Commonwealth reception: what Putin showed at the Hermitage to guests from the CIS

The New Year's Eve informal summit with the participation of the leaders of the CIS countries was held on December 22 in one of the main pearls of St. Petersburg - the State Hermitage Museum. Here, the politicians listened to a tour personally from Vladimir Putin, saw the main exhibit of the collection in all its glory and talked with each other on pressing topics. The public statements mainly concerned the economy — the trade turnover of the CIS member states in the first 10 months of 2025 amounted to about $90 billion, with the share of national currencies in settlements exceeding 96%, the Russian president said. The plans are to counter the falsification of history, fight terrorism and further strengthen the CIS.

How was the informal CIS summit held?

St. Petersburg hosted the informal CIS summit on December 22. Flights with top officials arrived at Pulkovo Airport one after another this weekend. On Saturday, the head of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, arrived in St. Petersburg. On Sunday morning, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will meet, and closer to lunch, Kazakh leader Kassym—Jomart Tokayev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. All of them took part in the EAEU meeting, which took place on December 21. Then they were joined by other leaders of the CIS member states — President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

Only Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was, frankly, expected in the Kremlin, did not arrive.: Even before flying to St. Petersburg, Dmitry Peskov said that the summit was preparing for the arrival of the Azerbaijani leader. His absence in Baku was explained by Aliyev's busy schedule and stressed that they highly appreciate the role of cooperation between the member countries of the association. By the way, the President of Azerbaijan attended the recent meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State on October 9-10 in Dushanbe. The Kremlin reacted to his absence in St. Petersburg with understanding.

The city on the Neva has been hosting guests of this level for several years in a row. The leaders of "no ties" communicate with each other in a festive and non-formal atmosphere on any topic — without an agenda or a clear program. Therefore, the New Year's Eve event has the status of an informal summit. This is how the heads of the CIS countries have been meeting since at least 2014. And since 2018, only in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's hometown. Some media outlets are already jokingly calling this event the "apartment building" of the Russian president, since the event is as full of a friendly atmosphere and an interesting program as possible.

In 2022, the guests were shown the treasures of the Russian Museum, in 2023, the same company visited the country residences of the emperors - Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo and the Pavlovsk Museum Reserve. And last year, the meeting was held at the Igora ski resort. This time it's another St. Petersburg pearl. The Hermitage State Museum is one of the largest universal museums in the world, which houses more than 3 million cultural monuments from different eras and peoples. All the guests of the summit arrived here in the afternoon.

The President of the Russian Federation met the leaders in the Alexander Hall of the Winter Palace, from where the excursion part began. The role of the guide was performed by Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director General of the Hermitage, but Vladimir Putin personally conducted part of the tour. The heads of the CIS countries even listened to the Peacock clock, one of the Hermitage's most famous exhibits, which has been adorning its collection for more than two centuries, in the Pavilion Hall of the Small Hermitage. And especially for the heads of state, the clock was wound up at an untimely time: usually the exhibit of the XVIII century "sings" for guests only once a week on Fridays.

Slowly, the leaders reached the St. George (Great Throne) Hall of the Winter Palace, where everything was ready for the traditional informal summit of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States. This is the most representative and large-scale of all the ceremonial rooms of the Winter Palace: before 1917, official receptions and other significant state events were held here. This tradition was resumed by the Hermitage in 1996.

CIS development plans and Turkmenistan's presidency

The official part of the informal summit lasted just over five minutes and was limited only to the speech of the Russian president. Then the communication went into a closed mode. The leaders clearly have a lot to discuss and remember, as this year has been an eventful one for the commonwealth.

The countries supported each other both at the Intervision music competition and at the third CIS Games, which were held in seven cities of Azerbaijan. They were also most likely able to recall the central event of the year — the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, which they celebrated together on May 9 on Red Square. By the way, countering any attempts to falsify history, especially this war, remains one of the important tasks of the CIS, the Russian president noted. For example, Vladimir Putin spoke about plans to publish a collection of unique archival materials about the contribution of each commonwealth country to the defeat of Nazism. It will contain digitized copies of previously unpublished documents and photographs.

In the past year, the CIS has also achieved a lot in the economy. In particular, this is indicated by the very substantial volume of trade between Russia and the Commonwealth members, which amounted to almost $90 billion in ten months. The cooperation of the CIS countries in the monetary and financial sphere is also expanding: their own payment instruments, independent of foreign banking systems, are being increasingly used. The share of national currencies in commercial transactions between the CIS countries already exceeds 96%, Vladimir Putin noted. The process of import substitution is proceeding rapidly, and as a result, the technological sovereignty of our states is being strengthened.

"For more than three decades, the commonwealth has established itself as an authoritative regional integration association in which the participating countries build relations based on the principles of genuine good—neighborliness, equal partnership, mutual benefit, respect and consideration for each other's interests," Vladimir Putin said.

The commonwealth also adheres to similar or overlapping approaches on key global and regional issues, the Russian president noted. The CIS unanimously stands for a just world order led by the United Nations. The competent authorities of the member countries of the association are also in constant contact, which cooperate in the most important areas of security.

Currently, the fight against terrorism and extremism, organized crime, drug trafficking, and corruption remains important. The organization as a whole faces many challenges: from forming a balanced agenda on the events of the past to issues in the field of migration regulation, joint ventures, security and other areas, Daria Saprynskaya, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia. According to the expert, the most promising issues can be considered in the field of AI and technology development in general.

These issues are likely to be handled by the future chairman of the CIS, Turkmenistan.

At the same time, Vladimir Putin expressed gratitude to the leader of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, for the constructive approach during his country's presidency of the CIS in 2025 and wished success to the President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who will assume the presidency of the commonwealth from January 1.

— Turkmenistan is known for its neutral positioning, so we can expect a measured approach and an appropriate agenda. In September 2025, the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development for 2026-2035 was approved. Its key task is to support the technological sovereignty of the participating countries. I think the rest of the solutions will work in the same sense, with the main emphasis on the sovereign nature and support for their own, mutually beneficial solutions for all countries," Daria Saprynskaya clarified.

At the end of the day, in the Twenty-Columned Hall of the Hermitage, Vladimir Putin held bilateral meetings with some leaders of the CIS countries, with whom he had not had time to talk the day before. Among them are Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Nikol Pashinyan and Emomali Rahmon. The conversation with the latter was particularly delicate — Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the death of a boy, a native of the republic, in an attack at a school in Odintsovo, Moscow region.:

— I would like to start our bilateral meeting with words of sincere condolences to you and the family of the boy from Tajikistan who died a few days ago. Committing terrorist acts against children is a particularly heinous crime.

The Russian president said he was shocked. Crimes of this kind generally go beyond understanding, and if such acts of terrorism are committed against children, it causes special feelings, he added. The tragedy occurred on December 16.