Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be sworn in for his fifth term as president in a ceremony at the Kremlin later on Tuesday.
The United States and most European Union countries have said they will not send envoys to Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as Russian president on Tuesday.
Putin, 71, secured a fifth term in office in a March election that critics said lacked democratic legitimacy.
He received 87.28 percent of the vote, weeks after the sudden death of his harshest critic Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison.
“We will not have a representative at his inauguration,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “We certainly did not see this election as free and fair, but he is the president of Russia and he will continue to serve in that capacity.”
The United Kingdom and Canada said they would not send anyone to the ceremony, while a European Union spokesman told Reuters the bloc’s ambassador to Russia would not attend the inauguration, in line with the position of most EU member states.
The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which withdrew their ambassadors from Moscow, ruled out attending the inauguration.
“We believe that the isolation of Russia and especially its criminal leader must continue,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.
“Participation in Putin’s inauguration is unacceptable for Lithuania. Our priority remains supporting Ukraine and its people in the fight against Russian aggression.”
The Czech Republic is also expected to reject the ceremony, while the German Foreign Office has said its representative will not attend – it had previously recalled its ambassador over suspected Russian cyberattacks.
An adviser to Putin said the heads of all foreign diplomatic missions in Moscow, including those from “unfriendly states”, had been invited to the inauguration, which begins at 12 noon (0900 GMT) and will be broadcast live on Russian television.
Putin is due to arrive at the Grand Kremlin Palace in a luxurious motorcade – state broadcaster RT reported modifications to his armored Aurus limousine, including improved sound insulation and all-round cameras. The former KGB spy will then walk through the palace corridors to the magnificent St. Andrew’s Hall, where he will take the presidential oath and give a short speech. He will also receive a blessing from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The ceremony comes a day after Russia announced plans for a tactical nuclear weapons exercise, blaming what it said were “provocative” moves by Western countries regarding Ukraine. Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
“Ukraine sees no legal reason to recognize him as the democratically elected and legitimate president of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, it said, sought to “create the illusion of legality for the almost lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship.”
Despite the apparent boycotts, France, Hungary and Slovakia are expected to send representatives to the ceremony, Reuters reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.
Speaking alongside the Chinese president on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “We are not at war with Russia or the Russian people, and we have no desire for regime change in Moscow.”
The source said France had previously condemned the context of repression in which the election took place, depriving voters of a real choice, as well as the organization of elections in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, which France viewed as a violation of international law and the United States see Charter of Nations.
Franco-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent months as Paris has increased its support for Ukraine.
Last week, Macron said it was legitimate for France to send troops to Ukraine if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines and asked Kiev for help.