Putin sends season's greetings to Berlusconi and Schroeder, but not to Biden and Macron

President Putin is not going to send his season's greetings to the leaders of Russia-unfriendly countries, the Kremlin said. "Those counterparts of ours do not send any congratulations themselves" and Moscow does not contact them either, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his season's greetings to a number of foreign leaders to congratulate them on Christmas and New Year. He sent congratulations to several former leaders as well, including to ex-Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, former Presidents of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and former Chancellor Germany Gerhard Schroeder.

Putin sent season's greetings to:

• President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhaniya,
• President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
• Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,
• President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko,
• President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,
• President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov,
• President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon,
• President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty Milli Gengesh Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov,
• President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
• President of South Ossetia Alan Gagloev,
• Bolivian President Luis Arce
• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro,
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,
• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
• General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc,
• President of India Drowpadi Murm and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
• Chinese President Xi Jinping,
• Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and General of the Army Raul Castro,
• Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega,
• Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian president would not congratulate the leaders of unfriendly countries.

"Those counterparts of ours do not send any congratulations. We have no contacts with them. Given the unfriendly actions that they have been taking, the President is not going to congratulate them,” he said.

In his congratulations to President of Belarus Lukashenko, Putin stressed that the close alliance between Russia and Belarus made it possible to "withstand with honor” the difficulties and trials of the outgoing year. Russia and Belarus managed to withstand unprecedented political and sanctions pressure, as well as build reliable defense of the western borders of the Unified State.

In a telegram to Turkish President Erdogan, Putin emphasized that the relations between Russia and Turkey were developing dynamically despite the difficult international situation. He expressed confidence that acting together Russia and Turkey would "ensure the further expansion of the entire range of Russian-Turkish cooperation for the benefit of the nations and in the interests of stability and security on the Eurasian continent”.

In July, Putin did not congratulate the United States on Independence Day. The Kremlin then said that 2022 was the year when Washington's unfriendly policy reached its peak. For the same reason, Putin did not congratulate Rishi Sunak on taking office as UK's Prime Minister after Liz Truss's resignation.

After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Silvio Berlusconi expressed disappointment with Putin's actions. Berlusconi said that he had known for 20 years and had always thought of him as "a man of democracy and peace."

Gerhard Schroeder, who met with the Russian president in Moscow in the summer of 2022, called the outbreak of hostilities "a mistake of the Russian government" and urged the parties to make mutual concessions.