Medvedev inaugurated as Russian president

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Standing next to the fledgling leader during a ceremony Wednesday in a gilded Kremlin hall was his predecessor Vladimir Putin the man who nurtured Medvedev's rise to power and who will now be his prime minister.

The world now waits to see whether the two can rule in harmony or whether, like the Byzantine crest, they will gaze in opposite directions.

Medvedev has promised to strengthen democratic freedoms and move Russia in a more pro-Western direction, raising the hopes of those who want to see the country shift course, away from Putin's authoritarian rule.

But Putin, whom Medevedev nominated as premier hours after he was sworn in, spent his last weeks in office planning to strengthen the prime minister's role and assuming the chairmanship of the United Russia party, which dominates politics from the municipal level to the parliament.

Both Medvedev and Putin have dismissed concerns the dual leadership will lead to conflict and instability.

But Wednesday's ceremony in the glinting Andreyevsky Hall of the Kremlin Grand Palace, which overlooks the Moscow River, only emphasized the apparent contradictions between the new 42-year-old president and his future prime minister.

While Medvedev spoke of economic and democratic development after taking the oath of office, Putin said in his own brief remarks that the Russian people "have many times defended their own path and their sovereignty."

The language echoed Putin's past allegations that Western democracies were trying to impose their political system on Russia, as part of a campaign of surrounding and weakening Moscow.

Russia's major television networks broadcast live coverage of the historic transfer of power in the Kremlin, which featured goose-stepping young guards resplendent in blue uniforms and high-peaked caps, and a 30-gun salute by a battery near the high Kremlin walls.

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