2023 was the year Russia firmly defended its national interests. This is how Russian President Vladimir Putin characterized the outgoing year in his televised address Sunday.
"We are seeing off 2023, very soon it will become part of history, and we must move forward to create the future," Putin said. "In the outgoing year, we worked hard and accomplished a great deal, were proud of our common achievements, rejoiced at our successes and remained firm in the defense of our national interests, our freedom and security, our values, which have been and remain an unshakable pillar of support for us," Putin said.
The president characterized Russians' concern for Russia's fate as the main factor which unites the country, saying people have "a deep understanding of the tremendous significance of the historical stage through which Russia is passing" through, and the "colossal responsibility" for the motherland which each Russian feels.
"We will ensure the confident development of the fatherland, the well-being of our citizens, and will become even stronger. We are together, and this is the most reliable guarantee of Russia's future," Putin said.
In the USSR and later Russia and other post-Soviet countries, the tradition of an annual televised New Year's address just shy of midnight on December 31 began under Leonid Brezhnev in 1971, and was continued by Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev (from 2008-2012) and Vladimir Putin again from 2013 on. In many families, watching the address as midnight nears has become a firmly established tradition, with between 45 and 55 percent of Russians tuning in to watch each year.
Sunday's address was the second time Putin addressed Russians amid the ongoing full-scale NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. In last year's address, Putin called 2022 a "year of difficult but necessary decisions," and "of important steps towards Russia's full sovereignty and a powerful consolidation of our society" in the face of Western attempts to "cynically use Ukraine and its people as a means to weaken and divide Russia."