Vladimir Putin was sworn in on Monday for his fourth presidential term until 2024, at a ceremony held in the Grand Palace in the Kremlin where he stated that the meaning of his life is to do everything he can for Russia.
“I consider it my duty and the meaning of my life to do everything I can for Russia, for its present and future,” Putin said while taking the oath of office with his hand on the book of the Russian Constitution.
Elected in March for a new presidential term with 76.7 percent of the votes, which is his best electoral result since coming to power, Putin has been governing Russia since 2000 either as Prime Minister or President of the country.
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“I am especially aware of my enormous responsibility to each of you, to Russia,” Putin stated at the oath-taking ceremony.
“I will do everything to increase the strength, prosperity, and glory of Russia,” he conveyed.
“All our beauty and all our strength lie in our cultural authenticity and our unity,” said the new/old President Vladimir Putin.
From a Former KGB Officer to Father of the Nation
Putin, a former KGB officer, came to power in 2000, replacing Boris Yeltsin as president of a then unstable and economically weak country. A large number of compatriots praise him for bringing stability and progress to the country thanks to oil revenues, while critics condemn him for restricting human rights and media freedoms.
On the international stage, he has sought to restore Russian influence in the world weakened after the collapse of the USSR, which he called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century” and the chaotic years of Boris Yeltsin’s rule. In 2014, he began to restore a “great Russia” by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which he did through the intervention of Russian special forces and a referendum organized a few days later that Kyiv and the West deemed illegal.
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This operation increased his reputation at home but triggered the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. The West also accuses Moscow of militarily supporting the separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine, which the Kremlin denies. As a great sports enthusiast, the Russian president aimed to showcase Russia as a sporting superpower by organizing the World Cup.
In 2014, Russia hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which were the most expensive in history, but after the release of the McLaren report in 2016, the Kremlin’s dreams were shattered by allegations of systematic doping, which the latter denies.
All of Putin’s Terms
When Yeltsin resigned at the end of 1999 and appointed him as Prime Minister to succeed him, Putin had already established himself as the top man in the country, the only one capable of guaranteeing security after his departure.
After an easy victory in the 2000 elections, Putin consolidates power relying on the “power structures” (the secret service, police, and military) and close associates. He soon excludes oligarchs from the political game, business people who became wealthy during the murky privatizations of the 1990s, and sends disobedient ones behind bars, such as Yukos oil company owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Kremlin also tightens control over television networks that disturb it with their libertarian tone inherited from the 90s.
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Since he could not hold more than two presidential terms according to the constitution, in 2008 he entrusted the Kremlin to his Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and took over his position. At the end of 2011, he announced his return to the Kremlin for a new term, which was subsequently extended to six years, prompting a large wave of protests in the country. However, the protest movement weakened when he overwhelmingly won the presidential elections again in the spring of 2012. After that, laws were passed in parliament that the opposition deemed to stifle freedom and allow for stronger repression of any form of protest.
