The State Duma revealed the government's motives for not fixing the day off on December 31.

The Russian government fears that if December 31 is fixed as an official day off, there will be a new discussion about extending the holidays to December 30. This was announced on May 18 by the head of the State Duma Committee on Social Policy Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR).

"They believe that if December 31 is made a day off, then the question will arise whether let's make December 30 shorter, too, that is, the discussion will shift from December 31 to December 30," he said in an interview with TASS, while at the Russia—Islamic World forum in Kazan.

He expressed disagreement with the relevant position, since in recent years December 31 has already been a day off. Nilov stressed that the final decision is made manually with additional decisions.

According to Nilov, the government considers its existing powers sufficient to resolve the issue. At the same time, he noted that at the moment there are no guarantees that the situation will not happen again when the weekday of December 31 was not changed to a day off by postponement.

"To avoid this, December 31 should be fixed as a mandatory day off, and in order not to upset the balance and increase the number of days off, January 8 should be made a regular working day," concluded the head of the State Duma Committee and recalled the relevant draft law he had developed.

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On May 16, State Duma Deputy Igor Antropenko sent a letter to the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Anton Kotyakov with a proposal to introduce continuous days off from May 1 to May 9 in 2026. According to him, Russians constantly turn to him with requests to make continuous May weekends.