Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo: REUTERS
The Kremlin website published all of Vladimir Putin’s New Year greetings to the leaders of the countries that he made before the upcoming holidays. We studied who the president wrote to and what he wrote down in his letters.
AZERBAIJAN
We have reached a new “allied level” to “strengthen security in the South Caucasus” together with Ilham Aliyev.
ARMENIA
Yerevan, unlike Baku, is our true ally, since it is part of the CSTO. The president also wrote to Nikol Pashinyan about allied relations.
BELARUS
The people are allied, relations with Lukashenka are comradely, and together “we were able not only to effectively resist unprecedented political and sanctions pressure, but also to strengthen the institutions of the State of the Union.”
KAZAKHSTAN
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is our strategic partner and the main result of the year is trade growth. Not surprising, given that parallel imports go through Kazakhstan.
BRAZIL
Putin recalled the “friendly relations” of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro. The new one, Lula da Silva, came only in October and somehow did not have time to stand out.
HUNGARY
Viktor Orban is the last person in the EU with whom we still communicate in any way. The Russian leader noted a “positive dynamic” against the background of a “difficult situation”.
INDIA
We have a “privileged strategic partnership” with Delhi.
“I am convinced that the Indian presidency of the SCO and the G20 will open up new opportunities to develop multifaceted cooperation,” Vladimir Vladimirovich wrote to Narendra Modi.
India can become a go-between in global politics between us and the West.
CHINA
Moscow treats Beijing with great reverence. China has not yet grown to become an ally, but Putin mentioned “strategic interaction.” The Russian leader recalled the marked increase in trade this year.
In principle, there is nothing unexpected either in the recipients of congratulations or in the content of messages. We maintain ties with the two largest non-Western economies: China and India. Both countries benefit from our confrontation with America and Europe, because they can buy Russian hydrocarbons at a discount of 20-30% of the market price. In India, due to cheap resources, even a jump in GDP occurred.
Hungary and Turkey (Erdogan also received congratulations from Putin) took a neutral position, remaining a bridge between Moscow and the collective West.
Vladimir Vladimirovich also wrote to the leaders of the small countries: Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Serbia and Syria.
Not all the heads of the post-Soviet republics received congratulations from Moscow. The Russian leader also sent warm wishes to: Abkhazia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, South Ossetia.
Berlusconi and Schroeder received Putin’s congratulations. The only retired western politicians. Merkel, despite years of contacts with the Kremlin, did not receive the letter. Most likely, the reason is her recent admission that the Minsk agreements were just a pretext to strengthen Ukraine.
Vladimir Vladimirovich also wrote to two former Armenian leaders: Kocharyan and Sargsyan, and to the former head of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.