Fatherland was held. Then they went to the informal part of the inauguration ceremony. Foreign response A number of foreign leaders congratulated President Vladimir Putin upon his assumption of office. Among them are: Syrian President Bashar Assad, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Chinese President Hu Jintao and others. Incidents During the ceremony, there were two unplanned incidents. First – applause were unplanned, took place during the release of the State Duma Chairman Sergey Naryshkin. Typically, the output Chairmen of Chambers of the Parliament is not accompanied by applause. Second – there was a microphone error. When Chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin invited Vladimir Putin to take the oath. Putin was initially unable to speak because the microphone did not work for several seconds. The ceremony continued once the microphone had been fixed. See also First inauguration of Vladimir Putin Second inauguration of Vladimir Putin Fourth inauguration of Vladimir Putin References 2012 in Moscow May 2012 events in Russia Putin 3 Events in Moscow Ceremonies in Russia Vladimir Putin