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Vladimir V. Putin was inaugurated for a fifth term as president on Tuesday in a ceremony filled with pageantry and a televised church service, as the Russian leader tried once more to depict his invasion of Ukraine as a religiously righteous mission that is part of \u201cour 1,000-year history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Putin took the presidential oath \u2014 he swore to \u201crespect and safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen\u201d \u2014 with his hand on a red-bound copy of Russia\u2019s constitution, the 1993 document that guarantees many of the democratic rights that he has spent much of his 25-year rule rolling back.<\/p>\n
Mr. Putin claimed his fifth term in March in a rubber-stamp election<\/a> that Western nations dismissed as a sham. If he serves the full six years of his new term, he will become the longest serving Russian leader since Empress Catherine the Great in the 19th century.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we will be victorious!\u201d Mr. Putin said at the end of a speech after he took the oath in the Kremlin\u2019s gilded St. Andrew\u2019s Hall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Afterward, state television showed a service inside the Kremlin\u2019s Cathedral of the Annunciation that was led by Patriarch Kirill I, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He blessed Mr. Putin as the president stood, looking on, occasionally bowing and crossing himself \u2014 a scene that underscored the Kremlin\u2019s intensifying efforts to give a religious sheen to Mr. Putin\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n \u201cThe head of state must sometimes make fateful and fearsome decisions,\u201d the patriarch said, in what appeared to be attempt to frame Mr. Putin\u2019s invasion as justified before God. \u201cAnd if such a decision is not made, the consequences can be extremely dangerous for the people and the state. But these decisions are almost always associated with victims.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Putin offered no new policy details in his speech, even though analysts expect him to make some changes to the makeup of his government later this week. He also said nothing about the tactical nuclear weapons drills<\/a> that his military announced on Monday, a move that highlighted Mr. Putin\u2019s continued attempts to pressure the West to relent in its support of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not reject dialogue with Western states,\u201d Mr. Putin said in his speech, repeating his call for talks that many critics see as tantamount to a demand for capitulation by the West and Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cI will repeat that talks, including on issues of strategic stability, are possible,\u201d he added, referring to arms-control negotiations with the United States that have been stalled since Russia launched its invasion more than two years ago. \u201cBut only on equal terms, respecting each other\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Isolated from the West after more than two years since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and under indictment by the International Criminal Court<\/a>, Mr. Putin is projecting a power domestically that seems stronger than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cOur president has the highest powers, more than the American president and even the Russian czar,\u201d said Gennady A. Zyuganov, the leader of Russia\u2019s Communist Party, as he arrived at the ceremony in the Kremlin. \u201cA lot depends on him.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 2,000 government officials, prominent supporters and loyal administrators who are part of Russia\u2019s institutions in occupied Ukraine gathered to witness the tightly stage-managed inauguration.<\/p>\n Mr. Putin\u2019s preordained election in March delivered him more than 87 percent of the vote, according to Russian election officials, with almost 80 percent turnout.<\/p>\n As supporters assembled, they all shared a message demonstrating Mr. Putin\u2019s iron grip on their loyalty: that he would keep Russia stable, strong and peaceful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Among the first to arrive was the American actor Steven Seagal, who said of Russia\u2019s future that, \u201cWith President Putin, it will be the best.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Putin pronounced the brief oath standing next to Valery Zorkin, the head of the Constitutional Court \u2014 a body that has steadfastly upheld Mr. Putin\u2019s rollback of the democratic rights.<\/p>\n All legitimate opposition politicians have been jailed. The most prominent, Aleksei A. Navalny, died in suspicious circumstances<\/a> in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle in February.<\/p>\n