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In the gilded Andreyevsky Hall  of the Grand Kremlin Palace where Russian czars were once crowned, Vladimir Putin on Tuesday swore the oath of allegiance on Russia’s constitution at his inauguration  for a fifth term as president. The traditional pomp and ceremony conveyed his might as Russia’s supreme, uncontested leader for the past quarter-century.

Bristling with optimism about his ongoing war against Ukraine, Putin, 71, declared he would place Russia’s security above all else and promised that the country would be victorious. Russia is seeking to conquer and annex four regions of southeastern Ukraine, in addition to Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.

“We are one great nation,” Putin declared in his inauguration speech. “Together we will overcome all obstacles. We will fulfill everything we have planned. Together we will win.” A 30-gun salute followed his remarks.

As he often does in his speeches, Putin, who has accused the West of instigating Russia’s war on Ukraine, used the occasion to demand respect from Western leaders. He criticized their “aggression” against Russia, stating that talks regarding security and strategic stability could take place only if the West changes its ways.

“The choice is theirs,” he said. “Do they intend to continue trying to contain Russia, continue the policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace?”

Putin continued: “Dialogue, including on security and strategic stability, is possible, but not from a position of strength. Without any arrogance, swagger and claims to exclusivity, but only on equal terms and with due respect for each other’s interests.”

Since 2008, when he completed a second full term as president, Putin repeatedly has circumvented constitutional term limits to remain in power. First, he swapped jobs with then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and then swapped again four years later, returning to the presidency. In 2020, he engineered constitutional amendments allowing him to run for two more six-year terms. His term that began Tuesday runs until 2030, and he is eligible to run for at least another,  lasting through 2036, when he would be 83 years old.

This year, he claimed overwhelming victory in an election that was widely condemned as failing to meet basic democratic standards, with genuine opposition candidates barred from running and the Kremlin wielding nearly total control over the media.

In his inaugural address, Putin held out Russia’s stability — personified by his grip on Russia since he became acting president in 1999 — as the key goal of the Russian state, effectively equating his own political interests with those of all Russians.

Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool

“It is important for us not to forget the lessons of history, not to forget about the tragic cost of internal unrest and upheaval,” he said. “Therefore, our state, social, political system must be strong, absolutely stable, and stable to any challenges and threats, ensure the progressiveness and stability of the development of the unity and independence of the country.”

Putin, who is steadily <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2024/putin-values-russian-society-conservatism/" target=_blank>re-engineering</a> Russia as a conservative militarized nation implacably hostile to the West, played on his favorite theme of Russia as a unique millennium-old civilization. He vowed to proceed with his previously announced plan to create a new elite elevating those who have fought in the war on Ukraine or worked in support of Russia’s war effort.

He said he would “ensure that Russians who have proved their loyalty to their Motherland take leading positions in politics and economics.”

“Today, in fact, we are answering to our thousand-year history and our ancestors,” he said. “They took seemingly inaccessible heights, because they always put the Motherland first, knew that it is possible to achieve truly great goals only together with their country and their people, and created a world power, our Fatherland, and achieved such triumphs that inspire us today.”

Six years after Putin’s 2018 inauguration, Tuesday’s event marked just how much has changed. Putin’s main political rival, Alexei Navalny, died in February in an Arctic prison colony, not quite four years after surviving an assassination attempt with a nerve agent, and three years after being arrested and imprisoned upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany.

In the past six years, Putin also has carried out a massive campaign of political repression, crushing the opposition, jailing activists, cultural figures, bloggers, journalists and politicians, and outlawing the LGBTQ+ “international movement.”

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, released a video before the inauguration listing the war on Ukraine, mass repressions, corruption and official lies as marking Putin’s last term, as well as the jailing, torture and the murder of her husband, “a true patriot,” which she has blamed squarely on Putin.

“This war is bloody and senseless and nobody needs it except Putin,” Navalnaya said.

Navalnaya, somber and clad in black, said the situation in Russia had worsened with each of Putin’s presidential terms. “It’s frightening to imagine what else will happen as Putin remains in power,” she said, adding: “Now our country is being led by a liar, a thief and a murderer, but this will come to an end.”

To swear the oath, Putin placed his right hand on the constitution, a red tome that was borne with ceremony into the hall by a white-gloved, goose-stepping member of the Russian presidential regiment, offering a veneer of constitutional legitimacy in a country where the rule of law has all but vanished.

Russian state television offered breathless second-by-second coverage as Putin walked through the long corridors of his Kremlin apartments, pausing briefly to examine a painting, then continuing under a black umbrella to his newly updated Auras Senat limousine, which drove him to the palace for the ceremony.

The weather was rainy and at one point snow fell, unusual in May in Moscow.

On his way, Putin passed by mounted members of the presidential regiment, with their swords drawn and their heads tilted back, turning their faces to follow his every move — a ceremony of such grandiose pomp that it evoked a royal event.

After the ceremony, Putin attended a church service in the Cathedral of the Annunciation, where Patriarch Kirill, the hawkish leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, a fervent supporter of the war against Ukraine, appeared to urge Putin not to spare his enemies.

“The head of state must sometimes make fateful and formidable decisions,” Kirill said. “And if such a decision is not taken, the consequences can be extremely dangerous for the people and the state.”

“Alexander Nevsky did not spare his enemies, but became famous as a saint,” the patriarch said, referring to a medieval prince of Novgorod who is often evoked by Putin.

The Russian leader has extolled the prince for paying tribute to Mongol invaders from the east and routing a Swedish invasion, but Putin has twisted the historical symbolism to suggest that Western nations have always sought Russia’s defea,t while those to the east can be trusted.

Members of the government and security officials attended the ceremony, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and others. Also present was the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, amid swirling media speculation that he is in poor health.

As Putin met with members of the government Monday, preparing to begin his new term, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it would stage tactical nuclear missile drills in the near future, accusing Western officials of escalatory rhetoric over the Ukraine war.<b> </b>Russia’s Foreign Ministry also summoned the British and French ambassadors for a scolding.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the drills were in response to French and British statements on the war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron has been vocal in refusing to rule out sending ground forces to Ukraine. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said last week that Ukraine is now entitled to use British weapons to strike Russian territory.

Russia’s 1993 constitution, enacted under President Boris Yeltsin, was Russia’s first attempt to establish the rule of law and democracy. It contained lofty commitments to free speech, the right to protest, free elections and human rights, declaring that people’s “rights and freedoms shall be the supreme value.”

Putin has steadily unraveled all of these since he was first elected in 2000, after being handed the mantle when Yeltsin resigned on the last day of 1999, naming Putin, then prime minister, as acting president.

Golos, an independent Russian election monitoring group, said after Putin’s reelection in March that Russia had never seen a vote “so much out of line with constitutional standards,” adding that the basic constitutional safeguards against usurpation of power had been dismantled.

“The foundational articles of the Russian constitution, which guarantee political rights and freedoms, were essentially not in effect,” the group said.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last month passed a resolution declaring that Putin’s reelection was illegitimate, calling on all European Union members to refuse to recognize him as Russian president after his inauguration.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was absent on leave during Putin’s inauguration. Some other invited Western ambassadors did not attend, including those of Britain, Canada, Poland and the E.U. Among those present were representatives of France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Hungary.

Presidential aide Yury Ushakov strongly criticized those who snubbed the event. “I believe they simply forget where they’ve been accredited, that’s it,” Ushakov said. “They simply forget where they are posted, and most importantly, why.”

<i>Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.</i>

2016: Winner of the Overseas Press Club Madeline Dane Ross Award for international reporting on the human condition

2016: Reporting fellow, International Women’s Media Foundation  

2016: Anchored the Los Angeles Times story, "Diary of Terror," that was awarded an Associated Press Media Editors award in the Sally Jacobsen International Perspective category, as well as a citation for storytelling from the APME

2009: Winner of the Daniel Pearl Award for courage and integrity in reporting

2009: Awarded the Batten Medal by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, recognizing “compassion, courage, humanity and a deep concern for the underdog"

2008: Citation by the Overseas Press Club in relation to the Joe and Laurie Dine award for international reporting dealing with human rights

2008: Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy award for international reporting on human rights, social justice or the power of individual action

2007: Winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award for international reporting.

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Burwood, Australia

Robyn Dixon is a foreign correspondent on her third stint in Russia, after almost a decade reporting there beginning in the early 1990s. In November 2019 she joined The Washington Post as Moscow bureau chief. 

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