Chechnya has installed as president a 30-year-old with his own militia force, praised by allies for restoring order to the Russian province but accused by rights groups of killing and abducting civilians.
Ramzan Kadyrov, whose father Akhmad was assassinated in 2004 after seven months as president, swore to uphold Chechen laws in a lavish ceremony in Gudermes, his clan stronghold 30 kilometres east of the capital Grozny.
Like his father, Ramzan Kadyrov switched to Moscow's side and was elevated with the Kremlin's blessing after fighting Russia's rule over its restive Caucasian province.
"My father often said to me power is not an end in itself but is a tool to achieve something else," he told hundreds of high-profile guests in a glass pavilion at his Gudermes villa.
"And I want to achieve a peaceful Chechnya within the Russian Federation."
Mr Kadyrov, nominated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February, has been an important tool in a Kremlin strategy to isolate remaining separatist forces and rebuild the province, devastated by two Russian military onslaughts since 1994.
Mr Kadyrov has effectively ruled Chechnya since his father's death, but could only legally take over the presidency once he turned 30 last year.
Alexander Petrov, deputy head of the Russian office of Human Rights Watch, said Mr Kadyrov's long-expected rise to the office of president would do little to change the situation in Chechnya.
"People continue being kidnapped, and most of them are then kept in detention for a few days, weeks or months. Beatings and torture are used, and some people disappear. Many of those kidnapped were not even charged, just kept in custody without any justification. Many were maimed," he said.
Mr Kadyrov has always denied allegations of rights abuses. He became prime minister in the pro-Moscow administration last year and president-designate in February.
With help from his militiamen, Russian forces have killed most insurgent leaders and driven the rebels into mountain hideouts, from where they launch occasional attacks.