07 May 2004 10:16
Putin to start second term with Kremlin pomp
Vladimir Putin takes the oath of office in a glittering Kremlin ceremony on Friday to usher in a second four-year term dominated by the challenge of modernising a vast economy cripped by poverty. Eight weeks after his landslide re-election, some 1,700 guests – the cream of Russian society – are invited to see Putin stride into the lavish Andreyevsky hall and pledge to serve his country.
Cavalry will probably parade in the square outside the Great Kremlin Hall for the first time since tsarist days in a ceremony marked by a traditional 30-gun salute over the Moscow River, NTV television said. Widespread apathy over the presidential election, seen as a walkover, means many Russians will pay scant attention to the ceremony, especially as it falls between two long weekends.
Putin faces little dissent from a compliant parliament and hand-picked government and the event will emphasise spectacle rather than policy in the second term, Putin's last under the constitution. The president is likely in a short address to repeat a commitment to have Russia stand as an equal alongside wealthier industrialised nations. Policy is expected to emerge in a state of the nation address expected in the coming weeks.
The inauguration takes place soon after European Union and NATO expansion taking in ex-Soviet allies. Putin has won widespread admiration for entrenching stability after a decade under Boris Yeltsin that included an armed rebellion by parliament and an economic meltdown.
But tens of millions remain mired in poverty and commentators say public perceptions of Putin, viewed favourably compared to Yeltsin, could shift, especially if oil prices fall and export revenue with them. Liberals welcome his public commitment to reform but decry what they see as an increasingly autocratic style, a tighter grip on independent media and the failure to find a way to stop separatist violence in Chechnya.
Russians and Western investors will be watching for a resolution to the case against oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man who faces trial on fraud and tax evasion charges. Putin will want to prove that he can deliver on changes demanded by institutions like the World Trade Organisation, such as the dismantling of monopolies and energy price reforms.
One key decision he faces, possibly within two weeks, will be whether to support the Kyoto protocol on global warming, which needs Moscow's ratification to survive.
Backing the protocol would antagonise the United States, with which Putin has established close ties in the fight against terrorism. Scuttling it would upset western Europe.
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