PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, December 31. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin made his longest New Year Address to the Nation, which lasted 6 minutes 22 seconds and was of about 700 words.
Traditionally, the residents of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, where the New year has already come, became the first who saw and listened to the President’s New Year congratulations.
The previous New Year's address of the Russian President, which summed up the first pandemic year - 2020, was also the longest at that time - it lasted 6 minutes and contained 601 words.
Prior to that, the record for duration belonged to the New Year address on December 31, 2013 - it lasted 4.5 minutes. Putin delivered that speech in Khabarovsk, where he was meeting with the local residents suffered from the flood. That night, the residents of Kamchatka managed to see the congratulations recorded in advance in the Kremlin, and the Khabarovsk address was broadcast in all other time zones of Russia.
In other years, both Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, who served as President from 2008 to 2012, made less extensive New Year's addresses. Congratulations on the year 2006 became the shortest New Year address - it lasted a little more than 2 minutes and was of 191 words.
However, the record for the time tracking of the New Year's address still belongs to the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. On December 31, 1999, announcing his retirement, he spoke for more than 10 minutes. However, for the number of words (628) Yeltsin's New Year's farewell speech is inferior to today's congratulations of President Putin.
In 1999, Putin also made a small New Year's address in the newly received status of the acting president. This was the only time when he recorded such a speech while sitting at the table. From the year 2000 and until now, the head of state always congratulates Russians on the New Year standing up.