🎄 Новогоднее поздравление Посла России в Великобритании Андрея Келина

💬 Дорогие друзья, уважаемые соотечественники!

Подходит к концу первая четверть XXI века. Уходящий год не стал легче предыдущих. Нестабильность международной обстановки ещё сильнее, чем прежде проверяла нас на прочность. Наши недруги не оставляли попыток нанести России стратегическое поражение. Но мы выстояли и ещё раз доказали, что сломить волю российского народа невозможно.

Напротив, Россия радикально укрепила свои позиции в противостоянии с Западом в борьбе за создание многополярного мира. Берёт верх в конфликте на Украине. Всё это улучшает перспективу налаживания подлинно равноправных и добрососедских отношений со всеми странами на основе взаимного учёта интересов.

2025 год прошёл под знаком празднования 80-летия Победы в Великой Отечественной войне. Пример героической стойкости и мужества наших предков, освободивших Европу от фашизма, служит нам нравственной опорой и ориентиром.

Дорогие соотечественники! Мы высоко ценим ваш вклад, ваше содействие, вашу дружбу.

⭐️ Несмотря на антироссийскую кампанию в британских СМИ и усилия провокаторов, нам удалось достойно отметить юбилей Победы. Проведены десятки памятных акций по всей Британии, в которых приняли участие как ветераны, так и молодёжь.

2025 год также запомнится нам серией просветительских мероприятий. Они внесли заметный вклад в сохранение позиций русского языка и культуры в Великобритании. Эти события неизменно находили живой отклик у тех британцев, которые по-настоящему интересуются Россией.

Сегодня, как никогда, очевидна важность традиционных ценностей – семьи, преемственности поколений, уважения к истории и духовному наследию. Россия последовательно выступает оплотом этих ценностей, отстаивая их значение в стремительно меняющемся мире. Отрадно, что наша диаспора в Британии способствует сохранению этих нравственных ориентиров, передавая их молодому поколению. В своей работе на благо Отечества вы всегда можете рассчитывать на поддержку Посольства.

Дорогие друзья,

Последние дни уходящего года – это время добрых надежд и веры в светлое будущее. Пусть 2026 год откроет каждому из вас путь к новым возможностям и достижениям. Желаю вам и вашим близким крепкого здоровья, благополучия и всего наилучшего!

С праздником! С наступающим Новым годом!

❗️ Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement

💬 Moscow is truly grateful to its foreign friends and partners for condemning the terrorist attack carried out by the Kiev regime against the state residence of the President of the Russian Federation in the Novgorod Region on the night of 28–29 December [...]

This incident reaffirms the terrorist nature of the group of individuals unlawfully holding power in Kiev.

In this context, those in the EU and NATO who loudly demand "ironclad" security guarantees for Ukraine as part of the Russia-US-led negotiated settlement process would do well to answer the question of which regime and for what purpose they are striving so vigorously to protect [...]

The main goal of Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London is undoubtedly to preserve a regime that dreams of survival and of continuing to control a territory where, contrary to every provision of international law, the Russian language and Russian-language media have been outlawed; where canonical Orthodoxy is persecuted; where monuments to Russian history and culture are destroyed; where Nazi ideology and practices are cultivated; and where opposition figures and ordinary people who disagree with the current state of affairs are subjected to brutal reprisals.

I am confident that the racist nature of the Kiev regime and the cynicism of its international sponsors is clear to conscientious members of the international community. They cannot fail to understand that, without an end to this criminal policy, negotiations aimed at achieving a reliable and durable settlement to the Ukrainian crisis will not succeed.

Read in full

✉️ President of Russia Vladimir Putin extended his holiday greetings on Christmas and the upcoming New Year 2026 to Heads of foreign states and governments:

Among them were:

🤝 President of the Republic of Abkhazia – Badra Gunba;
🇦🇲 President of the Republic of Armenia – Vahagn Khachaturyan;
🇦🇲 Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia – Nikol Pashinyan;
🇦🇿 President of the Republic of Azerbaijan – Ilham Aliyev;
🇧🇾 President of the Republic of Belarus – Alexander Lukashenko;
🇧🇷 President of the Federative Republic of Brazil – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva;
🇨🇳 President of the People’s Republic of China – Xi Jinping;
🇨🇺 President of the Republic of Cuba – Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez;
🇪🇹 President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – Taye Atske Selassie;
🇪🇹 Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – Abiy Ahmed;
🇭🇺 Prime Minister of Hungary – Viktor Orban;
🇮🇳 President of the Republic of India – Droupadi Murmu;
🇮🇳 Prime Minister of the Republic of India – Narendra Modi;
🇮🇩 President of the Republic of Indonesia – Prabowo Subianto;
🇰🇿 President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev;
🇰🇬 President of the Kyrgyz Republic – Sadyr Zhaparov;
🇰🇵 Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – Kim Jong-un;
🇱🇦 President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party – Thongloun Sisoulith;
🇲🇳 President of Mongolia – Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh;
🇲🇲 Chairman of the State Administration Council and Prime Minister of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar – Min Aung Hlaing;
🇳🇮 Co-presidents of the Republic of Nicaragua – Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo;
🇷🇸 President of the Republic of Serbia – Aleksandar Vucic;
🇸🇰 Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic – Robert Fico;
🇿🇦 President of the Republic of South Africa – Cyril Ramaphosa;
🤝 President of the Republic of South Ossetia – Alan Gagloyev;
🇹🇯 President of the Republic of Tajikistan – Emomali Rahmon;
🇹🇲 President of Turkmenistan – Serdar Berdimuhamedov;
🇹🇲 National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan – Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov;
🇹🇷 President of the Republic of Turkiye – Recep Tayyip Erdogan;
🇺🇸 President of the United States of America – Donald Trump;
🇺🇿 President of the Republic of Uzbekistan – Shavkat Mirziyoyev;
🇻🇪 President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela – Nicolas Maduro;
🇻🇳 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam – To Lam;
🇻🇳 President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – Luong Cuong;
🇻🇦 Pope Leo XIV.

Greetings were also sent to a number of former heads of foreign states and governments, including Raul Castro, Robert Kocharyan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Serzh Sargsyan, and Gerhard Schroeder.

🎙 President Vladimir Putin's New Year Address to the Nation

💬 We draw strength from within ourselves and from those who stand beside us – those who are dear and close to our hearts – and we are always ready to lend our shoulder in return. This mutual support gives us confidence that all our aspirations, hopes, and plans will definitely be realised.

Naturally, each of us has personal, unique dreams, very special in their own way. Yet they are inseparable from the destiny of our Motherland and from the sincere desire to be of service to it.

For we are united – the people of Russia. The labour, achievements, and successes of each of us add new chapters to its thousand-year history, while the strength of our unity determines the sovereignty and security of our Fatherland, its development, and its future.

The New Year is, above all, a time when we hope for the best, for goodness and good luck. It is a special and magical holiday, when we open our hearts to love, friendship, and compassion, to sympathy and generosity [...]

We welcome New Year together with the nearest and dearest: our children, parents, friends, and comrades-in-arms. Even those who are far away – you are still with us in spirit.

I wish you all good health and happiness, understanding and prosperity. And, above all, love which inspires us. May our traditions, faith, and memory bind all generations together, supporting us always and in everything.

☝️ We are one – a great, strong, and united family, and that is why we will continue to work and to create, to achieve our goals, moving only forward for the benefit of our children and grandchildren, for the benefit of our great Russia.

Read in full

⚡️ Foreign Ministry statement on the terrorist attack by the Kiev regime targeting civilians in the Kherson Region of the Russian Federation

In the early hours of January 1, 2026, the criminal neo-Nazi Kiev regime carried out a targeted attack using armed UAVs which took aim at a café and a hotel in Khorly, Kherson Region. Local residents were celebrating the New Year’s Eve there with their families. While the exact number of those who were killed and injured in these strikes and during the fire that they caused has yet to be established, it is already clear that several dozen civilians suffered in this attack, of whom 24 people died, including one minor.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal file on terrorist charges. Everyone who took part in this monstrous and bloody crime will be identified and would not be able to evade justice.

By perpetrating this barbarous atrocity, the Kiev regime has once again demonstrated its human-hating neo-Nazi nature. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked civilians with their drones hot on the heels of Zelensky perorations, as repeated during his New Year speech, on Kiev’s commitment to peace. We have long grown accustomed to this cynical posture, which transcends all possible boundaries and demonstrates that he has totally lost his moral bearings.

The Kiev usurper decided to target helpless civilians in his impotent range, against the backdrop of the successful advancement of the Russian Armed Forces and the losses suffered by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as the failed attempt by the Ukrainian terrorists to carry out a strike against the President of the Russian Federation’s state residence in the Novgorod Region in the early hours of December 29, 2025. He is ready to kill women and children and to perpetrate crimes similar to what happened at the Trade Union House in Odessa for the sake of holding on to power and in an effort to intimidate people from the regions which have recently reunified with Russia by linking their destinies to it forever by holding referendums.

As for the attempts by the Kiev regime to target the Presidential residence in the Novgorod Region, these was a special technical review of a block from the navigation system of one of the Ukrainian drones which were downed in the Novgorod Region’s air space in the early hours of December 29, 2025. Members of the Russian special services have succeeded in extracting the file with the mission description, and these materials will be forwarded to the United States using the appropriate channels.

Every day, the Russian Defence Ministry’s air defence systems deflect drone attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against the regions of Russia, including its capital – there were about 10 attacks of this kind today.

❗️These attempts are designed to distract people in order to leave the frontline failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces unnoticed. The Kiev regime has been trying, in vain, to prove its viability using terrorist attacks.

It is just as obvious that Office of the President of Ukraine on Bankovaya Street has been intentionally seeking to derail any attempts to find peaceful solutions.

This latest criminal strike against civilians in Khorly is a bloody atrocity by the Kiev clique. Western leaders who continue sponsoring the bankrupt regime with money and weapons bear full responsibility for this crime.

The Foreign Ministry firmly condemns all the terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime.

◼️ We express our sincere condolences to the families and friends on the victims and wish the injured speedy recovery.

The Foreign Ministry calls on the governments of the responsible sovereign countries and the relevant international structures to publicly express their resolute condemnation of the bloody terrorist attack by the Kiev regime in the Kherson Region.

☝️ Ignoring this tragedy would amount to only one thing – openly encouraging neo-Banderite terrorist crimes and acting as accomplices, which will be interpreted in legal terms with the corresponding legal consequences.

⚡️ Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation regarding the armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela

This morning, the US committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This development gives rise to deep concern and warrants condemnation.

The pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable. Ideologized animosity has prevailed over pragmatic engagement, as well as over any readiness to build relations based on trust and predictability.

In the current situation, it is essential above all to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a solution through dialogue. We proceed from the understanding that all parties that may have grievances against one another must seek solutions through dialogue-based mechanisms. We stand ready to support such efforts.

Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it proclaimed itself in 2014. Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny, free from any destructive – let alone military – external interference.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and our support for the course pursued by its Bolivarian leadership, aimed at safeguarding the country’s national interests and sovereignty.

We support the statements by the Venezuelan authorities and by the leaders of Latin American countries calling for the urgent convening of a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Russia's Embassy in Caracas is operating as normal, taking into account the situation on the ground, and maintains constant contact with the Venezuelan authorities as well as with Russian nationals present in Venezuela.

At present, there is no information indicating that any citizens of the Russian Federation have been injured.

⚡️ Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation regarding the further development of the situation around Venezuela

We are extremely concerned by reports that the President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro and his spouse were forcibly taken out of the country during today’s aggressive actions by the United States.

We demand immediate clarification of these reports.

If such actions did in fact take place, they represent an unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, the respect for which is a fundamental principle of international law.

☦️ Russia's President Vladimir Putin congratulated Orthodox Christians and all Russians celebrating Christmas (January 7, 2026)

✍️ Vladimir Putin: This wonderful holiday illuminates the world with the light of kindness and love, giving millions of people hope and the joy of communion with the spiritual traditions of our forebears, passed down from generation to generation.

I would like to note with deep appreciation the immense and truly unique contribution made by the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations to strengthening social unity, preserving our rich historical and cultural heritage, and fostering the patriotic and moral upbringing of young people.

Religious organisations devote tireless attention to works of mercy and charity, care for those in need, support participants and veterans of the special military operation, and do much to promote harmonious interfaith and interethnic dialogue in our country. This important and much-needed work deserves the most sincere recognition.

I wish Orthodox Christians and all those who celebrate Christmas good health, success and all the very best.

⚡️ Russia's Foreign Ministry statement regarding the forcible seizure of the oil tanker Marinera

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The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses grave concern over the illegal use of force by the United States Armed Forces against the oil tanker Marinera on January 7.

The Marinera, which was temporarily authorised to fly the Russian flag on December 24 in accordance with international and Russian law, was transiting peacefully through international waters of the North Atlantic en route to a Russian port.

US authorities, including through official communications with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were repeatedly provided with reliable information confirming the vessel’s Russian registration and its civilian, non-military status.

There could have been no doubt regarding this fact, nor any basis for alleging that the tanker was sailing “without a flag” or “under a false flag.”

International maritime law explicitly grants the flag state exclusive jurisdiction over its vessels on the high seas. Stopping and inspecting a vessel in international waters is permitted only under narrowly defined circumstances, such as suspected piracy or slave trading – neither of which apply to the Marinera.

In all other cases, such actions require the consent of the flag state, which in this instance is Russia.

❗️ Not only did Russia refuse to provide such consent, it formally protested to US authorities in recent weeks over the continued pursuit of the Marinera by a US Coast Guard vessel, demanding an immediate end to the pursuit and the withdrawal of unlawful demands made to the Russian ship’s captain.

Under these circumstances, the boarding and de facto seizure of a civilian vessel on the high seas by US military personnel, along with the detention of its crew, can only be viewed as a gross violation of fundamental principles and norms of international maritime law and the freedom of navigation.

This constitutes a serious infringement upon the legitimate rights and interests of the shipowner. The lives and health of the Marinera’s crew, which includes citizens of several countries, are now at risk.

We consider the threats of legal action against them on absurd grounds by US authorities to be utterly unacceptable.

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❌ References by the United States to its domestic “sanctions legislation” are without legal foundation. The unilateral restrictive measures imposed by the US and other Western countries are illegitimate and cannot justify attempts to assert jurisdiction, let alone the seizure of vessels, on the high seas.

Suggestions from certain US officials that the seizure of the Marinera is part of a broader strategy to establish Washington’s unlimited control over Venezuela’s natural resources are profoundly cynical.

We categorically reject such neo-colonial ambitions.

Alongside the US administration’s disregard for the accepted norms of international maritime navigation, Washington’s readiness to provoke acute international crises, including in Russian-American relations, which are already severely strained, is both regrettable and alarming.

The Marinera incident can only lead to a further escalation of military-political tensions in the Euro-Atlantic region and a dangerous lowering of the threshold for using force against civilian shipping.

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☝️ We call on Washington to return to the established norms and principles of international maritime law and to immediately cease its unlawful actions against the Marinera and other vessels engaged in lawful activities on the high seas.

We reiterate our demand that the United States ensure appropriate and humane treatment of the Russian citizens on board, fully respect their rights, and facilitate their swift return home.