Putin tells Russians at New Year that 'everything will be fine'

Record ID: 1893422

  • Title: Putin tells Russians at New Year that 'everything will be fine'
  • Date: 31st December 2024
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "Dear citizens of Russia, dear friends! In just a few minutes, the new year 2025, which completes the first quarter of the 21st century, will begin. In Russia, this period has been filled with many events, including historically significant, large-scale ones. We have set great goals for ourselves and achieved them. Many times we overcame trials because we were together. This is how our unity, our faith in ourselves and in our strength, in our capabilities were strengthened." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "Yes, we still have a lot to do. But we can be rightly proud of what has already been done, this is our common heritage, a solid foundation for further development. Our country, independent, free and strong, has been able to respond to the most difficult challenges. And now, on the threshold of the New Year, we are thinking about the future. We are sure that everything will be fine, we will go only forward. We know for sure that the absolute value for us was, is and will be the fate of Russia and the well-being of its citizens." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "Sincere feelings for the motherland fill our lives with high meaning and the desire to contribute to the protection of its sovereignty, security, interests, and free development has become a matter of honour for us. On this New Year's Eve the thoughts, the hopes of relatives and friends, millions of people all over Russia together with our fighters and commanders. You are true heroes who have undertaken the great military labour to defend Russia, to provide our people with strong guarantees of peace and security. We are proud of your courage and bravery, we believe in you. In your honour, in the glory of the 80th anniversary of the great victory and as a tribute to the memory of our ancestors who fought for the motherland at all times, the coming 2025 is declared in Russia the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland. We are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the generation that crushed Nazism. We are faithful to the precepts and traditions of our veterans. " WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "Dear friends, we always treat the meeting of the New Year with warmth and hospitality and we hope that our dreams and thoughts, the best intentions, will definitely come true. There is not much left until the New Year. In these minutes, we are among the people dear to us, our family, children, parents, grandchildren, our friends and comrades-in-arms. I wish wellbeing and prosperity to each of our homes, to each of our families and to our beloved country, Russia. When we are together, everything will come true. Happy New Year, dear friends, Happy New Year 2025." VARIOUS OF CLOCK ON KREMLIN TOWER SHOWING LAST SECONDS OF 2024
  • Embargoed: 14th January 2025 21:18
  • Keywords: Address Moscow New Year Putin Russia Ukraine
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA002027031122024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: 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 homebuyers, 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.
    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.
    Putin, 72, paid tribute to Russian soldiers fighting in the war in Ukraine, describing them as heroes. "We are proud of your courage and bravery. We believe in you," he said.
    He made no specific reference to the situation on the battlefield or the prospects for an end to the conflict after Donald Trump returns as U.S. president on Jan. 20. Trump has said he will swiftly stop the war, without providing details.
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