Russian President Vladimir Putin traditionally sends foreign leaders his holiday wishes in December
The leaders of nations Moscow considers “unfriendly” will not be sent traditional New Year and Christmas greetings from President Vladimir Putin this year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday, adding that only Russia’s friends and allies will receive the messages.
The Russian leader traditionally sends official messages to current and former foreign leaders in December, where he gives them his best wishes for the upcoming holidays. However, given the unprecedented tensions Moscow is experiencing with Washington and its allies, the list of recipients has become somewhat shorter.
“[Putin] will not [send his greetings to] the unfriendly ones,” Peskov said, when asked which foreign leaders would receive the messages this year. “The friendly ones” will receive the greetings, he said, without elaborating who exactly is on the list.
Last year, the list of recipients published by the Kremlin did not include any Western leaders except for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Belgrade has traditionally had close relations to Moscow, which it has managed to retain amid the conflict between Moscow and Kiev during which relations between Russia and most European nations have taken a nosedive.
Orban deviated from most of the rest of the EU in criticizing Western military aid to Kiev and calling for peace, as well as repeatedly pointing out the ineffectiveness of the sanctions Brussels imposed against Moscow.
The 2022 greetings were also not sent to any heads of various international bodies. The Kremlin did not comment on the reasons for that decision at the time. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also removed from the list of former heads of states and governments that were to receive a holiday message from the Russian president.
Last year, Merkel admitted that the Minsk Agreements brokered by Russia, Germany, and France in 2015 to end the hostilities between Kiev and the Donbass republics were merely a strategic ploy aimed at buying Ukraine more time to prepare for a conflict with Russia. Putin responded at the time by saying that he was “disappointed” by Merkel’s comments.
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