Russia’s Vladimir Putin sworn in as president for a fifth termPresident Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and a number of other Western countries due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. On the international stage, he is locked in a confrontation with Western countries he accuses of using Ukraine as a vehicle to try to defeat and dismember Russia. “President Putin was re-elected and will continue the path, although the West probably doesn’t like it. Putin in March won a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election from which two anti-war candidates were barred on technical grounds. The United States and other Western countries stayed away from Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony.
