Putin officially begins his 5th term today as the nation eyes ‘a new world’

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin, who has shut down domestic dissent and ramped up confrontation with the West over nearly a quarter century in power, officially begins his fifth term on Tuesday.

Ever since the previously little-known KGB agent became president on New Year's Eve 1999, he has consolidated power by bringing oligarchs to heel, banning any real opposition and turning Russia into an authoritarian state.

The Kremlin leader is due to be inaugurated for a fifth term on Tuesday after winning his largest-ever election victory in March in a vote condemned by the West as a sham.

The election was overshadowed by the death of Putin's main rival Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in mysterious circumstances.

Other opponents are serving lengthy jail sentences or have fled into exile.

Abroad, 71-year-old Putin has spearheaded efforts to challenge the dominance of the West.

His grip on power tightened further after he invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with public dissent against the war effectively silenced through court proceedings and imprisonment.

His rule risks being defined by the war in Ukraine, which has cost many thousands of lives and sparked unprecedented Western sanctions that have created major tensions in the Russian economy.

There were large anti-war protests in the days after he ordered troops into Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, 2022. They were quickly quashed.

But there were more demonstrations months later when the government was forced to announce a partial mobilisation, after Russia failed to topple Ukraine's government in the opening offensive of the war.