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Putin tells CoUNTRYMEN in New Year address

Russia will 'move forward' in 2025

He offers no specific promises on economy or the war in Ukraine


January 02, 2025 00:00:00


MOSCOW, Jan 01 (Reuters): President Vladimir Putin told Russians in a New Year address that the country would move forward with confidence in 2025, though he offered no specific promises on the economy or the war in Ukraine.

At a time when many ordinary people are worried about rising prices and the central bank's 21% interest rate is squeezing businesses and hmebuyers, Putin reassured Russians that their wellbeing was his top priority.

He framed Russia's challenges as part of a wider historic mission, evoking past victories including its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Russia, he said, had overcome trials, achieved major goals and strengthened its unity in the first quarter of the 21st century - a period coinciding exactly with his time as its paramount leader.

"And now, on the threshold of the new year, we are thinking about the future. We are confident that everything will be fine, we will only move forward. We know for sure that the absolute value for us was, is and will be the fate of Russia, the well-being of its citizens," he said.

His three-and-a-half-minute seasonal message from the Kremlin was being broadcast at midnight in each of Russia's 11 time zones, starting with Kamchatka and Chukotka in the far east.

He was speaking exactly 25 years since he first addressed the nation as its acting president after Boris Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly on the last day of 1999.


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