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At The Request Of Our Japanese Partners, We Have Reopened These Talks [about Territories]. What Command Is Given In This Case In Judo? You Probably Know Better Than I Do: Yoshi (continue). So We Will Continue.

-Vladimir Putin

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At The Request Of

Vladimir Putin

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At The Request Of Our Japanese Partners, We Have Reopened These Talks [about Territories]. What Command Is Given In This Case In Judo? You Probably Know Better Than I Do: Yoshi (continue). So We Will Continue.

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How Long Has It Taken The Democratic Process To Develop In The United States? Since It Was Founded. So, Do You Think That As Regards Democracy Everything Is Settled Now In America? If This Were So, There Would Be No Ferguson Issue, Right? There Would Be No Other Issues Of Similar Kind, There Would Be No Police Abuse. Our Goal Is To See All These Issues And Respond To Them Timely And Properly. The Same Applies To Russia. We Also Have A Lot Of Problems.

Nobody Should Have Any Illusion About The Possibility Of Gaining Military Superiority Over Russia. We Will Never Allow This To Happen.

We Are Currently Gradually Stabilizing Our Economy.

I Think The International Community Should Unite To Fight Such Inhuman Phenomena As Terror Attacks And The Murder Of Totally Innocent People.

Agriculture Specialists Say Our Farm Production Is Increasing And Will Go On Increasing. Thank God.

One Thing Is Clear, Everyone, No Matter What Their Professional Or Material Status, No Matter What Their Influence On Various State Structures, Must Obey The Law.

The Democratic Choice Russian People Made In The Early 90's Is Final.

Another Point Is That Ultimately, As Far As The Budget Is Concerned, Of Major Importance Is Who Offers More Money During The Bidding That Must Be Organized As A Part Of The Privatization Process. In This Sense, We Cannot Discriminate Against Any Market Participants, Not One Of Them, But This Is Not Relevant At The Moment, As The Government Has Decided To Postpone The Privatization Of Bashneft.

Nobody And Nothing Will Stop Russia On The Road To Strengthening Democracy And Ensuring Human Rights And Freedoms.

One Of The Most Important Tasks Is To Broaden The Energy Supply ... Energy Determines Today International Security And Social As Well As Economic Development In Many Respects. In Reality The Wellbeing Of Millions Of People Is Directly Dependent In Energy Security.

America Is A Powerful Country And It Has Earned The Right That Nobody From The Outside Can Interfere With It Or Comment On It. We Will Work With Any Administration, With Any President Who Will Win The Support Of The American People, If Of Course They Are Ready To Cooperate With Russia.

We Have A Professional Relationship [with Chancellor Angela Merkel].2016 Is The Year Of The German-russian Youth Exchange, So The Relations Are Moving On.

Russia Can Offer State-of-the-art Technology, .. For Example, We Can Help Other Countries Launch Space Devices Such As Satellites.

Frankly Speaking, We All Know That Provoking Military And Political Instability, Regional, And Other Conflicts Is A Helpful Means Of Distracting The Public From Growing Domestic Social And Economic Problems In Certain Countries. Such Attempts Cannot Be Ruled Out, Unfortunately.

We Are Ready To Build Large Underground Gas Storages In Turkey, To Participate In The Privatization Of Turkey's Gas-distribution Networks, To Use The Existing And Participate In The Construction Of New Pipelines In Order To Supply Our Energy Resources Through Turkey To Third Countries, Including In Southern Europe

International Terrorists Have Proved Quite Skilled At Misleading Many People About What Is Actually Happening Here In The Caucasus, And They Continue To Mislead People Today.

Take, For Example, Lithuania. Do You Know, What Was Its Population In The Soviet Times? It Was 3.4 Mln People. It Was A Small Country, A Small Republic. And What Is It Now? I Have Looked Though The Recent Statistics, Today The Population Of This Country Is 1.4 Mln People. Where Are The People? More Than Half Of The Citizens Have Left The Country.

People In The Eastern Regions [of Ukaraine] Are Talking About Federalisation, And Kiev Has At Long Last Started Talking About De-centralisation. Order In The Country Can Only Be Restored Through Dialogue And Democratic Procedures, Rather Than With The Use Of Armed Force, Tanks And Aircraft.

Let's Recall Bosnia In 1995. As We Know Well, The European Peacekeeping Contingent, Represented By The Dutch Troops, Did Not Want To Get Involved With One Of The Attacking Sides, And Allowed It To Destroy A Whole Village. Hundreds Of People Were Killed Or Injured. The Tragedy In Srebrenica Is Well Known In Europe.

In 2009, Us President [barack] Obama Said That The Missile Defense Only Serves As Protection From Iranian Nuclear Missiles. But Now There Is An International Treaty With Iran That Bans Tehran From Developing A Potential Military Nuclear Project.

Only A Developed Society, For Example, Only A Strong Democratic System In Modern Conditions Can Create A Climate In Which Any Manifestation Of Terrorism Is Unacceptable And Can Also Make The State Itself Stronger.

The Fact That The Union Of Different Nationalities And Denominations Resulted From The Liberation, This Is Particularly Symbolic And Important For Our Multinational Country, As Long As We Feel This Unity Inside Us, Russia Will Be Invincible.

Different Nationalities

I Will Not Meddle In America's Internal Political Squabbles.

I Did Not Know That [ The Chancellor Angela Merkel Is A Bit Frightened Of Dogs]. I Wanted To Make Her Happy. When I Learned That She Does Not Like Dogs, I Apologized, Of Course.

I Was Brought Up In A Very Ordinary Family, In Fact, A Worker's Family. Both My Father And Mother Were Ordinary Citizens.

I'm Asking : If The Kosovars Have The Right To Self-determination, Why Should People On Crimea Not Have It? I Would Say: Everyone Should Comply With Uniform International Rules And Not Want To Change Them Any Time One Feels Like It.

We Have Created Stability, Which Is A Necessary Condition For Development. But I Can't Call This System Authoritarian.

However, There Is A Fundamental Difference Between The Issue Related To Japan's History And Our Negotiations With China. What Is It All About? The Japanese Issue Resulted From World War Ii And Is Stipulated In The International Instruments On The Outcomes Of World War Ii, While Our Discussions On Border Issues With Our Chinese Counterparts Have Nothing To Do With World War Ii Or Any Other Military Conflicts. This Is The First, Or Rather, I Should Say, The Second Point.

You Can Do A Lot More With Weapons And Politeness Than Just Politeness.

Judo Has Been Part Of Japanese Culture For A Long Time. It Makes Sense To Me That This Sport, Which Is Both Athletic And Philosophical, Was Created In Japan. It Is Based On Respect For The Partner And For Our Elders As Our Teachers, Which Is Very Important And Makes A Strong, Positive Contribution To Human Relationships, And Not Only In Sports. I Am Happy That Life Brought Me To This Wonderful Sport As A Child. It Is Like My First Love.

I Consider It To Be The Meaning Of My Whole Life And My Obligation To Serve My Fatherland And Our People.

Russia Is A Very Reliable And Big Market. I Don't Remember The Figure But, For Example, The German Machine-building Industry Has Been Increasing Its Supplies To Russia Every Year. These Supplies Are Huge. Does Someone Want To Discontinue These Supplies? We'll Buy From Somebody Else.

It Is Simply That We Treat Japanese History, The History Of The Japanese People And Its Unique Culture With Greater Respect And Interest. This Generates Enormous Interest In Russia!

There Are Many Other Areas. And I Am Confident That Each Of Them Is Of Interest To Both The People Of The United States Of America And The Russian People.

I Do Not Even Know Where Bill Clinton Delivered His Speech And I Know Nothing About Any Funds. Both Parties Simply Use It As A Tool In Their Internal Political Contention, And I Am Sure It Is A Bad Thing. But Again, We Welcome The Fact That Somebody Expresses Readiness To Work With Russia Whatever The Name Of That Person.

Donald Trump Is A Brilliant And Talented Person, Without A Doubt.

I Have To Say That Oil And Gas Revenues Make Up A Large Part Of The Russian Budget Revenue. This Is A Serious Component For Us In Addressing Economic Development, Budget Funding For Our Development Programmes And, Of Course, And Meeting Of Our Social Commitments To Our Citizens.

There Is Progress In The Sense That The Prime Minister [shinzō Abe] Has Proposed, Outlined, As It Were, Directions For Movement Toward A Peace Treaty And The Resolution Of Issues Related To Territorial Problems. Now, What Did He Propose? He Proposed Promoting An Environment Of Trust And Cooperation. I Believe It Is Even Hard To Imagine That It Can Be Any Different, That We Can Agree To Sign The Documents That We Are Talking About Without Trusting Each Other Or Without Cooperation. That Is Simply Impossible Even To Imagine.

Trusting Each Other

The Fact Is That There Was A Long War In Which Serbia And Its Capital Belgrade Were Bombarded And Attacked With Missiles. It Was A Military Intervention Of The West And Nato Against The Then Rump Yugoslavia.

The Goal We Have Set For Ourselves, Which Is To Diversify Our Cooperation With China, Is Making Progress.

An Increase Of Two Or Three Degrees Wouldn't Be So Bad For A Northern Country Like Russia. We Could Spend Less On Fur Coats, And The Grain Harvest Would Go Up.

Russia Is Opposed To The Proliferation Of Mass Destruction Weapons, Including Nuclear Weapons, And In This Context We Call Upon Our Iranian Friends To Abandon The Uranium Enrichment Programme.

Mass Destruction

Russia Has Long Recognized The Borders Of Today's Ukraine. By And Large, We Have Completed Our Talks On The Border. Now We Have To Deal With The Demarcation, But This Is A Technical Issue.

We Must Stop Using The Language Of Force And Return To The Path Of Civilized Diplomatic And Political Settlement.

The Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction Also Represents A Serious Danger. If These Weapons Were To Fall Into The Hands Of Terrorists, And They Pursue This Aim, The Consequences Would Be Simply Disastrous.

Mass Destruction

I'm Eternally Grateful To Fate And The Citizens Of Russia That They've Trusted Me To Be The Head Of The Russian Government.

I Don't Think That Neutrality Is An Obstacle To Austria's Successful Integration Into European And World Structures... But This Is A Question That The Austrian People Themselves Must Decide.

The Us Wants To Subdue Russia, To Solve Us Problems At Russia's Expense. No One In History Ever Managed To Do This To Russia, And No One Ever Will.

[egon] Bahr Even Said: If Russia Agreed To The Nato Expansion, He Would Never Come To Moscow Again.

We Are Going To Set Up A Branch Of The St Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Here [on The Far Easter]. We Are Also Planning To Open Local Branches Of The Hermitage Museum And The Vaganova Academy Of Russian Ballet.

The Point Is That In Any Country, Including The United States, May Be In The United States Even More Often Than In Any Other Country, Foreign Policy Is Used For Internal Political Struggle.

Speaking About Our Largest Oil Company Rosneft, And I Recalled In The Beginning That Almost 20 Percent Of It [19.7] Belongs To Bp. Who's Company Is That? British Petroleum, Isn't It? I Suppose That Is Not Bad. I Have To Tell That British Petroleum's Capitalization Is Significantly Related To The Fact That It Owns More Than 19 Percent Of Rosneft, Which Has Vast Oil Reserves Both In Russia And Abroad. This Has Its Impact On The Company's Stability As Well.

The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] And I Will Negotiate Proceeding From Our National Interests: The Interests Of Russia And The Interests Of Japan. We Should Find A Compromise.

If The World Economy Is Divided Into Isolated Economic Blocs Of This Kind, It Will Be Rather Difficult To Achieve The Same Interpretation And Application Of International Rules Of Economic Activity And World Trade.

The Natural Economic, Humanitarian And Social Integration, Do Not Require Any Armed Forces.

Russia Has Not Taken Part And Is Not Going To Take Part In Any Actions Aimed At Removing Legitimate Government.

I Have Never Changed. I Feel As Young As I Always Did And Remain Close Friends With Gerhard Schröder.

Russia Needs A Strong State Power And Must Have It. But I Am Not Calling For Totalitarianism.

At No Time In The Past, Now Or In The Future Has Or Will Russia Take Any Part In Actions Aimed At Overthrowing The Legitimate Government. I'm Talking About Something Else Right Now - When Someone Does This, The Outcome Is Very Negative. Libya's State Is Disintegrated, Iraq's Territory Is Flooded With Terrorists, It Looks Like The Scenario Will Be The Same For Syria, And You Know What The Situation Is In Afghanistan.

We Do Not Trade Territories Although Concluding A Peace Treaty With Japan Is Certainly A Key Issue And We Would Like To Find A Solution To This Problem Together With Our Japanese Friends.

Yes, Life In Chechnya So Far Looks More Like A Life After A Natural Disaster.

No Doubt, The United States And The American People Are A Gear Country And A Great People. Nobody Disputes This, But Talking About Exceptionalism Is Way Too Much, And This Is Creating Certain Problems In Relations, And Not Only With Russia, As I See It.

I Do Not Want To Speak About Our Cooperation With Japan Now. Thank God, We Have Had No Such Problems There. Nor Would We Want Any To Arise In The Future. Therefore, Everything Needs To Be Pre-calculated, And We Need To Agree Upon Everything In Advance.

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It's Not Considered Polite In Russia To Count The Money In Someone Else's Pocket.

We See That Leaders In Western Europe [there Are Some Debates Of Course, We Also See That And Analyse It All] Stick To, I Cannot Say Right Or Wrong Ones, It Always Depends On Someone's View, But I Think, Very Pragmatic Approaches In Addressing Economic Issues.

We Conducted Talks On Border Issues With Our Friends In The People's Republic Of China For 40 Years. There Were Also Issues Related To Specific Territories.

They [leaders In Western Europe] Do Not Misuse Financial Instruments, Financial Injections, But, First Of All, Seek Structural Change. This Is Urgent For Our Economy As Well, Maybe Even More Urgent Bearing In Mind The Problem That We Cannot Yet Deal With, Namely The Prevalence Of The Oil And Gas Sector In The Russian Federation And, As A Result, Dependence On Revenue From Oil And Gas.

Their [the U.s.’s] Defense Budget In Absolute Figures Is Almost 25 Times Bigger Than Russia’s. This Is What In Defense Is Referred To As ‘their Home — Their Fortress.’ And Good For Them, I Say. Well Done!

We Had A Very Good Situation In 2005. The Common Budget Had A Volume Of 80 Billion Dollars Per Year. Thousands Of Jobs Were Created In Germany By Russian Investments. At The Same Time, A Large Number Of German Companies Invested In Russia. There Were Countless Cultural And Social Contacts.

It Has Nothing To Do With Any Kind Of Exchange Or Sale [of Kuril Island To Japan]. It Is About The Search For A Solution When Neither Party Would Be At A Disadvantage, When Neither Party Would Perceive Itself As Conquered Or Defeated.

In The 1990s And Early 2000s, There Was A Grave Social Situation In Russia; Our Social Protection System Was Destroyed; Numerous Problems Emerged Which We Have Not Been Able To Cope With Effectively Yet, To Get Rid Of Them, In Health, Sports Development.

You Have Made A Very Good Point: Both The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] And I Enjoy A Fairly High Level Of Trust Among The Citizens Of Our Countries.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

After The Unlawful Decision To Recognize Kosovo, Everyone Expected Russia To Respond By Recognizing The Independence And Sovereignty Of South Ossetia And Abkhazia. This Is True, This Is How It Was. Everyone Was Waiting For Russia's Decision. And We Had The Moral Right To Make It But We Did Not. We Were More Than Restrained. I Don't Even Want To Comment On It. In Truth, We "swallowed" It.

Brazil Does Have Every Right To Develop Its Own Peaceful Nuclear Programme.

I Often Heard The Same Question: What Place Does Russia Reserve For Itself In The World; How Does It See Itself; What Is Its Place? We Are A Peace-loving State And We Want To Cooperate With All Of Our Neighbors And With All Of Our Partners.

We Should Cooperate Much More Closely In Fighting Terrorism, Which Is A Great Challenge.

Absolute Trust Is Something Hard To Achieve Even In A Family, And It Is Much Harder To Achieve On An International Level.

I Love The Russian Classics Very Much, The Russian Classical Literature. But I Also Read Modern Literature. As Far As Russian Literature Is Concerned, I Am Very Fond Of Tolstoy And Chekhov, And I Also Enjoy Reading Gogol Very Much.

We Must Seek Support In The Moral Values That Have Ensured The Progress Of Our Civilization. Honesty And Hard Work, Responsibility And Faith In Our Strength Are Bound To Bring Us Success. There Should Be No Place For Despondency. The Crisis Can And Must Be Fought By Uniting Our Intellectual, Spiritual And Material Resources.

When We Talk About The Far East We Usually Mean The Far East Itself, Including Primorye Territory, Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka, And Chukotka, As Well As Eastern Siberia. All This Area Contains Tremendous Resources, Including Oil And Gas, 90 Percent Of Russian Tin, 30 Percent Of Russian Gold, 35 Percent Of Forest, 70 Percent Of Russia's Fish Is Harvested In The Local Waters.

The Period Of My Service Will Depend On Two Conditions. Firstly, Of Course, There Are Rules Stipulated By The Constitution, And I Surely Will Not Infringe Them. But I Am Not Sure Whether I Should Take Full Advantage Of These Constitutional Rights. It Will Depend On The Specific Situation In The Country, In The World And My Own Feelings About It.

Russia And The United States Are The Biggest Nuclear Powers, This Leaves Us With An Extra Special Responsibility. By The Way, We Manage To Deal With It And Work Together In Certain Fields, Particularly In Resolving The Issue Of The Iranian Nuclear Programme. We Worked Together And We Achieved Positive Results On The Whole.

It Is Well Known, Widely Known That The Us President-elect [donald Trump] Has Publicly Spoken In Favour Of Normalising Russian-american Relations. We Cannot But Support This. Of Course, We Understand That It Will Not Be An Easy Job, Taking Into Account The Degree To Which Russian-american Relations Have Degraded. But We Are Ready To Cover Our Part Of The Way.

Thank God, I Think No One Is Thinking Of Unleashing A Large-scale Conflict With Russia. I Want To Remind You That Russia Is One Of The Leading Nuclear Powers.

I Am Very Grateful To Our People Who Appreciate My Work And For Their Support, As Without That Support It Would Have Been Impossible To Get Anything Done.

Napoleon Once Said That Justice Is The Incarnation Of God On Earth. I'm Telling You: The Reunification Of Crimea And Russia Is Just.

Today, Terrorism Threatens A Great Number Of States, A Great Number Of People - Hundreds Of Thousands, Millions Of People Suffer From Its Criminal Activity. And We All Face The Task Of Joining Our Efforts In The Fight Against This Common Evil.

A Foreign Threat Is Useful To Put Things In Order In One's Own Camp, To Make One's Allies Follow The Bloc Discipline. Iran Does Not Fit This Role Too Well, And It Is Very Tempting To Revive Russia's Image Of The Enemy. But Nobody In Europe Is Afraid Anymore.

How Can A Bureaucrat Or A Politician Be Trusted If He Says Loud Words For The Sake Of Russia's Good While Trying To Take His Funds, His Money Abroad?

We Have Already Begun Taking Concrete Steps To Change The Structure Of Our Economy And, As We Have Discussed A Great Deal, To Give It A More Innovative Quality.

I Will Not Offer My Thoughts On What Japan Could And Should Have Done, This Is None Of My Business, It Is The Business Of The Japanese Leadership. But We Should Understand How Practicable All Our Agreements Are As A Whole Given The Allied Obligations Japan Has Assumed, How Much Independence There Is In Making Those Decision, And What We Can Hope For, What We Can Ultimately Arrive At.

However, Personally, I See This As Not Having The Right To Abuse This Trust [among The Citizens Of Russia And Japan], And Any Decision We Reach Should Correspond To The National Interests Of The Russian Federation.

Even If We Do Not Always Agree On Every Aspect, Nobody Should Take This As An Excuse To Declare Us As Enemies.

Russia And China Also Cooperate In Mechanical Engineering, High-speed Railway Transportation, Lumber Processing, Nuclear Energy Production And So On. We Have Built The Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant. Two Units Are Already Operational And Are Showing Good Results.

Back In 2007, Many People Criticized Me For My Talk At The Munich Security Conference. But What Did I Say There? I Merely Pointed Out That The Former Nato Secretary General Manfred Wörner Had Guaranteed That Nato Would Not Expand Eastwards After The Fall Of The Wall.

Of Course One Always Has To Follow International Law. This Was Also The Case In Crimea. According To The Charter Of The United Nations, Every People Has The Right To Self-determination.

We Are Marking The Anniversary Of The Arctic Convoys.we Really Do Consider Members Of The Arctic Convoy To Be Heroes. This Is True. I Am Not Saying This As A Fashion Of Speech.

Opposition Can Be Useful. Every Opposition Movement Is Good And Useful If It Acts Within The Law... If There Are People Who Act Outside The Law, Then The State Must Use Legal Means To Impose Law In The Interests Of The Majority. That's The Way It's Done In The U.s. And That's The Way It's Done In Russia.

I Do Not Remember When I Said This [oil Production Would Collapse ], Maybe In The Heat Of The Moment, But I Do Not Think I Even Said It, But I May Just Not Remember It. I Was Saying That At A Certain Level Of Oil Prices New Deposits Will Not Be Explored. That Is What Is Actually Happening. However, Surprisingly, Our Oil And Gas Workers [mainly Oilmen] Continue To Invest.

Of Course, It's Always Bad To Lose, Of Course It's Always A Hardship When You Lose To Yesterday's Miners Or Yesterday's Tractor Drivers. But Life Is Life. It'll Surely Go On.

Indeed, Russia And The U.s. Were Allies During The Two Tragic Conflicts Of The Second And The First World Wars, Which Allows Us To Think There's Something Objectively Bringing Us Together In Difficult Times, And I Think - I Believe - It Has To Do With Geopolitical Interests And Also Has A Moral Component.

I Have Been To Tokyo And Several Other Cities, But I Have Never Been To Yamaguchi Prefecture. I Wonder What It Is Like, What Interesting Things It Has To Offer. I Am Sure That Prime Minister [ Shinzō] Abe Will Tell Me All About It.

Concerning Our Possibilities On The International Financial Markets, The Sanctions Are Severely Harming Russia. But The Biggest Harm Is Currently Caused By The Decline Of The Prices For Energy. We Suffer Dangerous Revenue Losses In Our Export Of Oil And Gas, Which We Can Partly Compensate For Elsewhere. But The Whole Thing Also Has A Positive Side: If You Earn So Many Petrodollars - As We Once Did - That You Can Buy Anything Abroad, This Slows Down Developments In Your Own Country.

Sanctions Have Nothing To Do With This [relations With The People's Republic Of China]. The Decline In Our Mutual Trade Has Objective Causes, Which Are The Energy Prices And The Exchange Rate Difference. But The Physical Volumes Have Not Decreased, Quite The Opposite Actually. They Are Growing.

This Work Is Either Useless Or Harmful, Because There Is Nothing Good About Populism. If You Wanted To Hear My Opinion On This Issue, That Is What I Think.

The Ability To Compromise Is Not A Diplomatic Politeness Toward A Partner But Rather Taking Into Account And Respecting Your Partner's Legitimate Interests.

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

We Spoke About Economic Sanctions Only Recently In Lima, Within The Framework Of Apec. Almost All The Leaders Represented At Apec (the Asia Pacific Region), Pacific Countries, Spoke About The Same Thing, Namely, That We Are Going Through A Very Acute Crisis In World Trade, International Trade, Related, Among Other Things, To Restrictions On The Markets Of Certain Countries.

Economic Sanctions

By The Way, Japan Is Also Known To Be Actively Engaged In Manned Space Flights As Part Of The International Space Station.

When The Ruble Is Weaker, It Is Easier To Sell, To Produce Here For A Cheap Ruble And Sell For An Expensive Dollar, Get Revenue In Dollars And Then Exchange It For Rubles And Get A Bigger Income. This Is Simple.

I Have Always Loved And Avidly Read The Novels Of Jack London, Jules Verne And Ernest Hemingway. The Characters Depicted In Their Books, Who Are Brave And Resourceful People Embarking On Exciting Adventures, Definitely Shaped My Inner Self And Nourished My Love For The Outdoors.

I Only Had A Telephone Conversation With [donald Trump], Whereas [shinzō ] Abe Met With Him In Person.

After All, Despite The Scandalous Behavior Of One And, By The Way, The Other Candidate [they Are Both , Donald Trump And Hillary Clinton, Scandalous In Their Own Ways], They Are Smart, They Are Really Smart And They Are Aware Of The Leverages They Should Use To Make The Voters In The United States Understand Them, Feel Them And Hear Them.

Some Western Politicians Are Already Threatening Us With Not Just Sanctions, But Also The Prospect Of Increasingly Serious Problems On The Domestic Front. I Would Like To Know What It Is They Have In Mind Exactly: Action By A Fifth Column, This Disparate Bunch Of 'national Traitors', Or Are They Hoping To Put Us In A Worsening Social And Economic Situation So As To Provoke Public Discontent? We Consider Such Statements Irresponsible And Clearly Aggressive In Tone, And We Will Respond To Them Accordingly.

If Everything Stops Functioning Our Level Will Be Able To Ensure Our Trade Turnover Using Its Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves For At Least Six Months Or More, Which Is More Than Enough.

If You Aspire To Be A Leader Of Your Own Country, You Must Speak Your Own Language, For God's Sake.

Mohammed Bin Salman Is Deputy Crown Prince, But This Is Not So Important. He Is A Very Active Statesman, We Have Really Warm Relations. This Is A Person Who Knows What He Wants And Can Achieve His Goals. At The Same Time I Consider Him To Be A Reliable Partner With Whom One Can Negotiate And Be Sure That Agreements With Him Will Be Implemented.

Whoever Is The First To Cry "stop The Thief" Is The One Who Is Guilty.

My Family Suffered Very Major Losses During The Second World War, That's True. In My Father's Family, There Were Five Brothers. I Think Four Of Them Died. On My Mother's Side The Picture Was Pretty Much The Same. Russia Has Suffered Great Losses. And Of Course We Can't Forget That.

I Think The American People Should Express Their Preferences And We'll Accept Their Choice.

Some Years Ago Our Japanese Counterparts Asked Us To Resume The Discussions Of The Issue And So We Did Meeting Them Halfway. Over The Passed Couple Of Years The Contacts Were Practically Frozen On The Initiative Of The Japanese Side, Not Ours. At The Same Time, Presently Our Partners Have Expressed Their Eagerness To Resume Discussions On This Issue [the Kuril Islands].

In Relations Between The States ... The Interests Of The Country Should Be Correlated With The Interests Of Other Countries, And Compromise Is To Be Found When Resolving The Most Complex Issues.

In The Referendum - Which Was Still Decided To Take Place By The Crimea's Old Parliament - The Majority Of Citizens Voted For Belonging To Russia. This Is Democracy, The People's Will.

Russia Does Not Have In Its Possession Any Trustworthy Data That Supports The Existence Of Nuclear Weapons Or Any Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Iraq And We Have Not Received Any Such Information From Our Partners As Yet.

Mass Destruction

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

The Stability Of The Rate Is The Main Issue And The Central Bank Manages To Ensure It One Way Or Another. This Was Finally Achieved After The Central Bank Switched To A Floating National Currency Exchange Rate.

Representatives Of The American Intelligence Agencies - And I Hope They Won't Be Angry - But They Could Have Been More Professional, And The Diplomats As Well. After They Found Out That He Was Flying To Us, And That He Was Flying As A Transit Passenger, There Was Pressure From All Sides - From The Americans, From The Europeans - Instead Of Just Letting Him Go To A Country Where They Could Operate Easily.

Notably, It Was Only Possible [ Negotiating On The Tarabarov Island], And This Is Very Important, Due To The High Level Of Trust Russia And China Reached In Their Relations By That Time. If We Reach The Same Level Of Trust With Japan, We Might Be Able To Reach Certain Compromises.

Presidents Come And Go, And Even Parties Come To And Away From Power. But The Main Policy Tack Does Not Change.

Russia Always Has Been, And I Hope Always Will Be, One Of The Leading International Sports Countries. Our Athletes Still Produce Great Results In International Competition, Set New Records And Win Gold Medals. Yes, Like Any Country, We Might Have Experienced Certain Ups And Downs With Regard To Results, But In No Way Does This Cast Any Doubt On Russia's Status As One Of The Leading Countries In Sport.

Respecting The Sovereignty Means Preventing Coups, Unconstitutional Actions And Illegitimate Overthrowing Of The Legitimate Government. All These Things Should Be Totally Prevented.

We All Are Interested In An Open Development, Without Any Prejudice; This Refers Particularly And, Perhaps, Primarily To The Baltic Countries, For Them It Is More Important Than For Russia.

I'm Still The Same. Take The Fight Against Terrorism: After The Attacks Of September 11, I Was The First To Side With Us President [george W.] Bush. And Now, After The Attacks In Paris, I Have Done The Same With The President Of France,[oliver] Hollande. Terrorism Threatens Us All.

Now They [nato And The Usa ] Are Sitting There, And We Are Talking About All These Crises We Would Otherwise Not Have. You Can Also See This Striving For An Absolute Triumph In The American Missile Defense Plans.

A Very Interesting And Promising Cluster Has Formed Here [in The Russian Far East ], And We Would Be Happy If Our Potential Investors, Our Counterparts From Abroad, First Of All Those From The Asia-pacific Region, Knew More About It.

We Are Actively Preparing A Partial Privatization Of Rosneft Itself. It Is The Best Proof That Our Major Plans Have Remained Unchanged. Another Example Would Be One Of The Largest Russian Diamond Mining Companies In The World. We Are Privatizing Part Of Our Stake In That As Well.

Respect For Sovereignty Means To Not Allow Unconstitutional Action And Coup D'états, The Removal Of Legitimate Power.

Legitimate Power

There Is Also A Huge Potential For Developing The Aviation And Space Industries. As You Might Have Noticed We Have Launched A New Russian Spaceport In One Of The Far Eastern Regions.

Without The Values At The Core Of Christianity And Other World Religions, Without Moral Norms That Have Been Shaped Over Millennia, People Will Inevitably Lose Their Human Dignity. One Must Respect Every Minority’s Right To Be Different, But The Rights Of The Majority Must Not Be Put Into Question.

World Religions

The Participants Expressed Anxiety About The Problems The Defense Ministry Had Been Meeting In Realizing Its Plans For Future Development.

President Obama Hasn't Been Elected By The American People In Order To Be Pleasant To Russia. And Your Humble Servant Hasn't Been Elected By The People Of Russia To Be Pleasant To Someone Either. We Work, We Argue About Some Issues. We Are Human. Sometimes One Of Us Gets Vexed. But I Would Like To Repeat Once Again That Global Mutual Interests Form A Good Basis For Finding A Joint Solution To Our Problems.

We Certainly Would Not Want To Have The Same Kind Of Democracy As They Have In Iraq, I Can Tell You Quite Honestly.

I Would Like To Inform You With Great Satisfaction Of A New Step Forward On Establishing Partnership Between Russia And Japan

The People Who Lost The Elections Do Not Want To Admit That They Really Lost, That The One Who Won Was Closer To The People And Better Understood What Ordinary Voters Want. They Are Absolutely Reluctant To Admit This, And Prefer Deluding Themselves And Others Into Thinking It Was Not Their Fault, That Their Policy Was Correct, They Did All The Right Things, But Someone From The Outside Thwarted Them. But It Was Not So. They Just Lost And They Have To Admit It.

Our Foreign Ministries Will Simply Need To Sort Out Some Purely Technical Matters. I See No Political Restraints Here. The Same Applies To Economic Matters. We, On Our Part, Are Ready. However, Let Me Repeat Once Again, Given That Japan Has Joined The Anti-russian Sanctions, How Ready Is Japan And How Can It Do That Without Breaching Its Commitments To Its Allies? We Do Not Know The Answer. Only Japan Itself Knows The Answer.

Over The Course Of The Year 1990, The Then Chancellor Helmut Kohl And Foreign Minister Hans-dietrich Genscher Had Many Conversations With President [mikhail] Gorbachev And Other Soviet Officials.

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

Terrorists Are Always A Threat To Someone. If We'll Be Scared Of Them, It Means They Have Won.

Of Course Germany's Media Are Heavily Influenced By The Country On The Other Side Of The Atlantic Ocean.

Love For One's Motherland Is One Of The Most Powerful And Uplifting Feelings. It Manifested Itself In Full In The Brotherly Support To The People Of Crimea And Sevastopol, When They Resolutely Decided To Return Home, This Event Will Remain A Very Important Epoch In Domestic History Forever.

I Think That A Person Cannot Be Criminally Or Otherwise Prosecuted, His Or Her Rights Cannot Be Infringed Upon The Grounds Of Nationality, Ethnicity Or Sexual Orientation In The Modern World. It Is Absolutely Unacceptable. And It Is Not The Case In Russia.

We Still Have A Great Amount Of Work To Do In Social Development, Including Resolving One Of The Biggest Challenges We Face In This Area, Namely, Reducing The Gap Between High-income Earners And People, Citizens Of Our Country, Who Are Still Living On Very Modest Means Indeed. But We Cannot, Of Course, Adopt The Solution Used 80 Years Ago And Simply Confiscate The Riches Of Some To Redistribute Among Others. We Will Use Completely Different Means To Resolve This Problem, Namely, We Will Ensure Good Economic Growth.

What Happened In Ukraine? The Coup D'état In Ukraine Has Led To A Civil War, Because, Yes, Let's Say, Many Ukrainians No Longer Trusted President Yanukovych. However, They Should Have Legitimately Come To The Polls And Voted For Another Head Of State Instead Of Staging A Coup D'état. And After The Coup D'état Took Place, Someone Supported It, Someone Was Satisfied With It, While Others Were Not. And Those Who Did Not Like It Were Treated From The Position Of Force. And That Led To A Civil War.

We Handed Over Nothing, Those Territories [tarabarov Island To China] Were Disputed And We Have Been Negotiating This Issue With The People's Republic Of China, Let Me Stress That, For 40 Years, And Finally Managed To Come To An Agreement. One Part Of The Territory Was Assigned To Russia, While Another Part - To The People's Republic Of China.

It Is Well Known That Homosexuality Is A Criminal Offense In The United States, In Four Us States. If It Is Good Or Bad, We Know The Decision Of The Constitutional Court, But This Problem Has Not Been Dealt With Yet, It Is Still Being Addressed By The Legislation Of The United States. This Is Not The Case In Russia.

Under Our Regional Cooperation Projects, We Are Building Roads And Bridges. The Scope Of Regional Cooperation [with China] Is Constantly Growing.

The Constitutional Reform Is Supposed To Give Autonomy To Eastern Ukraine And To Be Adopted By The End Of 2015. This Has Not Happened, And The Year Is Over. That's Not Russia's Fault.

My Job Is Not Only To Give Medals, You Know, Which Certainly Is Part Of My Function. First And Foremost, Though, My Job Is About Ensuring Success Of The Work In Various Spheres. It Is A Kind Of Day-to-day Spadework.

We Have Every Reason To Say, And I Note This With Great Satisfaction, That A Truly Friendly Relationship Has Evolved With China, And In Many Key Areas These Relations, Without Any Exaggeration, Have A Strategic Character. As We Say, The Strategic Character Of Privileged Partnership.

We Are Ready To Meet [with Donald Trump] At Any Time, This Is No Problem For Us, But I Believe We Should Be Patient And Wait For The Complicated Process Of Forming The New Administration To Be Complete.

Without Russia's Contribution, Prices Would Rise Even More. Some Members Of The Eu Meet 90% Of Their Demands For Gas With The Help Of Russian Hydrocarbons And Have No Complaints So Far. Everybody Is Happy. Russia Is A Reliable Partner And Has Never Failed Her Partners In Europe, Even In The Hardest Times Of Its Economic Development.

The West's Sanctions Are Not Aimed At Helping Ukraine, But At Geo-politically Pushing Russia Back. They Are Foolish And Are Merely Harming Both Sides.

All Issues - Purchasing And Selling Of Currency - Are Related To The Regulation Of The National Currency Market. However, It Is Still Difficult To Say What Will Be The Reaction Of The Central Bank And If It Would Lead To Increasing The Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves.

I Have Worked Like A Galley Slave Throughout These Eight Years, Morning Till Night, And I Have Given All I Could To This Work. I Am Happy With The Results.

At The Request Of My Japanese Colleagues, In 2000 We Revisited The Possibility Of Signing A Peace Treaty Based On The 1956 Agreement.

I'll Be Honest, I Felt An Urge To Squeeze Him Like A Kitten And That Led To The Gesture I Made. There Was Nothing Behind It Really.

As For The President-elect [donald Trump], He Has His Own Views On Things, And This Is Also Fairly Natural.

We All Want At Renewal Of Our Dialogue And Restoration Of Our Relations With Turkey In The Interests Of Russian And Turkish Peoples.

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

Whatever We Do, All The Knowledge, The Experience, They Stay With Us, We Carry Them On, Use Them In One Way Or Another.

We Have Spoken On Many Occasions Of The Need To Achieve High Economic Growth As An Absolute Priority For Our Country. The Annual Address For 2003 Set For The First Time The Goal Of Doubling Gross Domestic Product Within A Decade.

Oil Production, Energy Production Are Growing, Though The Latter Has Gone Down By About 1 Percent Here, I Believe... By The Way, We Occupy The First Place In The World In Gas Export, Accounting For 20 Percent Of The World Market. We Are Also First In The Sphere Of Liquid Hydrocarbons Export.

I Want To Say That Russia Is Developing Along A Democratic Path, This Is Without Question So. No One Should Have Any Doubts About That. The Fact That, Amidst Political Rivalry And Some Other Domestic Developments, We See Things Happen Here That Are Typical Of Other Countries, I Do Not See Anything Unusual In It. We Have Rallies, Opposition Rallies. And People Here Have The Right To Express Their Point Of View. However, If People, While Expressing Their Views, Break The Current Legislation, The Effective Law In Place, Then Of Course, The Law Enforcement Agencies Try To Restore Order.

Differences In Approaches Do Exist, And In One Short Moment It Is Impossible To Overcome All Of Them, But I'm Convinced Ahead Of Us We Have A Constructive Dialogue.

Irrespective Of When This May Happen, It Would Not Be An Exaggeration To Say That Today Millions Of People Living In Russia And, I Am Sure, Millions Of People Living In Japan Have An Urge To Get To Know Each Other, Cooperate And Exchange Useful Information, As Well As A Sincere Desire That All Problems That Still Remain Unresolved Be Resolved.

The Philosophy Of Fifa Is To Expand World Soccer Space, To Spread Out The World Football Space.

I Believe That The Presidential Term Should Be Limited.

Russia Will Not Soon Become, If It Ever Becomes, A Second Copy Of The United States Or England - Where Liberal Value Have Deep Historic Roots.

In Russia, We Are Ready To Listen To Our Partners, Ready To Listen To Appraisals And Assessments When It Is Done In A Friendly Manner, In Order To Establish Contacts And Create A Common Atmosphere And Dedicate Ourselves To Shared Values. But We Absolutely Will Not Accept When Such Things Are Used As A Tool Of Political Struggle. I Want Everybody To Know That. This Is Our Message.

There Is No Need To Distract The Attention Of The Community From The Essence Of The Subject Substituting It With Secondary Questions Dealing With The Search Of Those Who Did It [hacker's Attacks].

You Made These Things Up Yourselves And Now Scare Yourselves With Them And Even Use Them To Plan Your Prospective Policies. These Policies Have No Prospects. The Only Possible Future Is In Cooperation In All Areas, Including Security Issues. What Is The Major Security Problem Today? Terrorism. There Are Bombings In Europe, In Paris, In Russia, In Belgium. There Is A War In The Middle East. This Is The Main Concern. But No, Let Us Keep Speculating On The Threat From Russia.

Given The Cost Of Borrowings And The $100 Billion In Government Reserves, There Is No Reason For Us To Borrow. We Should Review The Situation Carefully. Besides, Borrowings Are Possible, But We Must Understand What Is More Profitable At This Point.

We Are Natural Partners [with Japan] In The World And The Far East, But The Absence Of A Peace Treaty Does Not Allow Us To Develop The Full Range Of Our Relations. Therefore, We Will Naturally Strive To Sign This Treaty.

We Do Not Have To Borrow In The External Market, But We Have Used And Are Using This Traditional Instrument In International Financial Relations.

Even If States Sometimes Have Problems With Each Other, Arts And Sports Should Not Suffer From That. Arts And Sports Are There To Bring The People Together - And Not To Divide Them.

I Simply Noted That One Of The Groups, Especially Exporters, Would Prefer To Have A Weaker Rouble.

I Am Sure That, After All, Any Man In My Place Should Set A Positive Example For Other People.

I Believe The U.s. Already Understands And Will Understand More And More That Only A Strong Russia Will Respond To The Genuine Interests Of The United States.

People Are Always Teaching Us Democracy But The People Who Teach Us Democracy Don't Want To Learn It Themselves.

I Think Russia Has Already Turned The Toughest Pages In Its History. We're Only Moving Forward Now, Only Get Stronger.

This Is The Large Range Of Issues We Have To Discuss [with Shinzō Abe] And Make A Decision On Each One Of Them. Look, After The Resumption Of The Negotiating Process In 2000, We Did Not Refuse To Consistently Work Toward Signing This Peace Treaty.

Let Us Resolve The Internal Political Problems Of Russia Ourselves

Japan Announced That It Would Not Comply With This Declaration [ 1956]. Later On, The Soviet Union Also Declared That The Declaration Could Not Be Fulfilled Unilaterally, By The Ussr Alone.

I'm Sure Corruption In Chechnya Is Minimal.

I Would Like To Assure You That There Is No Organization Or Any Sort Of Repression Against People Who Don’t Agree With Our Actions, For Example In Ukraine, Crimea, Or Any Other External Issue, No One From Official Government Organs Do This.

[yasuhiro] Yamashita Is A Respected Judo Master Not Only In Japan But Across The World. To Me, He Is An Example Of An Outstanding Athlete And A Very Good Man.

I Believe It Is No Secret That I Like Japan Very Much - Japanese Culture, Sport, Including Judo, But It Will Not Offend Anyone If I Say That I Like Russia Even More.

The Level Of Our Political Trust [with China] Is Also Very High. We Have Similar Positions On Major International Issues Or Even, As Diplomats Say, Our Views Are Identical. We Often Have Shared Positions On Key Issues Of The Modern International Agenda.

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