🎙 Statement by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the expanded meeting of Russia's Ministry of Defence Board (December 17, 2025, Moscow)

Key points:

• 2025 has become an important milestone in addressing the objectives of the special military operation. The Russian Armed Forces have secured and firmly maintain the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact.

• In 2025, more than 300 settlements have already been liberated, including major cities that had been turned by the adversary into fortified strongholds.

🇷🇺🇰🇵 I would also like to note our North Korean combat comrades. By decision of Comrade Chairman of the State Affairs of the DPRK Kim Jong-un, they were dispatched to take part in the liberation of the Kursk region and, shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen, fought the enemy with valour and courage. They took part in large-scale and extremely complex efforts to clear mines from the liberated Kursk region.

• Successful tests have been conducted of the Burevestnik strategic cruise missile with unlimited range and the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle. Thanks to the use of a nuclear power unit, these systems will remain unique and unmatched for a long time, ensuring strategic parity, Russia’s security and its global standing for decades to come. We will continue working on these systems – refining, upgrading and improving them – but they already exist. By the end of 2025, an intermediate-range missile system equipped with the Oreshnik hypersonic missile will be placed on combat duty.

❗️ Russia has always, even in the most difficult circumstances, as long as there was even the slightest chance – sought diplomatic solutions to contradictions and conflicts. Responsibility for the fact that these chances were not used lies entirely with those who believed that it was possible to speak to us in the language of force.

• We stand for building mutually beneficial and equal cooperation with the US and European states, and for the formation of a unified security system across the entire Eurasian region. We welcome the progress that has emerged in the dialogue with the new US Administration. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the current leadership of most European countries.

• We are fully aware that in any international environment, our Armed Forces remain the key guarantor of Russia’s sovereignty and independence, its security and future, and of strategic parity. We must work consistently to strengthen them.

• Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it seemed to us that we would very quickly become part of the so-called civilized family of European nations. Instead, Russia continued to be pressed from all sides – increasingly so. Virtually everything concerning Russia was decided from a position of force. They would pat us on the shoulder and invite us to various events, yet when it came to their interests vis-à-vis Russia, the West pushed them through by force, including by military means.

• President Trump says that if he had been President at the time, the conflict in Ukraine would not have happened. Perhaps that is so, because the previous US Administration deliberately steered the events towards an armed conflict.

👉 The objectives of the special military operation will undoubtedly be achieved. We would prefer to do so and to eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomatic means. However, if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in a substantive dialogue, Russia will secure the liberation of its historical lands by military means. Efforts to establish and expand a security buffer zone will continue on a systematic basis.

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@RusEmbMalta:

Дорогие друзья! 🎄✨
Спешим поделиться по-настоящему радостной новостью.

По инициативе Координационного совета организаций российских соотечественников на Мальте и при содействии Посольства России проживающие на Мальте дети наших соотечественников приняли участие в международном конкурсе МИД России «Ёлка мира и дружбы», который проходит в рамках масштабного проекта «Новый год и Рождество празднуем всем миром» 🎁🌍

Юные участники своими руками изготовили уникальные новогодние игрушки, наполненные фантазией, искренностью и добрыми пожеланиями. Эти работы были переданы в Москву по дипломатическим каналам 🇷🇺✈️
Сегодня их уже можно увидеть среди украшений «Ёлки мира и дружбы» в российской столице – рядом с работами детей из десятков стран мира.

В этом году конкурс отмечает 6-летие и посвящён сразу трём памятным датам:
🎖 80-летию Победы в Великой Отечественной войне,
🤝 100-летию народной дипломатии,
🌟 100-летию Международного детского центра «Артек».

В конкурсе участвуют около 16 тысяч ребят из 86 стран, а также из многих регионов России. Он объединяет детей со всего мира вокруг идей дружбы, взаимного уважения и мира. Лучшие работы ежегодно становятся частью Фестиваля новогодних ёлок, а победителей ждут ценные призы, в том числе бесплатные путёвки в МДЦ «Артек» 🎉🏖

Мы будем с большим интересом следить за ходом конкурса и искренне желаем ребятам с Мальты удачи и победы! 💫

Вы уже стали частью большого и красивого новогоднего чуда!

Официальный представитель МИД России М.В.Захарова о конкурсе

#ЁлкаМираИДружбы
#ДетиРоссии
#Мальта
#МИДРоссии 🎄✨

@RusEmbMalta Press release

🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin Summarises 2025: Key Messages from the “Results of the Year” Address

📍 Moscow, | 19 December 2025

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin held the annual “Results of the Year” event, combining a live Q&A session with a press conference. More than 3 million questions were submitted by citizens and journalists. Over 4.5 hours, the President addressed 103 questions on domestic development, the economy, social policy, digital sovereignty, and international affairs.

🌍 Foreign Policy, Ukraine, and the Special Military Operation

▪️ Russia currently sees no readiness on the part of Ukraine for a genuine peace process or territorial compromises.
▪️ The strategic initiative has fully shifted to the Russian Armed Forces; Ukrainian forces are retreating along key directions.
▪️ Russia did not initiate the conflict and does not consider itself responsible for the human losses incurred.
▪️ Moscow remains open to political solutions and is prepared to consider security guarantees during potential elections in Ukraine, including a temporary refusal to conduct strikes deep inside Ukrainian territory.

Relations with the West and International Security

▪️ The seizure of Russian sovereign assets was described as outright plunder, undermining trust in the eurozone and global financial institutions.
▪️ Any attempt to blockade the Kaliningrad region would escalate tensions to an unprecedented, potentially large-scale military level.
▪️ Russia remains open to cooperation with Europe, the UK, and the United States – strictly on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
▪️ According to the President, the current conflict is the direct result of Western policies that deliberately escalated tensions around Ukraine.

📊 Economy and Financial Stability

▪️ Russia’s GDP growth reached 1% in 2025, while cumulative growth over the past three years amounted to 9.7%, significantly exceeding eurozone indicators.
▪️ Inflation is expected to decline to 5.7–5.8% by year-end.
▪️ Unemployment fell to a historic low of 2.2%.
▪️ International reserves of the Central Bank reached USD 741.5 billion.

💻 Digital Sovereignty

President Putin announced that Russia has effectively achieved full digital sovereignty, highlighting the development of domestic digital platforms and technologies as a strategic achievement amid external pressure.

Other Key Issues

The discussion also covered demographic policy, education, water supply challenges in Donbass, legislation on foreign agents, and sanctions pressure on Russia’s international partners.

🔗 Full version here.

#Russia 🇷🇺
#PresidentPutin
#ResultsOfTheYear
#ForeignPolicy
#Ukraine
#SMO
#InternationalRelations

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement at a joint press conference with Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty following the Second Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum (Cairo, December 20, 2025)

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💬 Sergey Lavrov: We conducted a thorough discussion of the full Russian-African agenda. Our focus was in particular on reviewing the implementation of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan for 2023-2026 and on identifying further steps to expand our trade, economic, and investment cooperation – a partnership that is growing rapidly and which we are committed to strengthening.

We have agreed to create conditions that facilitate concrete steps to increase mutual trade and to implement promising joint investment projects in high-tech industries, all aspects of energy and other areas, including in cultural, humanitarian and educational spheres.

All these areas of practical cooperation are detailed in the comprehensive Joint Statement, which was unanimously approved and which will serve as the central guideline for our future work.

Importantly, this document places special emphasis, within the trade and economic sphere, on establishing resilient financial, logistical, and interbank mechanisms that will safeguard our partnership from illegal unilateral sanctions – a practice our joint statement clearly defines as unacceptable.

The Joint Statement also captures the progress of our discussions on pressing international and regional issues, including those of global significance.

We decided to continue coordinating our efforts in multilateral forums. This includes advancing the reform of the UN Security Council, taking full account of the legitimate interests of African states, and reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, whose composition and practices significantly lag behind today’s global economic realities.

I would like to highlight the section of the Statement that outlines our shared fundamental approaches to key issues of international development. In particular, I note the clear position that all states must respect the principles of the UN Charter not selectively but in their entirety and interdependent integrity.

Significant attention in the Statement is devoted to strengthening the independence of our African friends, particularly in the economic sphere. To protect their right to independent development, their right to choose their own partners and foreign policy priorities, the Statement proclaims our clear support for the recent UN General Assembly resolution establishing December 14 as the annual International Day Against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations. This will serve to intensify our shared efforts at the UN to eradicate contemporary forms of colonialism and neocolonial practices.

Finally, our shared position on the urgent resolution of the Palestinian issue, in full compliance with existing UN resolutions, as my colleague detailed, is clearly enshrined in the Statement.

The Joint Statement also contains our shared decision to strengthen cooperation in politics and security. It is one of the reasons why we have recommended establishing working relations between the African Union and the CSTO.

The Forum programme offered a whole range of sideline events, including a business event involving representatives of economic and trade agencies and organisations from Russia and African countries. You certainly know that the Russian delegation had a great number of bilateral meetings – over 20 of them – with the ministers of our African partners. We benefited from useful discussions of bilateral relations and their development. In some cases, agreements and memorandums covering different areas were signed.

🌍 The Second Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum has successfully concluded in Cairo.

Over two intense days of work, the Russian delegation led by Sergey #Lavrov took part in more than 20 meetings and events. On December 19-20, the Russian Minister held bilateral talks with representatives of the following countries and organizations:

1. 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
2. 🇧🇮 Burundi
3. 🇹🇿 Tanzania
4. 🇧🇼 Botswana
5. 🇬🇲 The Gambia
6. 🇳🇦 Namibia
7. 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea
8. 🇹🇬 Togo
9. 🇲🇷 Mauritania
10. 🇲🇼 Malawi
11. 🇸🇨 Seychelles
12. 🇷🇼 Rwanda
13. 🇪🇬 Egypt
14. 🇩🇿 Algeria
15. 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
16. 🇹🇳 Tunisia
17. 🇸🇸 South Sudan
18. 🌍 ECOWAS

Recap of the key events of the Second Ministerial Conference:

📄 Sergey Lavrov’s meetings with Egypt’s Leadership

📺 Sergey Lavrov’s address at the Plenary Session of the Conference

📺 Joint press conference of the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Egypt

📄 Joint Statement by the Participants of the Second Ministerial Conference

💬 Sergey Lavrov: It was a sincere pleasure for me to take part in the Second Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which is being held for the first time on the African continent, in Egypt’s capital.

I would like to kindly thank our Egyptian friends for the excellent organization of the event, their traditional hospitality, and to congratulate them on the successful hosting of this Conference.

❗️ We have every reason to state that the conference has laid solid groundwork for high-quality preparations for the Third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for 2026. We will make every effort to ensure its successful holding.

@RusEmbMalta Press release

🛑 The “Register of Damage” and the So-Called Claims Commission: A Dangerous Legal Mirage

The Russian Federation expresses serious concern over the ongoing attempts to promote the so-called “Register of Damage” and the related International Claims Commission for Ukraine (ICC) – initiatives that openly contradict international law and threaten to undermine the very foundations of the global legal order.

📌 As the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed, these structures are not genuine legal mechanisms, but politically motivated constructs designed to fabricate financial claims against Russia and to create informational justification for the illegal seizure of sovereign Russian assets.

⚖️ Pseudolegal Tools Disguised as Justice

According to the official statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry (26 September 2025), the proposed Claims Commission – currently being pushed through the Council of Europe – is intended to:
• legitimize politically motivated accusations,
• artificially calculate “compensation,”
• and provide cover for the confiscation of Russian assets frozen in the West.
Such actions constitute gross violations of international law and amount to nothing less than state-sponsored expropriation.

💰 A Risky Scheme for Those Who Join

The European Commission’s attempts to dress these actions up as a “reparations mechanism” have already alarmed a number of EU member states. Even senior European officials have openly warned that these plans expose participating countries to massive legal, financial and reputational risks.
The danger is obvious:
any state that associates itself with these mechanisms becomes a direct party to a hostile act and assumes serious exposure to future legal and economic consequences.

🌍 An Appeal to Responsible States

We call on all responsible members of the international community – not to allow themselves to be drawn into this politically charged and legally void project.
This campaign is not about justice.
It is about expanding geopolitical pressure, prolonging the conflict, and sabotaging any genuine diplomatic settlement.
Those who value international law must not lend legitimacy to instruments that openly violate it.
________
✋ The Russian Federation firmly urges governments to refrain from joining or endorsing the “Register of Damage” and the so-called International Claims Commission.

📍 Participation in these initiatives does not serve peace, law, or stability – it only deepens global fragmentation and legal chaos.
________
#InternationalLaw #RegisterOfDamage #ClaimsCommission #RuleOfLaw #StopTheScam

@RusEmbMalta Press release

Sergey Lavrov: Europe Is Now the Main Obstacle to Peace – While Russia and the US Search for Real Solutions

📍 Key points from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS

28 December 2025

🇷🇺 Russia on Peace in Ukraine
Russia welcomes and supports the peace efforts of US President Donald Trump and his administration and remains committed to serious, substantive dialogue aimed at resolving the root causes of the conflict.

“Russia is ready to work with American negotiators to achieve lasting agreements.”

At the same time, Kiev and its European curators continue to sabotage the peace process:

• Kiev persists in military escalation
• Civilian infrastructure in Russia is targeted
• European capitals continue pumping the regime with weapons and money

After the change of administration in Washington, it is now Europe – not the US – that has become the main obstacle to peace.

💶 Europe’s Strategy: Prolong the Conflict
European leaders openly admit they are preparing for confrontation with Russia.
They continue pursuing:

• Economic war
• Attempts to confiscate Russia’s assets
• Efforts to impose a strategic defeat on Russia

Meanwhile, corruption scandals in Ukraine are conveniently ignored.

“Europe is using the Kiev regime as a battering ram against Russia.”

Russia–US Relations: A Window for Normalisation
The new US National Security Strategy no longer treats Russia as an immediate threat and does not call for system-wide containment.

It also publicly questions NATO’s long-standing policy of expansionism – for the first time in decades.

Russia notes these shifts but stresses:
Judgments will be based on actions, not declarations.


🌍 Europe on the Brink of a Dangerous Course
The EU has been dismantling its mechanisms of cooperation with Russia since 2014, promoting militarism and Russophobia.

European leaders are now discussing the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine.

Russia warns:
Any foreign military forces in Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets.

Russia poses no threat to Europe – but any attack on Russia will meet a devastating response.

Middle East: Law, Not Force
Russia strongly condemns Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities conducted with US participation.

These actions violate international law and basic moral principles.

In Gaza, the situation remains fragile:
ceasefire violations, humanitarian restrictions, and unresolved political questions continue to threaten stability.

Russia reaffirms:
A viable Palestinian state is essential for lasting peace.


🌏 Asia-Pacific: Taiwan and Regional Stability
Russia’s position is clear and unchanged:

• Taiwan is an integral part of China
• Russia firmly supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity
• Any interference is a dangerous destabilising factor

The growing militarisation of Japan is also raising serious concerns for regional stability.

🧭 Strategic Message
Peace requires responsibility.
Escalation is a choice.
Dialogue remains the only path forward.

🔗 Full text of the interview.


#Russia #PeaceProcess #Ukraine #Europe #InternationalLaw #MiddleEast #AsiaPacific 🕊️

Как подготовиться к поездке за рубеж, при каких форс-мажорах следует обращаться в российское дипломатическое представительство или консульское учреждение и стоит ли избегать посещения отдельных государств -
в преддверии новогодних каникул рекомендуем ознакомиться с интервью директора Консульского департамента А.В.Климова «Парламентской газете».

⚡️ Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation regarding the armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela

This morning, the US committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This development gives rise to deep concern and warrants condemnation.

The pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable. Ideologized animosity has prevailed over pragmatic engagement, as well as over any readiness to build relations based on trust and predictability.

In the current situation, it is essential above all to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a solution through dialogue. We proceed from the understanding that all parties that may have grievances against one another must seek solutions through dialogue-based mechanisms. We stand ready to support such efforts.

Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it proclaimed itself in 2014. Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny, free from any destructive – let alone military – external interference.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and our support for the course pursued by its Bolivarian leadership, aimed at safeguarding the country’s national interests and sovereignty.

We support the statements by the Venezuelan authorities and by the leaders of Latin American countries calling for the urgent convening of a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Russia's Embassy in Caracas is operating as normal, taking into account the situation on the ground, and maintains constant contact with the Venezuelan authorities as well as with Russian nationals present in Venezuela.

At present, there is no information indicating that any citizens of the Russian Federation have been injured.

Full Statement