MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Christmas and New Year greetings to a number of foreign leaders, the Kremlin press service reported.
In the last days of December, Putin traditionally congratulates his foreign counterparts on the New Year and Christmas. Today the Kremlin published a list of leaders who received such telegrams from the Russian president.
In particular, the Russian president congratulated the leaders of the BRICS countries, including Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, as well as the leaders of many other countries of the global South and East. Traditionally, the leaders of most CIS countries and South Ossetia were also congratulated.
The list did not include the leaders of the UK, Germany, the US, France, Japan, and other large states unfriendly to Russia.
As in the previous two years, there were almost no Western leaders on the list - messages were sent only to the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Hungary, and among the leaders of NATO countries, the President of Turkey also received congratulations.
Putin also congratulated Pope Francis and a number of former foreign leaders, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.