May 7, 2008, 14:59 GMT
Moscow - Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as Russia's third president in a pomp-filled ceremony Wednesday, and immediately secured the continued influence of his mentor and predecessor Vladimir Putin by naming him prime minister.
New Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and his wife Svetlana (R) leave the Kremlin's Annunciation Cathedral after his inauguration as Russia's third president in Moscow, Russia, 07 May 2008. Dmitry Medvedev was elected as new Russian President on 02 March 2008. EPA/DMITRY ASTAKHOV / RIA NOVOSTI/KREMLIN POOL
Wednesday's one-two power swap creates an unprecedented split in Russia's traditional top-down leadership that raises questions as to who will have final say over Russia's 1.3-trillion-dollar economy and nuclear might.
In the Kremlin's gilded Andreyevsky Hall, 2,400 VIP guests boar witness as Medvedev took the oath of office, right hand on a red- bound copy of Russia's young Constitution.
The document drafted in 1993 enshrines most power in the office of the president, yet Putin is set to become Russia's most powerful prime minister ever, leading a parliamentary majority big enough to change the constitution.
Putin opened Wednesday's anthem- and military-charged event saying: 'It is imperative for everyone together to continue the course that has already been taken and has justified itself.'
But observers saw the generational and character differences between the 42-year-old liberal-minded lawyer Medvedev and his ex-KGB agent mentor Putin, 55, as a possible policy fault-line.
After a 32-gun salute marking his inauguration, Medvedev named 'civil and economic freedoms' as the country's main goals in a seeming departure from Putin's heavy-handed rule.
His speech championed the middle-class and spoke out against corruption and 'legal nihilism.'
Though Medvedev inherits a booming economy from his predecessor, critics charge Putin has roll-back democracy and harmed Russia's foreign relations with his military muscling flexing and bellicose rhetoric.
An anti-Putin protest late Tuesday was cancelled as police preemptively arrested activists and the authorities clamped down on the square where the meeting was to be held.
The Communists, the only opposition bloc in parliament, have said they will oppose Putin's candidacy as premier, but pro-Kremlin party United Russia's dominance has turned the legislature into a rubber- stamp body.
In marked contrast to Putin's enemy-routing words, Medvedev spoke in favour of human rights in his seven-minute speech Wednesday.
'Human rights and freedoms are of the highest importance for our society and determine the meaning and form of all state activity,' Medvedev said.
Medvedev's first decree Wednesday - housing for World War II veterans - stuck to the social issues that marked his campaign, leaving aside foreign policy.
As he accepted the briefcase of launch codes controlling Russia's nuclear arsenal, it remained unclear whether he will pursue Putin's hawkish foreign policy stance.
Medvedev first planned visits are to Kazakhstan and China, emphasizing the importance of these oil-trading partners over the West.
He will meet first meet with the US and other Group of Eight leaders at the organizations summit in Japan this summer.
Above all indebted to Putin for his ascension from obscurity, Medvedev reiterated vows to persist with Putin's policy course at his swearing-in.
Analysts will scrutinize the staff reshuffles for the next clues as to how power will be parted from the cloudy and strife-ridden Kremlin halls.
The highly orchestrated ceremony and fast-forward power transition was a microcosm of what many see as the Kremlin's circumventing of democracy in order to manage Putin's retention of power.
Russian state television began live broadcasts of the hour-long inauguration with a bird's eye view of the black-windowed limousines speeding down vacated boulevards to the Kremlin's ornate gates.
Putin, then Medvedev, separately climbed the red-carpeted steps to the Kremlin's throneroom for the inauguration ceremony that follow the same protocol as in 2004, 2000 and 1996.
The heavy patriotic trimmings and salutes by goose-stepping Kremlin guards was a preview of Friday's Victory Day celebration.
The Medvedev-Putin duo will preside on Friday over the largest show of strength since the end of the Soviet Union with a military parade of tanks, troops and jets streaming over Red Square to commemorate World War II.
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