Vladimir Putin was inaugurated today in front of about 2,000 guests in the hall of St. Andrew Palace at the Kremlin, becoming Russia’s president for the third time. Although his image is still associated to the “supreme leader of the last four years as prime minister,” Putin returns to Kremlin with setbacks in his authority after months of protests in Russia that put him in the position to reassert his power on the political arena. Surprisingly, his wife, Lyudmila Putina, stood beside him for the inauguration.
The riot police detained at least 22 protesters, when a crowd of several dozen people who challenged the new/old president began to shout: “Russia without Putin”, news agency reports. “This shows that Putin is afraid of unhappy citizens. Although there are not too many, there are not only a few of them, “said Paul Kopilkov, an 18-year-old student.
During the last major protests on Sunday, the police detained more than 400 people, including three opposition leaders after tensions broke out in the meeting of about 20,000 people at the Kremlin. Police officers attempted to stop the demonstrators but it only led to violence. They advanced toward the crowd armed with metal bars and throwing objects. Before the riot police to restored order, the protesters responded to the aggression coming from the police. “Putin has shown his true face, as to how much ‘he loves’ the citizens by police intervention,” said Dmitry Gorbunov, 35, who took part in the protest.
Putin is in a position to quell rivalries between liberals and conservatives to the positions in the new cabinet led by Medvedev. The result of this fight might not be a measure of the expectations of how much the reforms will develop to improve investment climate. Russia’s economy of over 1.9 trillion dollars is better conducted than in most European countries, but it is vulnerable to any change in oil prices, this being Russia’s main export commodity. And now, Russia’s budget is under pressure due to election costs of Putin’s campaign. Putin said that he wants to attract more foreign investment by improving the business environment, by reducing corruption and by reducing the dependence to Russia to energy exports. But it did not say how he will accomplish this.
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