______________________________
OFFICIAL
Dear compatriots!
Looking back on the departing 2015, we can calculate how many steps… forward and upward, away from the Ukrainian abyss, closer to the goal… we’ve made in these last difficult 365 days. Remember… we started it without a budget and without salaries and pensions… Kiev tried once more to force the Donbass to its knees through armed aggression. However, we worked patiently and conscientiously, we helped each other as a family does. We defended our homeland, we cleansed it of mines and shells, and we restored our housing stock and manufacturing plants. Gradually, in spite of all the vile blockades, we revived our economy, managed to pay out regular salaries and pensions, organised fun and varied summer holidays for our children, and replaced the Grivnya with the Russian Rouble.
It isn’t in vain that our people say, “Thanks to the war and blockade, we know our true friends; we know our true comrades and brothers”. Unquestionably, we’ve seen what a joy it is to work freely in our native land, to combine our efforts to overcome difficulties, to act according to our conscience and justice, to live according to our own will… not other people’s diktats, to follow our ancestral traditions… not imported mirages! Minsk-2 gave us not only a respite, but also a hope for a bloodless end to the conflict with Kiev. We’ll utilise this opportunity for as long as we can. This is especially so now, for not only Russia, but Germany and France, support our peacekeeping policy. If our wild western neighbours go bonkers again, well, our LNR forces are ready to calm them down.
In the first year, our Republic survived. In the second, we restored it. I confide that the coming 2016 will begin with a period of development, moreover, it’ll close in prosperity. We already have the necessary resources and expertise to do this.
Thank you for your faith, patience, and hard work! Please forgive me for the fact that positive changes haven’t come as fast as you’d like. From the depth of my soul, I sincerely wish that our joint efforts will produce the desired results in the New Year. To do this, we’ll double our efforts… if necessary, we’d ramp up the efforts of the all-Republic and local authorities even higher than that. May you and your families always have good health and good fortune! May our common home, our young Republic, have peace and all good things!
Head of the LNR Government
29 December 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
http://lug-info.com/news/one/novogodnee-obraschenie-glavy-lnr-igorya-plotnitskogo-9550
Voices from Russia 
OFFICIAL New Year’s Address of LNR Head of Government I V Plotnitsky
Tags: Christmas and holiday season, happy new year, Holiday, holidays, Holidays and Observances, Igor Plotnitsky, LNR, Lugansk People's Republic, New Year, New Years Day, Novorossiya, patriotic, patriotism, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian culture
______________________________
OFFICIAL
Dear compatriots!
Looking back on the departing 2015, we can calculate how many steps… forward and upward, away from the Ukrainian abyss, closer to the goal… we’ve made in these last difficult 365 days. Remember… we started it without a budget and without salaries and pensions… Kiev tried once more to force the Donbass to its knees through armed aggression. However, we worked patiently and conscientiously, we helped each other as a family does. We defended our homeland, we cleansed it of mines and shells, and we restored our housing stock and manufacturing plants. Gradually, in spite of all the vile blockades, we revived our economy, managed to pay out regular salaries and pensions, organised fun and varied summer holidays for our children, and replaced the Grivnya with the Russian Rouble.
It isn’t in vain that our people say, “Thanks to the war and blockade, we know our true friends; we know our true comrades and brothers”. Unquestionably, we’ve seen what a joy it is to work freely in our native land, to combine our efforts to overcome difficulties, to act according to our conscience and justice, to live according to our own will… not other people’s diktats, to follow our ancestral traditions… not imported mirages! Minsk-2 gave us not only a respite, but also a hope for a bloodless end to the conflict with Kiev. We’ll utilise this opportunity for as long as we can. This is especially so now, for not only Russia, but Germany and France, support our peacekeeping policy. If our wild western neighbours go bonkers again, well, our LNR forces are ready to calm them down.
In the first year, our Republic survived. In the second, we restored it. I confide that the coming 2016 will begin with a period of development, moreover, it’ll close in prosperity. We already have the necessary resources and expertise to do this.
Thank you for your faith, patience, and hard work! Please forgive me for the fact that positive changes haven’t come as fast as you’d like. From the depth of my soul, I sincerely wish that our joint efforts will produce the desired results in the New Year. To do this, we’ll double our efforts… if necessary, we’d ramp up the efforts of the all-Republic and local authorities even higher than that. May you and your families always have good health and good fortune! May our common home, our young Republic, have peace and all good things!
Head of the LNR Government
29 December 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
http://lug-info.com/news/one/novogodnee-obraschenie-glavy-lnr-igorya-plotnitskogo-9550