With great fanfare, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as president of Russia May 7 in the gilded splendor of the Kremlin, the former residence of the Russian czars.
Although he has already held power for four months, since Dec. 31 when President Boris Yeltsin stepped down, Putin has been careful not to reveal any coherent policy program. Instead he has been vaguely promising heaven and earth to both Western investors and Russian nationalists, capitalists and submarine captains, the prime minister of Britain and the president of Ukraine.
The list of honored guests at his inauguration resembled a list of survivors from Noah's ark. The most conspicuous trio consisted of former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the former head of the KGB, Vladimir Kryuchkov. All three hate each other passionately and for good reasons: During the attempted coup in August 1991, Kryuchkov had put Gorbachev under home arrest and tried to kill Yeltsin, and after the coup failed, Yeltsin sent Kryuchkov into jail and Gorbachev into retirement. On May 7, these three bitter foes were supposed to forget all animosity and rejoice in Putin's ascent to power.