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However, Given The Fact That The State Has A Controlling Stake In The Company [rosneft], It Might Not Be The Best Course Of Action When One Company Under State Control Buys Another One Fully Owned By The State. This Is One Point.

-Vladimir Putin

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However, Given The Fact

Vladimir Putin

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However, Given The Fact That The State Has A Controlling Stake In The Company [rosneft], It Might Not Be The Best Course Of Action When One Company Under State Control Buys Another One Fully Owned By The State. This Is One Point.

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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.

It Is A Fact That The Us Defence Budget Is Larger Than The Defence Budgets Of All Other Countries Taken Together. This Is Why I Understand The Us President When He Says That His Nato Allies Should Take Over Part Of This Burden. It Is A Pragmatic And Understandable Approach.

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The Strengthening Of Our Statehood Is, At Times, Deliberately Interpreted As Authoritarianism.

Authoritarianism

Authoritarian Government

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I Insist That People - Wherever They Live - Have Their Rights And They Must Be Able To Fight For Them.

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This Terrible Tragedy.... The Entire International Community Should Unite In The Struggle Against Terrorism This Is A Blatant Challenge To Humanity.

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Berlusconi Is Being Tried Because He Lives With Women. If He Was Homosexual, No One Would Have Lifted A Finger Against Him.

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Mass Destruction

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If You Want To Lower The Significance Of Russia In The World, You Actually Just Want To Elevate Your Own Country. That Is A Mistake.

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Equipping One Side Of An Ethnic Conflict And Then Prodding It To Resolve Its Ethnic Problems By Force Of Arms Is A Very Bad Policy.

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We Would Like To Draw The Attention Of Our Partners, Of Potential Investors To The Russian Far East.

Everyone Must Hoe His Plot Daily.

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Then, The Specialists Themselves, Probably Believe That In The Course Of Eu Expansion, For Example, Some Elements Concerning The Readiness Of Some Economies To Enter The Eurozone Have Not Been Taken Into Account.

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I Have Criticized It [europe], But I Repeat: We Keep 40 Percent Of Our Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Euros, We Are Not Interested In The Collapse Of The Eurozone, But I Do Not Rule Out The Possibility Of Decisions Being Made That Would Consolidate A Group Of Countries Equal In Economic Development And This, In My Opinion, Will Lead To A Consolidation Of The Euro. But There Can Also Be Some Interim Decisions In Order To Keep The Present Number Of Members Of The Eurozone Unchanged.

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.

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.

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.

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

I Assume Most People Trust Me, If They Vote For Me In Elections. And It Is The Most Important Thing. It Places Great Responsibility On Me, Immense Responsibility. I Am Grateful To The People For That Trust, But I Surely Feel Great Responsibility For What I Do And For The Result Of My Work.

My Position Is That The Rate Should Align With The Level Of Economic Development. Because It Is Always About A Balance, A Balance Of Interests, And It Should Reflect This Balance. A Balance Between Those Who Sell Something Across The Border And Those Who Benefit From A Low Rate, As Well As A Balance Between The Interests Of Those Who Buy, Who Need The Rate To Be Higher. A Balance Between National Producers, For Example, Agricultural Producers Who Are Interested In It.

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

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We Ask That (other Countries) Do Not Interfere In Our Regulation.

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.

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.

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

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 Hope That Being In Places From The [shinzo Abe] Prime Minister's Past Will Motivate Us To Have A Sincere, Very Practical And, I Hope, Productive Conversation.

Here Is An Example: While Resolving Current Issues, Our American Colleagues Made A Proposal On The Syrian Settlement But Then Suddenly Declared At The Un That They Were Not Going To Discuss Anything With Us. It Is Necessary To Understand What People Want In One Department Versus Another Department Of The United States. Do They Have A Common Position? And This Happened Many Times On Very Many Areas Of Our Cooperation.

I Was Told That [japan Journalists] Wanted To See My Dog, Yume. You Can See That She Is In Great Shape.

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.

If We Do It, If We Work To Achieve All This [cultural Exchange With Japan], We Can And Should Talk About Joint Efforts Toward Ensuring International Security, And Not Only In The Far East.

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

I Do Not Want To Answer Provocative Question.

It Is 60 Years Since The Restoration Of Diplomatic Relations, But Relations Between Japan And Russia Have Much Deeper Roots. In All, Our Diplomatic Ties Date Back 150 Years, More Than 150 Years Now.

Here We Have 40 Million Russian Citizens Involved In The Sphere Of Agriculture One Way Or Another. This Is Very Important.

There Can Be No Democracy Without Observing The Law And Everyone Must Observe It - That Is The Most Basic And Important Thing That We All Should Remember.

Yume Is A No-nonsense Dog. There Are Many People Here, With Camcorders Running, Lights Shining And Cameras Clicking. She Is Being A Guard Dog.

Work Is Already Underway Today On Creating Unique High-precision Weapons Systems And Manoeuvrable Combat Units That Will Have An Unpredictable Flight Trajectory For The Potential Opponent. Along With The Means For Overcoming Anti-missile Defences That We Already Have, These New Types Of Arms Will Enable Us To Maintain What Is Definitely One Of The Most Important Guarantees Of Lasting Peace, Namely, The Strategic Balance Of Forces.

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.

I Think That Both Russia And Other International Actors, Including Those Who Are More Actively Engaged In The Resolution Of The Ukrainian Crisis (that Is The Federal Republic Of Germany And France, The So-called Normandy Quartet, Certainly, With Close Involvement Of The United States, And We Have Intensified Our Dialogue On This Issue), We Should All Be Committed To The Full And Unconditional Implementation Of The Agreements That Were Achieved In Minsk. The Minsk Agreements Have To Be Implemented.

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

I'm Not Really Saddened That [pussy Riot] Ended Up In Jail, Though There Is Nothing Good In That. What Saddens Me Is That They Took Things To Such A Level, Here, From My Point Of View, That They Degraded The Dignity Of Women.

Today's Meeting Was Extremely Important And Brought Exceptional Results, ... The Talks Have Shown That The Long-term National And Geopolitical Interests Of Russia And India Coincide.

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.

I Believe A Healthy Lifestyle Is An Extremely Important Thing Which Underpins Solution To Numerous Important Problems, Including The Health Of The Nation.

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.

Political Populism Always Poses A Great Danger Because It Disorients People, Creates Excessive Expectations Or, On The Contrary, Prioritises Objectives That Are Clearly Not Priorities Or Are Simply Impossible To Achieve.

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.

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.

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.

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This Is Not Our Job, But We Always Follow The Actions Of Our European Partners Closely And We Wish Them Luck.

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.

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.

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 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.

Life Would Be Boring Without Gossip.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

Democracy Is An Internal Subject Of The Developing Society. There Are Fundamentals Of Democracy, And They Should Be Understood Universally In Different Countries.

We Didn't Have Any Relationship At All With Trump.

I Repeat That, In My Opinion, The European Commission And The Leading European Economies Are Acting Very Pragmatically And Are On The Right Path.

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.

It Is Very Difficult To Enter A Single Currency Zone Having Fairly Weak Economic Parameters And Maintain A Favourable State Of The Economy, Not To Mention Positive Growth Rates. We Have Witnessed It Not Only In Europe, But For Example In Argentina (nearly 10 Years Ago Or More), When They Tied The National Currency To The Dollar And Later They Did Not Know What To Do About It.

I'd Rather Not Deal With Such Questions, Because Anyway It's Like Shearing A Pig - Lots Of Screams But Little Wool.

I Have Called President Obama, And President Obama Called Me On Various Issues. This Is Part Of Our Regular Contacts, There Is Nothing Unusual Or Extraordinary About It.

We Have Created Islands, Small Islands Of Power, But We Have Not Built A Bridge Between Those Islands, .. The Center And The Territories, Regional And Local Authorities Are Still Competing With Each Other, Competing For Power. Those Who Take Advantage Of Disorder And Arbitrary Rule Are Watching Their Mutually Destructive Fight.

But If The U.s. Were To Leave Now And Abandon Iraq Without Establishing The Grounds For A United Country, That Would Definitely Be A Second Mistake.

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.

Please, Accept The Most Sincere Words Of Sympathy Over The Natural Disaster That Affected The United States . I Know That Hurricane Katrina That Hit The Us South-western Coast Led To Casualties, Left Homeless Dozens Of Thousands Of Us Citizens And Inflicted A Strong Damage To The Economy Of This Region. I Ask You To Convey My Condolences To The Next Of Kin Of Those Killed,.

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

If There Were Any In China And Russia In This Connection, Though We Both Made Some Compromises. But These Were Compromises Between Friendly Countries. I Think It Is Almost Impossible To Achieve Such Compromise In Other Ways.

We Need To Develop Respect For Our History, Despite All Of Its Flaws, And Love For The Fatherland. We Need To Pay The Utmost Attention To Our Common Moral Values And Consolidate Russian Society On This Basis. I Think That This Is An Absolute Priority.

The Events In Crimea Themselves Have Nothing To Do With What Happened In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya And Other Regions. In My Opinion, When The World Becomes Unipolar, Or When Someone Tries To Make It So, Then This One Pole Has The Illusion That All Issues Can Be Settled Through Power. And Only When There Is A Balance Of Power Does The Desire To Negotiate Appears.

Russia Is Probably One Of The First Countries To Have Been Confronted With This Problem Of Terrorism. It Took Some Time Before The International Community Realised The Danger Terrorism Poses.

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.

If We Speak About Fundamental Things, Regulation Of The Rate Is Actually The Function Of The Main Regulator, Namely The Function Of The Central Bank. And It Should Think Of How The Economy And Industry React, But Also Of Its Fundamental Tasks In Order To Ensure The Stability Of The Rate.

Bike Is The Most Democratic Transport Vehicle. Bike Is The Most Daring, Challenging As It Gives Its Owner The Tempting Feeling Of Freedom, That Is Why One Can Say Without Any Exaggeration, Bike Is A Symbol Of Freedom

No References To The Need To Fight Terror Can Be An Argument For Restricting Human Rights.

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.

I Am Convinced That A Multi-faceted Dialogue Between Russia And Egypt Will Continue To Deepen And Expand For The Benefit Of The Peoples Of Our Countries, For The Sake Of Peace And Stability In The Middle East And North Africa.

I Believe There Are A Lot Of Questions Today That Require Expert Analysis By Various Agencies: Political Agencies, Foreign Ministries, Economic Agencies And Security Agencies. We Need To Assess Everything And Understand What We Can Agree On And What The Implications Will Be Both For Japan And For Russia So That Both The Russian People And The Japanese People Come To The Conclusion That These Compromise Solutions Are Acceptable And Are In Our Countries' Interests.

We Will Not Allow The Past To Drag Us Down And Stop Us From Moving Ahead. We Understand Where We Should Move.

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.

I'm Sure Corruption In Chechnya Is Minimal.

Economic Activity Is Moving From The Atlantic Ocean To The Pacific Ocean... Russia Has A Certain Natural Advantage Because It Also Borders The Pacific Ocean.

At The Same Time We Receive Different Signals All Around That In Fact, Everything Is Fine. The Same Situation Occurred With The Previous Administrations During The Election Campaigns, Claims That Everything Will Be Restored Later. I Do Not Think It Matches The Level Of Responsibility Shouldered By The United States. I Suppose It Should Be More Sound, Calm And Balanced.

In 2000 The Then Prime Minister Of Japan [yoshirō Mori] Asked Me To Return To This Process, This Conversation, These Talks, And To Do So, Incidentally, On The Basis Of The 1956 Declaration. I Agreed. Since Then We Have Conducted Dialogue In This Regard But I Cannot Say That Our Japanese Partners And Friends Have Remained Within The Limits Of The 1956 Declaration.

People In Russia Say That Those Who Do Not Regret The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Have No Heart, And Those That Do Regret It Have No Brain.

At Least Germany And France Have Recently Criticized That The Ukrainian Central Government Has Limited Certain Parts Of The Autonomy Regulations To Three Years. They Were Supposed To Last Permanently.

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.

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.

We Shall Fight Against Them, Throw Them In Prisons And Destroy Them.

Nato Remains A Military Alliance, And We Are Against Having A Military Alliance Making Itself At Home Right In Our Own Backyard; In Our Historic Territory. I Simply Cannot Imagine That We Would Travel To Sevastopol To Visit Nato Sailors. Of Course, Most Of Them Are Wonderful Guys, But It Would Be Better To Have Them Come And Visit Us, Be Our Guests, Rather Than The Other Way Round.

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

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.

We Have Issued Financial Instruments In The Past, And There Is A Strong Demand For Them, It Is Simply Unnecessary Now.

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

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 Would Like To Say, You Know, That, Unfortunately, We Have Many Unresolved Problems. But A Great Number Of People In Russia Know Japan And Love Japan, And I Am Sure That Eventually We Will Resolve All Our Problems.

You Must Obey The Law, Always, Not Only When They Grab You By Your Special Place.

Today, It Is Imperative To End This Hysteria, To Refute The Rhetoric Of The Cold War And To Accept The Obvious Fact: Russia Is An Independent, Active Participant In International Affairs. Like Other Countries, It Has Its Own National Interests That Need To Be Taken Into Account And Respected.

We Have A Contract For The Delivery Of The S-300s. We Have Supplied Some Of The Components, But The Delivery Hasn't Been Completed. We Have Suspended It For Now. But If We See That Steps Are Taken That Violate The Existing International Norms, We Shall Think How We Should Act In The Future, In Particular Regarding Supplies Of Such Sensitive Weapons To Certain Regions Of The World.

The Comrade Wolf Knows Whom To Eat, As The Saying Goes. It Knows Whom To Eat And Is Not About To Listen To Anyone, It Seems.

Even With The Help Of Anti-russian Propaganda In The Mass Media, Germany Has Not Succeeded In Damaging This Sympathy.

I Want Everyone To Know That Russia In General And The Russian Leadership, It Is Something Effective And Properly Functioning. That The Country Itself, Its Institutions, Leaders Are Represented By Healthy, Capable People Who Are Ready For Cooperation With Our Partners In Every Single Area: Sports, Politics, Fight Against Modern Threats. I Have Nothing But A Positive Feeling About It.

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.

In The Area Of International Security, Taking Into Account That The United States And Russia Are The Largest Nuclear Powers: We Are Ready To Jointly Work To Strengthen The Non-proliferation Regime For Weapons Of Mass Destruction And Their Means Of Delivery. We Are Ready To Work Together, And Much Closer Than Before, On The Problem Of Fighting Terrorism, International Terrorism, And Here We Certainly Have Vast Opportunities.

We Do Believe The Current Ukrainian Authorities Are Illegitimate. They Cannot Be Legitimate As They Do Not Have A National Mandate For Running The Country, Which Speaks For Itself. At The Same Time, We Do Not Refuse To Deal With Them. We Stay In Touch At The Ministerial Level.

We Should All Be Aware Of The Fact That When Revolutionary - Not Evolutionary - Changes Come, Things Can Get Even Worse. The Intelligentsia Should Be Aware Of This. And It Is The Intelligentsia Specifically That Should Keep This In Mind And Prevent Society From Radical Steps And Revolutions Of All Kinds. We've Had Enough Of It. We've Seen So Many Revolutions And Wars. We Need Decades Of Calm And Harmonious Development.

I Do Not Know Whether The Government Will Be Able To Get Ready To Conduct This Transaction Together With The Management Of Rosneft Itself, Whether The Appropriate Strategic Investors Will Be Found. And I Believe It Is About Such Investors That We Should Talk. But We Are Getting Ready, And It Is In The Current Year That We Are Planning To Do This.

This, For Instance, Is What Egon Bahr Said On June 26, 1990: "if We Do Not Now Undertake Clear Steps To Prevent A Division Of Europe, This Will Lead To Russia's Isolation."bahr, A Wise Man, Had A Very Concrete Suggestion As To How This Danger Could Be Averted.

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