Vladimir Putin inaugurated as Russian president for fifth time, West boycotts

May 7 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated to his fifth term in office on Tuesday despite much of the Western world, including the United States, boycotting the ceremony because of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

During the ceremony, Putin was handed a presidential insignia, a symbol of Russian presidential power. The insignia was a gold cross of St. George displaying the Russian coat of arms and a gold chain, according to the state-run news agency TASS.

Putin's government will go into a reassignment mode after the inauguration ceremonies, where Russian watchers will keep a close eye on what past administrators will get promotions and which ones will get sacked in the process.

Putin faced little opposition in his election victory on March 15, where Russian officials said he received 87% of the vote, with several opponents jailed or barred from the ballot.

He did face a protest movement encouraged by the widow of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison, that called for people to write in names, including Navalny's, rather than vote for Putin.

Putin has been in power since 1999 and in 2021 constitutional amendments permitted him to run for two more additional six-year terms than previously allowed.

The circumstances surrounding the election drew condemnation from the West as the European Parliament in April passed a resolution denouncing the election as a "sham."

The United States said the vote was "undemocratic" with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller saying the United States "will not have a representative" at Putin's inauguration.

Britain, Canada and the European Union each also declined to send a representative.

"Russia's assault on Ukraine is an unprovoked, premeditated and barbaric attack against a sovereign democratic state," the British Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in its message boycotting the inauguration.

"The U.K. condemns the Russian government's reprehensible actions which are an egregious violation of international law and the UN Charter."

Moscow's war with Ukraine has gone on much longer than the Kremlin had hoped but Russia made some gains in the spring with Western supplies stalled, the dynamics would change with a new influx of weapons for Ukraine.