Vladimir Putin: Western nations shun Russian president’s inauguration ceremony in Moscow

The event is due to take place in Moscow on Tuesday

Western nations have shunned invitations to the inauguration of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who will begin his fifth term in office on Tuesday.

Germany, Czechia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have confirmed their representatives will not be attending. However, it is believed France will be sending its Russian ambassador.

It has been reported the United States will not send an envoy to the inauguration, although there has not yet been a public announcement from the White House. This comes as Ukraine’s government called on world leaders to not recognise Mr Putin “as a legitimate president”.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is to officially begin his fifth term in office at an inauguration ceremony in Moscow on Tuesday

The Russian leader was re-elected in March in a vote that many international observers branded a sham.

He stood with almost no opposition – bar three candidates who were handpicked and approved by the Kremlin. His political opponents are either in jail or in exile abroad, with one of his most vocal critics, Alexei Navalny, found dead in a Siberian penal colony weeks before the vote.

There was also little possibility of independent observation of the election. Other critics warned many people would feel they needed to vote in support of Mr Putin out of fear – whether they supported his candidacy or not.

It was the first time that citizens in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, including Donbas and Luhansk, voted in Russian elections.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “The Kremlin regime, through propaganda and manipulation, uses voter participation and voting results to justify its military invasion of Ukraine and aggressive policies toward other countries.

“We call on foreign countries, international organisations and the public to follow suit by not recognising the results of these pseudo-elections or Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as a legitimate president, to resist the demolition of the system of the rule of law and universally recognised democratic values, as well as to continue effectively supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, which poses a threat to European and world security, peace, and stability.”

UK defence secretary Grant Shapps accused Mr Putin of behaving like “a modern-day Stalin” after the results of the election were announced.

Mr Putin won 87 per cent, or 76 million votes – by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history, paving the way for him to become the longest serving Russian leader in 200 years.

Russia’s scattered opposition urged those unhappy with Mr Putin or the war to show up at polls at noon on the final day of voting, in protest. The strategy was endorsed by Mr Navalny not long before his death.

“I like the idea of anti-Putin voters going to the polling stations together at 12 noon,” Mr Navalny wrote in February, two weeks before his death. “At noon against Putin.” His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has since taken up his cause.

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said the inauguration was “not acceptable”. "We believe that the isolation of Russia, and especially of its criminal leader, must be continued," he said. "Participation in Putin's inauguration is not acceptable for Lithuania. Our priority remains support for Ukraine and its people fighting against Russian aggression."