Putin begins his hard-won third presidential term in politically transformed Russia
THE MOSCOW KREMLIN, Russia — Vladimir Putin, the former Russian president, who ran the country from 2000-08 and the nation’s prime minister in the past four years — has again become the country’s head of state, after taking the oath of office in an official swearing-in ceremony in Moscow
The president-elect, taking the official oath, pledged during the course of exercising his presidential authority to faithfully serve his people, respect and protect the rights and freedoms of citizens, the Constitution, sovereignty, independence, security and integrity of the Russian state.
After this procedure, the chairman of the Constitutional Court (CC) Valery Zorkin officially declared Putin the new president of Russia. Thus, Putin became the nation’s president for the third time, but for the first time, the presidential term will not run for four years, as was the case with the predecessor, but six years, according to the recent amendments to the Constitution.
The grandiose inauguration ceremony, which was attended by about 3,000 VIP guests, was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace. Among the VIP guests were the Federation Council senators, State Duma legislators, Public Chamber members, representatives of the Russian Presidential Administration, other top government officials, the chairman and members of the CC and several other representatives of the Russian political, social and business elite and foreign dignitaries.
According to the Constitution, the presidential authorities of the former head of the Russian state, Dmitry Medvedev, who had led the country for the past four years since taking the nation’s highest political office in 2008, were automatically terminated following the swearing ceremony of the new president.
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