🎄 President Vladimir Putin sent Christmas and New Year 2024 greetings to foreign heads of state and government:

• President of the Republic of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania

• President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

• President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan

• President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

• President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

• President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov

• President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon

• President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (upper house) of the Milli Gengesh (parliament) of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov

• President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev

• President of the Republic of South Ossetia Alan Gagloev

• President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Luis Arce

• President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

• Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban

• President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro

• General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong

• President of the Republic of India Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi

• President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping

• President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez and Army General Raul Castro

• President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Thongloun Sisoulith

• President of the Republic of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega

• His Holiness Pope Francis

• President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic

• President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar al-Assad

• President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan

• President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa

🌐 Last year, the Russian diplomatic service pursued a foreign policy course determined by President Vladimir Putin in a situation of heightened confrontation with the collective West.

The main goals were to provide political and diplomatic support for the special military operation and to expand cooperation with countries and associations that make up the Global Majority.

👉 Main foreign policy results in 2023

1️⃣ An important milestone in 2023 was the update of the doctrine underlying Russia's foreign policy: on March 31, the President of Russia approved a new version of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation.

2️⃣ Russia made significant efforts to develop relations with neighbouring countries, as well as the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

3️⃣ Integration with Belarus has advanced significantly. The partner countries began working on an interstate treaty on security guarantees and the Union State security concept.

4️⃣ Amid geopolitical turbulence, Eurasian integration associations that include Russia have successfully demonstrated their resilience.

5️⃣ The progress in relations with the Central Asian states was advanced by the 6th foreign ministers' meeting in the CA5+Russia format in Samarkand in April.

6️⃣ Russia contributed to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalisation process based on the trilateral agreements of the leaders. Visas were abolished for short-term trips to Russia by Georgian citizens, and direct flights between our countries were resumed.

7️⃣ Russian-Chinese relations reached an unprecedented level in 2023. After his re-election as President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping made his first foreign visit to Russia in March. President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited China to take part in the third Belt and Road International Forum in October.

👉 Learn more about other foreign policy results

⚡️ Main foreign policy results in 2023

Per tradition, at the end of each year we summarize the outcomes of the Russia's foreign policy, implemented by the MFA and determined by President Vladimir Putin.

👉 Points 1-7

8️⃣ Russia maintained an intensive political dialogue with India, including in the context of the country's chairmanship of the #SCO and the #G20, reinforcing the Russian-Indian special and privileged strategic partnership.

9️⃣ President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome brought Russian-North Korean relations to a new level.

1️⃣0️⃣ Important joint steps were taken to expand Russian-Iranian relations. In particular, the parties signed an agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, and the foreign ministers signed a Declaration on the Ways and Means to Counter, Mitigate and Redress the Adverse Impacts of Unilateral Coercive Measures.

1️⃣1️⃣ The launch of the mechanism of regular dialogue at the level of foreign ministers accelerated cooperation between the Caspian states.

1️⃣2️⃣ Relations with Türkiye reached a strategic level in the field of peaceful nuclear energy: in particular, Russia began supplying nuclear fuel to the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

1️⃣3️⃣ Russia gained a stronger foothold in the Middle East. Relations with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, primarily the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. There was progress in relations with the League of Arab States.

1️⃣4️⃣ The second Russia-Africa Summit held in St Petersburg in July marked the culmination of collaborative efforts to significantly enhance ties in this promising area of Russia's foreign policy.

1️⃣5️⃣ The expansion of traditional partnerships with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean was central to the agenda of the successful political dialogue with regional states at the highest and high levels.

👉 Learn more about other foreign policy results

❄️ Happy New Year! ❄️🎄☃️

#NewYear #NewYear2024

🎙 New Year Address to the Nation by President Vladimir Putin

💬 We are bidding farewell to 2023.

The main thing which has united us is the destiny of the Motherland. There is a deep understanding of the utmost importance of the historic period which Russia is going through, those large-scale objectives which society is facing and the colossal responsibility for the Motherland which every one of us feels.

Work for the collective good has united society. We are united in our thoughts, tasks and in combat, whether at work or on days off, displaying the main traits of the Russian people – solidarity, mercy and firmness.

I would like to address our military personnel – everyone who is on duty, who is on the front lines fighting for truth and justice. You are our heroes. Our hearts are with you. We are proud of you and we admire your courage.

I am well aware that now you feel the love of those nearest and dearest to you, the powerful, sincere support of millions of Russian citizens, the support of the entire people.

We have proved over and over again that we are able to tackle the most difficult tasks and we will never back down as there is no force that can divide us, make us forget the memory and the faith of our fathers, or stop our development.

The upcoming year of 2024 has been declared the Year of the Family in our country. And a truly big family is definitely a family where children grow up, where parents are given attention, and treated with warm-heartedness and care, and where everyone loves and respects each other.

I would like to convey my very best wishes for the new year to all Russian families. After all, the history of our huge, wonderful and beloved Motherland is shaped by the history of each family. We – the multinational people of Russia – decide and create its fate.

We are one country, one big family. We will ensure the steady development of the Motherland, the well-being of our citizens, and we will become even stronger.

Happy New Year, friends! Happy 2024!

Read in full

🎄The holiday season is here! Here are a few places of Russia to go on New Year's vacation

📌Teriberka village, Murmansk region

The atmospheric settlement gets a lot of snow. It's worth seeing old ships and reindeer at the farm there, try sea urchins at any cafe on the shore.

✨You can buy jam and tinctures from cloudberries and lingonberries from locals, and fish and scallops from fishermen. But most importantly, if you are lucky, you can celebrate the New Year under the northern lights.

📌Perm Region

In winter, the region is considered one of the most beautiful. Trees are covered with snow and frost, and on Mount Polyud they are pressed to the ground.
❄🌬In the Ural Mountains you can ride snowmobiles among frosty rocks and snowy forests. You can also get to the Pillar Grotto - a cave-permit for ancient people. Here you can enjoy a picturesque view of nature.

📌Kostroma

🎅The residence of Grandfather Frost is located in Veliky Ustyug, and the house of Snow Maiden - in the cozy town of Kostroma. During New Year's time, residents of different parts of the country tend to come here. Here also lives Snow Maiden's assistant - snow-white cat Stepan Timofeyevich, who welcomes guests without days off and lunch breaks!
Around the main Christmas tree of the city, on Susaninskaya Square, festive events, concerts and fireworks are held.

🎉Where would you celebrate the coming year? Share in the comments!
____

🎄Праздник к нам приходит! Рассказываем, куда можно отправиться на новогодние каникулы.

📌 Село Териберка, Мурманская область
В атмосферном поселении выпадает очень много снега. Там стоит посмотреть на старые корабли и северных оленей на ферме, попробовать морских ежей в любом кафе на берегу.

✨ У местных жителей можно купить варенье и настойки из морошки и брусники, а у рыбаков — рыбу и гребешки. Но самое главное, если посчастливится, Новый год можно встретить под северным сиянием.

📌 Пермский край
Зимой регион считается одним из самых красивых. Деревья покрываются снегом и изморозью, а на горе Полюд их придавливает к земле.

❄🌬 В Уральских горах можно покататься на снегоходах среди морозных скал и снежных лесов. Можно также добраться до столбового грота — пещеры-приюта для древних людей. Здесь открывается живописный вид на природу.

📌 Кострома
Резиденция Деда Мороза располагается в Великом Устюге, а дом Снегурочки — в уютном городке Костроме. В новогоднее время сюда стремятся жители разных уголков страны. Здесь же проживает помощник Снегурочки — белоснежный кот Степан Тимофеевич, который встречает гостей без выходных и перерывов на обед!

🎅 Около главной елки города, на Сусанинской площади, проходят праздничные мероприятия, концерты и запускаются салюты.

А где бы вы встретили приходящий год? Делитесь в комментариях!

#Russia #DiscoverRussia #NewYear #NewYear2024 #Kostroma #DedMoroz #NorthernLights #Murmansk

🎙 Address by Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the start of Russia's BRICS Chairmanship

💬 On January 1, Russia was passed the baton of the #BRICS chairmanship, an association which, according to the decision adopted by the 15th BRICS Summit in August 2022, now includes 10 countries.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS as new full members which is a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.

BRICS is attracting an ever increasing number of supporters and like-minded countries that share its underlying principles, namely, sovereign equality, respect for the chosen path of development, mutual consideration of interests, openness, consensus, the aspiration to form a multipolar international order and a fair global financial and trade system, and pursuit of collective solutions to top challenges of our time.

The Russian 2024 BRICS Chairmanship under the motto Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security will act precisely in this manner and focus on positive and constructive cooperation with all countries concerned.

🔸 We will spare no effort to <...> facilitate the harmonious integration of new participants in all formats of its activities.

🔸 We will start working on the modalities of a new category of BRICS partner country.

🔸 Russia will continue to promote all aspects of the BRICS partnership in three key areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts.

🔸 Our priorities include promoting cooperation in science, high technology, healthcare, environmental protection, culture, sports, youth exchanges, and civil society.

🔸 In total, over 200 events of different levels and types will be held in many Russian cities as part of the chairmanship.

Read in full

🇷🇺 Russia assumes CIS chairmanship on January 1, 2024

The Concept for Russia’s chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 2024 has been published.

Russia will chair the Commonwealth of Independent States under the Concept of the Further Development of the CIS, endorsed by a CIS Heads of State Council resolution on December 18, 2020; the Economic Development Strategy of the CIS for the Period up to 2030 adopted by a resolution of the CIS Heads of Government on May 29, 2020, and other CIS fundamental programme documents.

Russia’s chairmanship of the CIS will be aimed at ensuring the continuity of its activities and reaching a number of goals, in part,

👉 to continue strengthening the CIS as an integration association;
👉 increase its international status;
👉 enhancing the CIS’s role as a representative venue for multilateral political dialogue on a broad range of issues;
👉 deepening its economic integration with a view to creating a common economic space;
👉 upgrading the mechanisms for countering, through cooperation, traditional and new challenges and threats to the security of the CIS member-states;
👉 promoting cooperation in the military area and on border security; expanding cultural and humanitarian interaction;
👉 aligning CIS activities with other integration associations with a view to creating a Greater Eurasian Partnership that unites the potential of all states and organisations of the region; and improving the CIS’s contractual and legal foundation and cooperation institutions.

An meaningful part of Russia’s chairmanship will be a support for measures to counter the falsification of history and attempts to rehabilitate Nazism, and to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, including the genocide of the Soviet peoples.

In this context, special attention will be paid to preparations for holding the Year of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in the CIS in 2025 – the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against Nazism.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps wrote on his X account: “The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea to keep his illegal invasion going. In doing so Russia has broken multiple UNSC resolutions and put the security of another world region at risk. This must stop now. Together with our partners we’ll make sure North Korea pays a high price for supporting Russia.”

1. Is Grant Shapps about to tweet how many UNSC resolutions the UK has breached in the past 50 years? With its invasion of Iraq, for example.

2. What about the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)? Have the ministries in London worked it out? Also, I believe they should shed light on what happened to HMS Sheffield, which sank near the Falklands in 1982. Specifically, whether there were nuclear weapons on board. Let me remind you that in the photos of the Sheffield crew that survived the sinking, the crew members were, oddly enough, wearing radiation protection gear. At the time, Shapps’s predecessors at the Ministry of Defence denied the fact that the warships bound for the islands carried nuclear weapons. But 20 years later, similar to the situation with Iraq, London acknowledged its small lie. A very small one. Britain could no longer deny it and confirmed that the ships had indeed been carrying nuclear weapons in 1982. The official spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence stated that “the weapons were Type WE.177 nuclear depth charges;” they “never entered the territorial waters of the Falkland Islands.” “A decision was taken to transfer them to other ships heading back home.” This should be verified, don’t you think?

3. I understand that poor English education has become a signature mark of the British government. Shapps could perform a simple calculation and subtract the number of NATO countries from the countries representing the Global Majority. Unfortunately, it seems like he struggles with counting.

4. Britain was the largest colonial empire in human history, with its domain spanning across all populated continents. You can learn more about this in our history section and the white book reports about the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons and their allies.

And since Shapps’s jab was specifically about North Korea, I must mention the bloody war on the Korean Peninsula that Great Britain contributed to as part of the so-called UN forces.

Here is just a brief list of London’s modern-time neo-colonial campaigns: British ground and air forces participated, alongside the Americans, in the aggression against Yugoslavia and the destruction of Iraq (see par. 1) and its population, as well as Libya, Afghanistan, the bombing of Syria and most recently – the support for the Kiev regime provided by the Anglo-Saxons in violation of all resolutions on non-supplying lethal weapons to conflict zones.

There is one thing that Shapps got right: “This must stop now.”

https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/6856