May 08, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

MOSCOW, May 7: Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in on Wednesday as Russian president in a glittering Kremlin ceremony, then immediately nominated his predecessor Vladimir Putin to be prime minister, launching an uncertain era of joint rule.

After taking the oath in the Kremlin’s gold-leafed Great Palace, Mr Medvedev, 42, said his most important task was to ensure “civil and economic freedom” and to strengthen Russia’s international role.

Goose-stepping guards in Tsarist-style uniforms escorted Mr Medvedev to the chandelier-lined Andreyevsky Hall where he placed his hand on a red-bound copy of the constitution and took possession of the golden presidential chain.

His first act as president was to name Mr Putin — the outgoing president and Mr Medvedev’s long-time boss — prime minister, an arrangement analysts say could allow Mr Putin to remain true leader.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Medvedev assumed control of Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal in a brief ceremony attended by the defence minister and shown on national television.

Mr Putin underlined his influence by opening the inauguration, attended by more than 2,000 members of Russia’s elite, with a call for “everyone together to continue the course that has already been taken” during his eight years in power.

Outgoing premier Viktor Zubkov resigned immediately after the ceremony, clearing the way for Mr Putin, whose nomination was to be confirmed by the Kremlin-controlled parliament on Thursday.

Mr Medvedev has risen from obscurity as a Putin-era bureaucrat to become Russia’s third post-Soviet president, commander-in-chief, and leader of the world’s largest energy producer. He inherits a booming economy fuelled by massive oil and gas exports, and a country at its most confident since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.—AFP