Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual New Year address in Moscow, Russia, 31 December 2023. EPA-EFE/GAVRIIL GREGOROV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL
Vladimir Putin has addressed Russians as midnight struck in the country’s Far East, in a message that despite being heavy in military references, avoided any mention of the war in Ukraine.
Putin’s New Year speech lasted for a little over three minutes and was pre-recorded in an outdoor location inside the Kremlin to mark the 25th anniversary of his appointment as acting Russian president by his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who unexpectedly resigned on 31 December 1999.
He reminded the country that 2025 would mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over fascism and Nazi Germany. “We are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the generation that crushed Nazism. We are true to the covenants and traditions of our veterans,” he said.
Saying that the quarter of a century he had spent in power had coincided with historically significant events, Putin described Russia as having “set big goals” and achieved them, adding that the country could rightfully be proud of what had been accomplished since he came to power.
Russia’s New Year presidential address, a tradition observed by each one of the country’s leaders since Leonid Brezhnev in 1970, is broadcast just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones, meaning that the speech was broadcast in the Russian Far East at 3pm Moscow time on Tuesday.
