Putin on Syrian military’s startling disintegration: defenders melted away against a few hundred fighters

Aleppo – Syria’s second city, fell in days, with defenders abandoning the strategic urban area almost without putting up a fight, President Putin said, speaking at his year-end presser about the chaos enveloping Syria.

“The city was defended by about 30,000 people. 350 fighters entered the city. Government troops, as well as the so-called pro-Iranian units, left the city without fighting. They blew up their positions and just left. The same happened all around Syria, with some exemptions,” Putin said.

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Western journalists never condemned Kiev regime's terrorist attacks in Russia – Putin

The assassination of General Igor Kirillov was a terrorist attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized, stressing that the Kiev regime has conducted numerous terrorist attacks against Russian civilians, including in the Kursk region, which have never been condemned by the Western media.

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BRICS built to serve interests of its members, not ‘against anyone’: Putin

BRICS is “not an instrument to counter the West,” President Vladimir Putin said at his year-end presser.

The bloc’s members are “not working against anyone” and have no “adversarial narrative or agenda,” but rather are “working for and in favor of our interests and in the interests of the organization’s members,” Putin said.

Putin highlighted the rapid pace of BRICS’ development, its growing membership and interest in the bloc globally.

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🇷🇺🤝🇨🇳Russo-Chinese cooperation is built on full trust and confidence on both sides – Putin

Russia and China have endured much together since the countries established diplomatic relations almost 75 years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, stressing that mutual trade between the Eurasian neighbours is steadily growing.

"We do nothing that would run counter to our interests and we have been acting in the interests of the Chinese and Russian peoples," Putin said.

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Sino-Russian relations have reached unprecedentedly high levels – Putin

In recent decades the quality of Sino-Russian relations have reached a level which has never been seen in the history of the two countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed.

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❗️Putin on possible negotiations with Ukraine:

💬Russia has no preconditions for launching negotiations with Ukraine

💬Russia ready for talks with Ukraine, grounded in the Istanbul agreements and the current conditions on the battlefield

💬Russia will talk to Zelensky if he holds elections and gains legitimacy

💬Russia will only sign peace deals with the legitimate leader of Ukraine

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🗣Ukrainian military-industrial facilities are Russia's priority targets — Putin

"Russia's priority targets in Ukraine are military infrastructure, military industrial complex facilities and – possibly – decision-making centers," Russian President Vladimir Putin stated.

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❗️Putin on the killings of Darya Dugina and General Kirillov: our law enforcement and intelligence agencies missed these attacks; their work needs improvement.

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Russia embraces Ukrainians who share its culture, traditional values - Putin

There are millions of Ukrainians living in our country, President Putin noted, in a reference to the people now living in Russia’s new territories and in Crimea.

“We can only welcome this. Those are people of our culture. They are part of our people… There's no doubt about it,” Putin emphasized.

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❗️Ukrainian intelligence and army are accomplices of Kiev's illegitimate regime – Putin

The Zelensky regime has lost legitimacy in terms of the Ukrainian Constitution, which does not allow the extension of presidential powers without elections – even in the event of the martial law, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"If the president loses legitimacy, the same happens down the ladder. So whatever they do, when they execute his orders, they become the accomplices in his illegitimate actions," Putin explained.

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❗️Telephone scammers have become a tool of the Kiev regime – Putin

Telephone fraud has been elevated to the level of state policy in Ukraine, and they have managed to steal over 250 billion rubles from Russians, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out.

"It is almost the scale of what Nazi Germany did. They simply printed money and spread it in order to undermine the economy of the UK. Almost the same thing is now happening in Ukraine," Putin said.

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💬 Russia owes economic miracle to West’s ‘sanctions on steroids’ approach: analyst

Russia has been able to survive and thrive despite being “the most sanctioned country in history” thanks to a series of timely decisions stimulating agriculture, tech and industrial import substitution, reorienting trade and ditching the dollar as a means of exchange, veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff told Sputnik, commenting on the economic figures listed off by President Putin at his year-end presser.

“The largely successful effort to develop good economic relations within BRICS became a priority, and the expansion of BRICS and the use of sovereign currencies outside of the US dollar and Euro illuminated the need and desire by many sovereign governments to get out of the ‘influence sphere’ of the G7, and their payments systems,” Goncharoff explained.

Ultimately, BRICS and other developing countries have jointly expressed dissatisfaction with the West’s carrot and stick approach to diplomacy, the observer noted. As for Moscow, “it became clear that the West had little to offer Russia that was truly needed, and the cost geopolitically and economically was simply too high.”

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