Political career of Vladimir Putin personally congratulated Putin on his victory, calling Putin "a driving force behind strategic ties of cooperation between Venezuela and Russia." Anti-Putin protests took place during and directly after the presidential campaign. The most notorious protest was the 21 February Pussy Riot performance, and subsequent trial. Also, an estimated 8,000-20,000 protesters gathered in Moscow on 6 May, when eighty people were injured in confrontations with police, and 450 were arrested, with another 120 arrests taking place the following day. Putin was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012. On his first day as President, Putin issued 14 Presidential decrees, including
Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate Divine Liturgy by clergy of both churches. Among the dignitaries present was President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Mayor of Moscow Yuriy Luzhkov, presidential envoy Georgy Poltavchenko, and other government officials. Putin has been hailed by the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' Alexy II of Moscow as instrumental in healing the 80-year schism between it and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia in May 2007. Some opponents of the Act, who have left ROCOR, claim that the reconciliation of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was the result of