power at least until 2030. In 2020, he had the Constitution revised to be able to serve two additional six-year terms, until 2036, the year he would turn 84.

Uncontested power

The Russian president now enjoys uncontested power in Russia. Leading opposition members are in exile or in prison, as are hundreds of ordinary people who have voiced their opposition to Moscow’s offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor. The noose has also tightened against sexual minorities, already targeted by severe repression and who pay the costs of promoting “traditional values” defended by Vladimir Putin in the face of a West deemed depraved.

The Russian president also overcame an attempted rebellion last year by the former leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who subsequently died in the crash of his plane. His inauguration also coincides with a more favorable situation on the Ukrainian front for the Russian army, which had suffered humiliating setbacks in the spring and autumn of 2022, during the first months of its large-scale attack on kyiv.