Putin works the red carpet in Kremlin spectacular

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Province:

MOSCOW, May 7, 2012 (AFP) – Filmed every red-carpeted step from his government office to the podium where he took his oath, Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin Monday with all the pomp and swagger of a Hollywood star. Applause, pealing bells and cannon fire greeted his swearing in for his third term as president after four years as prime minister for constitutional reasons. Wearing a red tie to match the carpet and a dark suit, he had descended unaccompanied the steps of the White House building, where he had worked as his protege Dmitry Medvedev’s head of government. Climbing into a sleek black armoured car, Putin drove in a motorcade through an eerily empty city, cruising down a deserted six-lane highway on his regular route to the Kremlin. Six Russian television channels gave spectacular simultaneous coverage from a helicopter hovering overhead on a picture-perfect spring day and from cameras travelling ahead of the motorcade’s front line of police motorbikes. Nothing was left to chance. The authorities closed the roads three hours ahead of the inauguration and even neighbouring metro stations shut for the occasion, ensuring that any opposition scuffles with police would be firmly out of sight. Putin, like all top politicians a stranger to the traffic jams that plague Moscow, took just eight minutes to cross the city, according to RIA Novosti news agency. The car turned into Red Square and slid through the gates of the Spasskaya clock tower — the Russian equivalent of London’s Big Ben and only ever opened for the most ceremonial occasions. Stepping out onto another red carpet, Putin was greeted as “comrade president-elect” before ascending more steps to the ceremonial hall where he was to take over from outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev. In a moment of pure theatre, the television showed vast golden double-doors swing open and Putin stride through on the stroke of noon, with Russia’s double-eagled crest on the wall behind him. Medvedev waited, like an impatient bridegroom, after crossing a much smaller strip of red carpet, for the brief oath-taking.

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