Hailing democracy, Putin sworn in as Russian president

In the first democratic transfer of executive power, Vladimir Putin officially takes over. Now the question is: What is his agenda?

©New York Times, published May 8, 2000

MOSCOW -- Beneath a gilded sunburst in a gilded palace, his hand on a red leather-bound copy of the Constitution, Vladimir Putin swore an oath Sunday to "respect and guard the human and civil rights" of Russia and became, officially at last, its second president.

Much of Russia -- and the world -- now waits to see what he will do with the title. Many expect a quick push to overhaul Russia's inscrutable tax code and economy and to reassert Kremlin rule over its 89 provinces -- goals supposedly too risky to chase when he was only an acting leader.

But Putin, who has dropped only the broadest hints of an agenda since he abruptly succeeded President Boris Yeltsin on New Year's Eve, revealed nothing more Sunday. Predictably, he reappointed as acting prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, 42, a financial expert known to the West for his dealings on rescheduling Russia's foreign debt and who is widely expected to be Putin's nominee to head the cabinet.

In a brief speech after his swearing-in, Putin said he would perform his duties openly, "guided only by the interests of the state."

"I consider it my sacred duty to unite the people of Russia, to gather citizens around clearly defined tasks and aims and to remember, every minute of every day, that we are one nation and one people," he said. "We have one common future."

Although known as prosecutor of a war in Chechnya that has brought fresh accusations of Russian trampling on human rights, Putin on Sunday made much, oratorically and symbolically, of the step toward democracy that his inauguration represented. The ceremony, he noted, completed the first legal and democratic transfer of executive power in Russia's 1,100-year history.

Underscoring that, Yeltsin stood beside him, on a podium in the Kremlin Grand Palace, throughout the ceremony.

"We can be proud that this is being done peacefully, without revolutions and putsches, in a respectful and free way," Yeltsin said in remarks to the crowd. "This is possible only in a new Russia, one in which people have learned to live and think freely."

Four months after his stunning resignation, Yeltsin appeared healthy but spoke slowly and with one pause so long that some applauded, thinking his speech was over.

The tightly scripted ceremony called for Yeltsin to hand over to Putin the symbol of Russian leadership, a gold medal and chain called the Order of Service to the Fatherland, First Degree. Either by deliberate omission or forgetfulness, the transfer did not take place.

Watching from a VIP seat was former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a bitter Yeltsin enemy who was barred from the 1996 inauguration. He was invited, officials said, as a gesture to his role in creating a democratic Russia and to stress the continuity of Russian leadership.

The invitation-only audience of legislators, jurists and diplomats -- heads of state were not invited -- also included Putin's favorite schoolteacher and his judo instructor.

It was a bittersweet and, for Putin and many in the audience of 1,500, a largely unexpected moment. When Yeltsin began his second term in office four years ago, most people would have considered it unthinkable that any head of Russia's long-feared espionage apparatus would be freely elected president in 2000.

When Yeltsin plucked Putin from the relative anonymity of a senior Kremlin post last August and named him prime minister and preferred successor, still others snickered. Putin had no political experience. Worse still, he was bland in appearance and demeanor.

But Putin, 47, a former KGB agent who rose to head its domestic successor, the Federal Security Service, surprised almost everyone. His war against secessionist rebels in Chechnya -- and his fondness for judo, jet fighter rides and submarine trips -- made him a symbol of patriotism and professionalism.

Although many Russians have soured slightly on the war in Chechnya as the fighting drags on, Putin's victory in the presidential election in March proved a foregone conclusion. And in polls last week, 60 percent of respondents said they viewed him positively.

Kremlin officials had said they wanted an inauguration that would be muted in character and that would emphasize the continuity of government. They succeeded in stressing continuity.

But the proceedings Sunday may even have exceeded in splashiness Yeltsin's own 1996 inauguration, where the crowd was twice as large.

It was probably impossible to stage anything muted in the Grand Palace, a massive, 162-year-old edifice whose halls were restored and thoroughly gilded at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars during Yeltsin's tenure. Nor was it clear that anyone tried.

Unlike Yeltsin, Putin did not bring the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church onstage to certify his installation, a tradition that reminded many of the crowning of a new czar. On the other hand, Yeltsin's inauguration lasted only 15 minutes, and he was too stricken by heart trouble even to make a speech.

Putin's ceremony, broadcast on all major television networks, was run with military precision and Hollywood style, down to the aerial camera that tracked his entourage down a deserted riverside highway and through the Kremlin gates.

A covey of cameras watched as Putin's midnight-blue Mercedes limousine pulled up at the palace and he emerged, alone. And, through two or three long minutes, still more cameras followed Putin through the palace, striding alone down an endless red carpet, up the 57 steps of the famous Red Staircase and through two palace rooms packed with applauding guests.

He entered St. Andrew's Hall, where the installation took place, precisely as the Kremlin clock struck noon. As the ceremony ended, a choir sang the "Glory" aria from an 1836 opera by Mikhail Glinka, Life of the Czar, about a peasant who dies to save the czar from Polish invaders. Outside the Kremlin walls, 30 artillery pieces fired a booming 30-shot salute.

After the Kremlin ceremony and a blessing from the patriarch, Aleksei II, Putin reviewed a parade by a regiment of Kremlin guards and paid tribute to Russia's military by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier just outside the Kremlin walls. He then spoke at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary Tuesday of the Allies' triumph over Hitler.

Then, Putin started work, holding a cabinet meeting and reappointing Kasyanov.

Kasyanov, like all senior officials in Putin's government, submitted his resignation after the inauguration as required by law. Putin said later that he expects to reappoint most of them to permanent positions.

Although his appointments may offer clues, there is real uncertainty as to where Putin intends to take Russia next.

He has proclaimed himself a democrat and a capitalist, and some of his top advisers reflect those views.

Lilia Shevtsova, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow, said Putin is at his core a bureaucrat who wants to make the system work and not to revolutionize it. Nor does he have the political clout to carry off a revolution, she said.

"If he proceeds with a radical agenda on the economy," Shevtsova said, "then he's going to put the stick into a very, very unpleasant ants' nest."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.