Putin vows to 'serve the people' for six more years, others charge he's building his own mega-wealth

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TODAY:

• Vladimir Putin's official assets include a savings account, small apartment and three old cars, but as he was sworn in today for six more years as president, some say he's already milked the country to become one of the world's wealthiest people
• Argentina appears to have stopped a global run on its peso, but at a staggering cost to its own citizens
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The perks of Putin's power

It was a modest little ceremony.

Just Vladimir Putin and 6,000 cheering guests, inside the gold-covered Andreyevsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace.

In Moscow this morning, Russia's 65-year-old leader was sworn in for his fourth term as president, laying his hand on a copy of the constitution that he has often circumvented during his 19-years-and-counting in power.

"Taking up this post, I feel a colossal sense of responsibility," Putin told the crowd. "The object of my life and my work will be to serve the people and the fatherland."

Officially, politics has not been that kind to the former KGB agent. The income declaration forms he submitted prior to the March election provided a modest list of assets, including an 800 square-foot apartment in St. Petersburg, $241,000 in savings, and three old cars — two 1960s Volgas, and a 2009 Lada 4x4.

Putin's official salary as president is 18.7 million rubles, which works out to around $380,000 Canadian a year. More than the $345,000 Justin Trudeau earns as Prime Minister, but a bit less than the $400,000 US-plus-expenses that Donald Trump takes home at the White House (all of which he has pledged to donate to charity.)

But Putin's actual net worth is the subject of much speculation.

Some estimates put his personal fortune at $200 billion — well beyond the paltry $112 billion that earns Jeff Bezos the title of world's richest man. Others say the Russian president may only have $70 billion, which would place him at No. 6 on Forbes' list of billionaires.

He is said to own four boats, one a $100 million "super-yacht" complete with a 14-metre-long indoor pool, spa and waterfall.

And there's a 160,000-square-metre "cottage" on the shores of the Black Sea, which boasts three helicopter landing pads and a private theatre.

In 2012, Boris Nemtsov, the since-assassinated Russian opposition leader, produced a report entitled "The Life of Galley Slave," which listed Putin's 58 planes and helicopters, 11 luxury watches — each worth more than his annual salary — and 20 getaway properties. There was also talk of a $75,000 toilet on a presidential jet.

Putin's March election victory — his largest win yet, with 77 per cent of the recorded vote — gives him the right to keep on governing through at least 2024. Although there has already been talk that he might stick around past then.

And should he chose to retire, there's a pretty good pension plan for ex-presidents — 75 per cent of their salary.

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Argentina slides back into crisis

Argentina appears to have stopped a global run on its peso, but at a staggering cost to its own citizens.

On Friday, the nation's central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate to 40 per cent — the third rate increase of the week — after the peso hit an all-time low, trading at 23 per U.S. dollar.

Argentina already had the highest interest rate in the world — 27 per cent at the end of April — but that wasn't enough to sustain investor confidence. Nor was the central bank's strategy of trying to prop up the peso by selling off almost $8 billion US in reserves.

The currency crisis marks a major setback for the government of President Mauricio Macri, a conservative who took power in 2015 pledging to reform and stabilize the country's long-suffering economy. Consumers were already feeling the effects of budget austerity measures, including decisions to end government price controls on gas, electricity and food.

Mortgages and car loans have long been priced out of reach of most Argentinians, but the rate hike will be felt all the same. Analysts are already downgrading their economic growth forecasts for the year from 3 per cent to 2 per cent. And inflation, which was already running at 15 per cent, is now expected to climb to 25 per cent, well-above the official 8-to-12 per cent target.

Unemployment officially stands at 7 per cent, but by some estimates as much as a third of the country's workforce is off the books.

Macri's tough-love approach to the economy had seemed promising. Argentina's stock market was up 77 per cent last year, making it the world's top performer. And a 2016 deal to settle a historical dispute with bond holders allowed the country to make its first new bond offering in 15 years, raising $16.5 billion.

Now all that progress appears in doubt.

Still, things have frequently been worse. Interest rates in Argentina have averaged 61.7 per cent since 1979 — although that's somewhat skewed by the all-time high of 1,390 per cent in March 1990, when inflation peaked at 20,000 per cent.

Whatever the costs of stabilizing the peso, they don't compare to the price of failing to do it. A currency crisis in late 2001 precipitated a run on Argentina's banks, followed by a $93 billion US debt default, widespread social unrest and political instability.

In the month of December 2001, Argentina had four different presidents. One, Ramon Puerta, lasted for just two days.

Quote of the moment

"She kept saying, 'No, Canadian licences are not accepted.' I was flabbergasted. I just kept saying this can't be right — a Canadian licence is always valid."

- Emily Nield, a 27-year-old from Kleinburg, Ont., who is looking for an apology from the Georgia police officer who arrested, handcuffed and charged her because she was driving with a Canadian licence.

What The National is reading

• Yemen presidential palace levelled by Saudi airstrikes (CBC)
• U.K. information watchdog seeks Cambridge Analytica data (BBC)
• Indian teen fights for life after sexual assault, burning (Aljazeera)
• Poland's Holocaust law triggers tide of abuse at Auschwitz (Guardian)
• U.S. university faces fine for losing radioactive material (NPR)
• Montreal set to debut new, high-tech self-cleaning public bathrooms (CTV)
• Fossil footprints tell story of giant sloth hunt during Ice Age (CBC)

Today in history

May 7, 1969: Living in fear — draft dodgers in hiding

A Toronto program to help American draft dodgers settle into Canadian life was welcoming 30 new clients every day. But it took awhile for the new arrivals to feel at home — and safe. "Paranoia just seems to take over," explains one Vietnam refusenik. He spent months waiting for a knock on the door that never came.

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