Putin 4.0 to launch amid crackdown on opposition

TIL Desk/World/Moscow/ Vladimir Putin will be inaugurated for his fourth Kremlin term today under the shadow of hugely strained ties with the West and a crackdown on the opposition.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for 18 years, will begin his next stint as leader two days after nearly 1,600 protesters including opposition leader Alexei Navalny were detained during nationwide rallies against him, with the European Union condemning “police brutality and mass arrests”.

The Russian president used his last term to annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and launch a military campaign in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad the following year and has promised to improve living standards at home during his next term.

But he has remained silent on the issue of his succession — despite this being an inevitable concern as the constitution bars him from running again when his fourth term ends in 2024.

Putin has struggled to revive an economy that crashed after Moscow was hit with Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by a fall in global oil prices in 2016.