May 8, 2012

In a final step that completed Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency of Russia, the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on May 8 confirmed former President Dmitry Medvedev as the country’s new prime minister. Putin had taken the presidential oath of office the previous day in a lavish ceremony in Moscow’s historic Kremlin, as police arrested hundreds of demonstrators claiming his election in March had been rigged. In 2008, Putin, who had been elected president in 2000 and reelected in 2004, had switched jobs with Medvedev, his protege and prime minister, because the Russian constitution barred him from serving a third consecutive term. However, Putin had retained his position as Russia’s dominant political leader.

In his inauguration speech on May 8, Putin called on Russians to unite behind his government, which is beset by economic difficulties and fierce political rivalries. Popular opposition to Putin’s continuing hold on power in the former Soviet Union has also been rising. Putin won 63 percent of the vote in Russia’s 2012 presidential election, which was clearly skewed in favor of the then-prime minister, according to international monitors.

Vladimir Putin (AP/Wide World)

Large-scale protests alleging massive voter fraud had also erupted after Putin’s United Russia party came in first in parliamentary elections in December 2011. Although the country’s election commission announced that United Russia had won more than than 49 percent of the vote, the totals still revealed a sharp drop-off in support from 2007, when the party won 64 percent of the vote. In the 2011 elections, the party lost 77 seats and its two-thirds constitutional majority in the State Duma.

Additional World Book articles:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a Special Report)
• Back in Time (Russia 2011)
• Back in Time (Russia 2007)
• Back in Time (Russia 2004)
• Back in Time (Russia 2000)
• Back in Time (Russia 1999)