ANALYSIS | Vladimir Putin Sworn in for Fifth Term

Photo Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via Getty Images via NBC News

On May 7, Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as Russian president. His inauguration took place at the Grand Kremlin Palace, marking another six years in office. He won the March presidential election in a landslide, earning 87 per cent of the votes cast. 

Many Western countries did not consider the election to be legitimate, citing the lack of significant opposition candidates. Most of the harshest critics of Putin’s regime have been imprisoned or found dead since his ascent to power in 1999. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in these incidents.

Several Western countries, including Canada, the US, the UK, and some European nations declined to send representatives to Putin’s inauguration ceremony. France, however, sent an ambassador, along with a few other EU states.

Putin’s most well-known opponent, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in February in an Arctic prison, in which he had been imprisoned since 2021. His widow Yulia Navalnaya told her supporters she would continue Navalny’s work of demonstrations against Putin, who she called “a liar, a thief, and a murderer” in a video message just before the inauguration. “Huge sums of money are stolen from us every day to fund bombings of peaceful cities, riot police beating people with batons, propagandists spreading lies,” she said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, a private military organization, was killed in a plane crash two months after leading his troops away from the front in Ukraine and capturing the city of Rostov-on-Don in June 2023. From there his army began to move north towards Moscow. The situation was defused within 24 hours via negotiations mediated by Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko. Prigozhin seemed to have suffered light consequences until his plane went down in August. The Kremlin denied involvement. 

Similarly, other critics of Putin have been jailed, exiled, or died under mysterious circumstances. Two other candidates who opposed to the war in Ukraine were jailed and removed from the ballot.

“Many opponents of the president weren’t allowed on the ballot,” Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia editor said to Ella Pamfilova, chairperson of Russia’s Central Election Commission. She responded that “people who make such a criticism have either never been to Russia or haven’t been here for a long time. It’s all myths and lies.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “Ukraine sees no legal grounds for recognizing [Putin] as the democratically elected and legitimate president of the Russian Federation.”

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron commented that “this is not what free and fair elections look like.”

The ceremony was attended by Russia’s top military and political officials. “We are a united and great nation, and together we will overcome all obstacles, realize everything we have planned, and together, we will win,” said Putin.

The next 6 years will be Putin’s third consecutive term. He has been President from 2000 to 2008 and from 2012 to the present day. From 1999 to 2000 and 2008 to 2012, he was prime minister.

Back in 2000, while running for president, Putin pledged to “preserve and develop democracy.” During his first two terms, Putin stabilized the country politically while Russia’s economy improved. However, prominent critics of the government began to die under suspicious circumstances, including journalist Anna Politovskaya, killed in her home in 2006, and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, shot and killed on a bridge in central Moscow in 2015.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Putin’s control of Russia has grown tighter. Anti-war protests have been suppressed, and criticism of the war has been criminalized with a penalty of up to three years in prison.

Previously, Russian law limited presidents to two consecutive four-year terms. A 2020 amendment to the constitution increased the term length from four years to six years and reset Putin’s term count, allowing him to stay in power until 2036.

Under Putin’s leadership, the war in Ukraine is likely to continue, resulting in increased casualties on both sides and exacerbation of Russia’s ongoing rivalry with the West. Putin has accused Western countries of financially and militarily aiding Ukraine to use it as a proxy to defeat Russia. Since the onset of Western sanctions, Russia has turned to China, Iran, and North Korea for support and strengthened ties.

In a speech in February, Putin vowed to fulfill Moscow’s goals in Ukraine and to do what is necessary to “defend our sovereignty and security of our citizens.”

Analysts say that now that Putin has secured another 6 years in power, he will probably raise taxes to fund the war and put pressure on more men to join the Russian military. “I want to bow to our heroes, the participants of the special military operation, to all those who are fighting for the Fatherland,” he declared in his inauguration speech. 

According to BBC, former White House national security advisor Fiona Hill remarked, “Putin thinks of himself now as Vladimir the Great, as a Russian tsar.”