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I Believe That The 21st Century Economy Is An Economy Of People, Not Of Factories. The Intellectual Factor Has Become Increasingly Important In The Economy, Which Is Why We Are Planning To Focus On Providing Additional Opportunities For People To Realise Their Potential.

-Vladimir Putin

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I Believe That The

Vladimir Putin

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I Believe That The 21st Century Economy Is An Economy Of People, Not Of Factories. The Intellectual Factor Has Become Increasingly Important In The Economy, Which Is Why We Are Planning To Focus On Providing Additional Opportunities For People To Realise Their Potential.

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I Believe, I Am Pretty Certain That Virtually Everyone Speaking From The United Nations Platform Is Going To Talk About The Fight, About The Need To Fight Terrorism, And I Cannot Avoid This Issue, Either. This Is Quite Understandable Because It Is A Serious Common Threat To All Of Us; It Is A Common Challenge To All Of Us.

Next Year [2017], We Are Going To Hold A Series Of Events There That We Would Like To Call Russian Seasons [in Japan]. Over 40 Different Activities - And What Is More, In Different Cities.

I Would Like To Repeat: I Know Absolutely Nothing About [hacker's Attacks], And Russia Has Never Done Anything Like This At The State Level.

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.

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

I'm An Adult And I Know What Power Means In The Modern World. In The Modern World, Power Is Mainly Defined By Such Factors As The Economy, Defence And Cultural Influence. I Believe That In Terms Of Defence, Russia Is Without Any Doubt One Of The Leaders Because We Are A Nuclear Power And Our Nuclear Weapons Are Perhaps The Best In The World.

Russia Hosts A Lot Of Forums, Including The International Economic Forum In St Petersburg, [usually In The Beginning Of Summer], As Well As The Economic Forum In Sochi.

I Think: The Powers Like To Talk About "freedom" In Order To Wash The Population's Brains.

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.

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.

It's Better Not To Argue With Women.

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.

They Say That Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Was A Homosexual. Truth Be Told, We Don't Love Him Because Of That, But He Was A Great Musician, And We All Love His Music. So What? I Assure You That I Work With These People. I Sometimes Award Them With State Prizes Or Decorations For Their Achievements In Various Fields. We Have Absolutely Normal Relations, And I Don't See Anything Out Of The Ordinary Here.

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.

Nowadays, There Are Plans To Separate The Baltic States From The Common Power System Of The Former Soviet Union And To Integrate Them Into The European System. What Does It Mean For Us In Practice? In Practice, It Means That A Number Of Zones Will Emerge Between Several Regions Of The Russian Federation, Where We Will Have No Power Transmission Lines, Since Previously We Used To Have A Loop Transition Through The Baltic Countries.

Russia Must Realise Its Full Potential In High-tech Sectors Such As Modern Energy Technology, Transport And Communications, Space And Aircraft Building.

I Have Heard This A Thousand Times. Of Course Every State Has The Right To Organize Its Security The Way It Deems Appropriate. But The States That Were Already In Nato, The Member States, Could Also Have Followed Their Own Interests - And Abstained From An Expansion To The East.

Our Agreements On Creating The Conditions For Preparing A Peace Treaty [with Japan] Should Be Rooted In This Trust. This May Be Achieved, For Example, By Large-scale Economic Activities That Will Also Cover The Kuril Islands. It May Be Achieved By Solving Purely Humanitarian Issues, For Instance, Unhindered Visa-free Travel By Former Residents Of The Southern Kuril Islands To Where They Used To Live: Visiting Cemeteries, Native Places And So On.

I Do Not Think I Am Entitled To Assess The President Of The United States. This Is Up To The American People.

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.

As For These 60 Years, And In General More Than A Hundred Years, We Have Had Different Periods In Relations And There Have Been Tragic Pages In Our History, But Since 1956 When We Restored Diplomatic Relations, Regrettably, We Have Not Had A Foundation On Which To Build Ties That Would Correspond To Our Wishes And That Are Currently Required In Bilateral Cooperation With Japan.

One Has To Be Insincere And Promise Something Which You Cannot Fulfill. So You Either Have To Be A Fool Who Does Not Understand What You Are Promising, Or Deliberately Be Lying.

For Me, It [crimea] Is Not Borders And State Territories That Matter, But People's Fortunes.

Our Anti-crisis Policy Is Aimed At Supporting Domestic Demand, Providing Social Guarantees For The Population, And Creating New Jobs. Like Many Countries, We Have Reduced Production Taxes, Leaving Money In The Economy. We Have Optimised State Spending.

There Is Something That I Have In Common With Every Citizen Of Russia, The Love For Our Motherland.

The Russian People Chose Democracy At The Beginning Of The 1990s And This Was Their Final Choice.

Russia Has Made Its Choice In Favor Of Democracy. Fourteen Years Ago, Independently, Without Any Pressure From Outside, It Made That Decision In The Interests Of Itself And Interests Of Its People - Of Its Citizens. This Is Our Final Choice, And We Have No Way Back. There Can Be No Return To What We Used To Have Before.

Mrs. [hillary] Clinton Is Focusing On A Different Part Of The Voters Trying To Influence Them In Her Own Way As Well; So They Attack Each Other [with Donald Trump].

Everything That We [with Shindzo Abe] Are Talking About Has Come To Us As A Result Of The Events Of 70 Years Ago. In Some Way Or Other, During These 70 Years We Have Been Involved In Some Kind Of Dialogue On The Issue, And That Includes The Conclusion Of A Peace Treaty.

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.

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.

If You Want To Become An Islamic Radical And Have Yourself Circumcised, I Invite You To Come To Moscow... I Would Recommend That He Who Does The Surgery Does It So You'll Have Nothing Growing Back Afterward.

I Trust Angela Merkel, She Is A Very Open Person. She Is Also Subject To Certain Constraints And Limitations. But She Is Honestly Trying To Settle The Crisis, Also In The South-east Of Ukraine. However, What The European Union Is Doing With Those Sanctions Is Nothing But A Theatre Of The Absurd.

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.

As Far As I Understand, The President-elect Of The United States [donald Trump] Is Ready For Such Joint Work. We Do Not Know Yet What It Will Be Like In Actual Practice. We Have To Wait For Him To Take Office And Form His Administration.

There Is Always A Chance [for Negotiations With Japan], Or Else It Makes No Sense To Talk. How Great Is It? Right Now, It Is Difficult For Me To Say, Because This Will Depend, Among Other Things, On The Flexibility Of Our Partners.

The Last Time I Was In Japan As President Of Russia Was 11 Years Ago, If Memory Serves. I Later Visited In My Capacity As Prime Minister.

I Am Proud Of Russia And I Am Sure That The Vast Majority Of Russian Citizens Have Great Love And Respect For Their Motherland. We Have Much To Be Proud Of: Russian Culture And Russian History. We Have Every Reason To Believe In The Future Of Our Country. But We Have No Obsession That Russia Must Be A Super Power In The International Arena. The Only Thing We Do Is Protecting Our Vital Interests.

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

The Issues Of Political Nature Should Be Solved In Any Country, Including In Syria, Primarily By Its People.

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.

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.

In Order To Preserve A Balance, While We Aren't Planning To Build A Missile Defence Of Our Own, As It's Very Expensive And Its Efficiency Is Not Quite Clear Yet, We Have To Develop Offensive Strike Systems. They [u.s.] Should Give Us All The Information About The Missile Defence, And We Will Be Ready Then To Provide Some Information About Offensive Weapons.

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

The Far East Is Of Particular Significance For Us In Terms Of This Region's Priority Development. Over The Last Few Years, Let Us Say Even Over The Last Decades, We Were Faced With Many Problems Here. We Paid Little Attention To This Territory Although It Deserves A Lot More Of It, Because It Concentrates Great Wealth As Well As Opportunities For Russia's Future Development.

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

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.

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.

Strictly Speaking, Rosneft Is Not A Company. Let Us Not Forget That Bp Has A Stake In Rosneft And Bp Is A British Company.

This Issue Is Not Economic But Political. I Hope That All Market Participants Interested In Maintaining Stable And Reasonable World Energy Prices Will Finally Make The Right Decision.

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.

I Have Criticized Foreign Policy, But That Does Not Mean That We Should Agree With Everything. Indeed, We Criticize A Lot Of Things, We Think That Our Partners Make Many Mistakes [may Be We Make Mistakes Too, No One Is Immune To Making Mistakes], But As For The Economy, I Repeat That, In My Opinion, The European Commission And The Leading European Economies Are Acting Very Pragmatically And Are On The Right Path.

Journalism, As Concerns Collecting Information, Differs Little If At All From Intelligence Work. In My Judgment, A Journalist's Job Is Very Interesting.

Collecting Information

I Have A Huge Interest In Japan, Which Is Well Known, Including Its History And Culture, And So It Will Be Very Interesting For Me To See And Learn More About Japan.

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.

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

Therefore Today We Have An Absolutely Sufficient Level Of Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Order To Ensure Economic Stability And Sustainable Foreign Trade Turnover.

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.

I Believe That The Presidential Term Should Be Limited.

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.

The Soviet Union, And Russia As The Successor State To The Soviet Union, Is A Founding Member State Of The United Nations And A Permanent Member Of Its Security Council.

I Do Not Think I Have The Right To Determine The Political Future Of Syria, Be It With Or Without Al-assad. This Is For The Syrians Themselves To Decide. Nobody Has The Right To Claim The Rights That Belong To The People Of Another Country.

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.

There Are Some Gestures, Of Course, That You Can Only Interpret One Way, But No One Has Ever Seen Those Kinds Of Gestures Directed By Obama At Me Or By Me At Obama, And I Hope That Never Happens. Everything Else Is Fantasy.

I Wish That In The Course Of My Visit To Places The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] Calls Home, All Of A Sudden, We Would Reach A Clear Understanding On How We Can Resolve The Matters. We Will Be Very Glad If That Happens. Are There Any Chances? Perhaps.

I Hope That The Responsible Figures In The Ukrainian Leadership Will Not Hinder Soldiers In The Ukrainian Army From Putting Down Their Weapons.

We Believe We Have No Territorial Problems At All. It Is Only Japan That Believes It Has Territorial Problems With Russia. We Are Ready To Talk About This.

The Central Bank Is Constantly Purchasing, Purchasing And Selling And Vice Versa - This Is Their Job.

In Some Cases, I Would Not Want Us To Follow Their [donald Trump And Hillary Clinton] Pattern. I Do Not Believe They Are Setting The Best Example.

If We Act Together Along These Lines, We Will Create Conditions, The Conditions For Trust That Shinzō Abe Speaks About, So As To Take Another Step And Conclude A Peace Treaty On Certain Terms. However, First, It Is Essential To Cover This Part Of The Way And Then Agree On The Terms For Signing A Peace Treaty. Both Are Challenging Tasks But They Are Feasible.

As For Meetings, I Think The President-elect [donald Trump] Should Be Given An Opportunity To First Form His Administration And Assume Office. Meetings Will Come Next.

All People Here Have Political Rights, Social Rights, Rights To Employment, And No One Should Face Discrimination, But Our Strategic Choice Is For Traditional Families, Healthy Families And A Healthy Nation. One Does Not Exclude The Other And Does Not Hinder The Other. I Think This Is A Balanced Approach And Is Entirely The Right Approach.

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.

Then There Is Another Area Of Activity - Economic Interaction Between Russia And The United States. Right Now, For Example, It Has Already Been Made Public That We Signed A Large Deal To Privatise One Of Our Biggest Oil And Gas Companies, Rosneft. We Know For Sure That Us Companies, As Well As Japanese Ones, By The Way, Are Keenly Interested In Cooperation In Russia's Oil And Gas Sector, In Joint Work. This Has Immense Significance For World Energy Markets And Will Directly Affect The Whole World Economy.

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 May Have More Control, But My Point Is That, Strictly Speaking, Rosneft Is Not A State Company. I Think That This Is An Obvious Fact, As A Foreign Investor Has A 19.7 Percent Stake In It.

We Have Established The Customs Union And The Eurasian Economic Union Not By Force, But Through A Compromise. It Was A Challenging, Complicated, Multi-year Process Based On Agreement, Compromise And Mutually Acceptable Conditions In The Hope Of Creating For Our Economies And For Our People Better Competitive Advantages In The World Markets And In The World As A Whole.

Therefore, I Do Not Think We Should Go Only 60 Years Back But Should Look Deeper, Centuries Back. Maybe This Will Give Us [russia And Japan] An Opportunity To Look At The Future From A More Remote Perspective.

One Of Our Objectives Today Is Very Important For Many People, For Millions Of People On Our Planet - It Is Joining Efforts In The Fight Against Terrorism And Other Similar Challenges: Countering Drug Trafficking And Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Fighting Famine, Preserving Environment And Biodiversity, Taking Efforts To Make The World More Predictable, More Stable.

Mass Destruction

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.

A Lot Can Be Done, But Not Everyone Immediately Succeeds In Everything.

We Are Ready To Deal With Any President [of U.s], But Of Course, And I Mentioned That, It Depends On The Readiness Of The Future Administration.

First, The Constitution [of Ukraine] Has To Be Reformed. Only Then Can Confidence Building And Border Security Follow.

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

Of Course, We Will Work Towards That End. Of Course, We Will Work To Achieve This Result. However, You Have Just Mentioned The 1956 Agreement, And One May Recall That These Negotiations Were Later Terminated, In Effect, On Japan's Initiative.

Ukraine Is Going Through A Difficult Time. There Is Nothing Extraordinary Of The Resignation Of The Ukrainian Government Ahead Of The Upcoming Parliamentary Elections

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.

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

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.

Let Us Not Forget That We Have Two Governmental Reserve Funds: The Reserve Fund And The National Wellbeing Fund That Represent Together $100 Billion.

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.

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.

Indeed, That Is Exactly What They [the Arctic Convoys] Were. We Know That The Conditions In Which They Fought Were Appalling. Time And Again They Faced Death In The Name Of A Common Victory And We Remember That.

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.

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.

Admire? No, I Have Never Said That. I Still Appreciate Angela Merkel As A Very Professional And Open Person.

If Somebody Prefers To Work By Means Of Sanctions, He Is Welcome To Do So. But Sanctions Are A Temporary Measure. Firstly, They Contradict The International Law. Secondly, Tell Me Where This Policy Of Sanctions Proved To Be Effective. The Answer Is Nowhere.

When You Start To Meet With Ordinary People You Understand That A Russian Person, Really Any Person From Russia, A Tatar, A Mordvin, A Chechen, A Dagestani, They Are Very Open People, Even A Little Naive. But There's One Defining Trait That Probably All Peoples Have, Although It Comes Out Especially Strongly In Us. That's A Drive Toward Fairness. It's One Of The Dominating, I Think, Traits In The Mentality Of A Person From Russia, A Russian Person.

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

We Understand That The Iranian Position Is Very Bad Because Of The Well-known Sanctions Against That Country, And It Would Be Unfair To Leave It On This Sanction Level.

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.

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.

Above All, We Should Acknowledge That The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Was A Major Geopolitical Disaster Of The Century. As For The Russian Nation, It Became A Genuine Drama. Tens Of Millions Of Our Co-citizens And Co-patriots Found Themselves Outside Russian Territory.

Looking At The Map Of The Russian Federation, One Can See A Country Covering Mostly Northern Areas; Today More Than 70 Percent Of Our Territory Is Or Can Be Referred To As Northern, If Not The Far North. We Have A Rather Small Warm Black Sea Strip In The South And - To Tell The Truth - Quite A Few Regions With A Hospitable Warm Climate.

Problems Between Countries Always Exist, Especially Between Such Big Countries As Russia And The United States. There Have Always Been Some Issues, But I Don't Think We Should Go To Extremes.

Some Are Addicted To Cigarettes, Some, God Forbid, To Drugs, And Some Become Addicted To Money. They Say That The Worst Addiction Is To Power. I Have Never Felt That. I Have Never Been Addicted To Anything

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

I Hope That The Responsible Figures In The Ukrainian Leadership Will Not Hinder Soldiers In The Ukrainian Army From Putting Down Their Weapons, If They Aren't Capable Of Taking That Decision Themselves And Giving That Order, Then I Hope That They Won't Prosecute People Who Want To Save Their Lives And The Lives Of Others.

After The Demise Of The Soviet Union, We Had Many Problems Of Our Own For Which No One Was Responsible But Ourselves: The Economic Downfall, The Collapse Of The Welfare System, The Separatism, And Of Course The Terror Attacks That Shook Our Country. In This Respect, We Do Not Have To Look For Guilty Parties Abroad.

Personally, I Think That Children Should Be Left Alone, They Should Be Given An Opportunity To Grow Up, To Become Aware Of Themselves And Decide Themselves Who They Are: Men Or Women, If They Want To Have A Traditional Or Homosexual Marriage.

I Can't Believe That Omon [russia's Riot Police] Would Hit A Girl. I Simply Can't Imagine It.

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.

As A Rule, [populism] Is Done For The Sake Of Political Expediency By Those Who Do Not Care About The Consequences, Who Do Not Think Even One Step Ahead, Who Do Not Want To Think And Do Not Intend To Honour Their Commitments.

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

Our Society, Including The Liberals, Must Understand That There Must Be Order.

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.

Things Are Different In The International Relations Between States. In This Respect, I Am Neither A Friend, Nor Bride Or Groom [of The West].

We Are Working In Other Areas [like Alrosa] As Well, So There Are No Radical Changes To Our Position. It Is Not The Case When We Have To, As We Say, Make A Lot Of Fuss About It. In Other Words, We Do Not Have To Be Obsessed With Privatizing Immediately And At Any Cost.

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.

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.

South Korea's Investment In Russia Has Not Been Smooth, ... Korea Had Planned To Carry Out 126 Investment Projects Worth 273 Million, But In Reality, Only 91 Projects Worth 137 Million Are Under Way.

Addressing Issues, Including Controversial Ones, As Well As Domestic Issues Of The Former Soviet Republics Through The So-called Coloured Revolutions, Through Coups And Unconstitutional Means Of Toppling The Current Government. That Is Absolutely Unacceptable.

Russia Itself Is A European Country, And Not Just Because Our Major Political And Economic Centres Are In Europe, But Because Russian Culture Is Primarily European Culture.

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.

I Know Very Well About The Necessary Level Of Reserves Of The Central Bank As Well As The Purpose.

The Demise Of The Soviet Union Was The Greatest Geopolitical Catastrophe Of The Century.

I Assure You That Interest In Japanese Culture In Russia Is Just As Strong As Interest In Russian Culture In Japan.

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

Authoritarianism

Authoritarian Government

If The United Kingdom Considers It Necessary To Start A Dialogue On Certain Issues, We Are Ready For That, We Are Not Going To Pout Or Sulk. We Take Quite A Pragmatic Approach Towards Cooperation With Our Partners And We Believe That It Would Be Beneficial For Both Our Countries.

There Are Enough Forces In The World That Are Afraid Of Our Strength, “our Hugeness,” As One Of Our Sovereigns Said. So, They Seek To Divide Us Into Parts, This Is A Well-known Fact. Look At What They Did With Yugoslavia: They Cut It Into Small Pieces And Are Now Manipulating Everything That Can Be Manipulated There, Which Is Almost Anything. Apparently, Someone Would Like To Do The Same With Us...

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.

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.

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.

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

Our Economy Has Become Completely Different, On The Whole. The Size Has Changed. The Economy Has Almost Doubled In Size. And The Quality Is Changing, Not As Fast As We Would Like It To, But The Structure Is Changing. Our Armed Forces Are Completely Different Today From What They Were, Say 15 Years Ago Or So. All Of This, Including Our Great History, Great Culture, All Of This, Not Just What We See Today, Is What Makes The Vast Majority Of Russia's Citizens Feel Proud For Their Country.

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.

Democracy Means The Power Of The People And The Possibility Of Influencing The Governing Parties. Russia Had Had Enough Experience With A One-party-system - We Will Not Go Back There.

If Someone Is Willing To Reconsider The Results Of World War Ii, Let Us Discuss This. But Then We Will Have To Discuss Not Only Kaliningrad, But Also The Eastern Lands Of Germany, The City Of Lvov, A Former Part Of Poland, And So On, And So Forth. There Are Also Hungary And Romania On The List.

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.

This Is The Political Culture Of The United States, Which One Should Accept As Is. The United States Is A Great Country And It Deserves Non-interference And No Third-party Comments.

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.

Russia Does Not Want Confrontation Of Any Kind. And We Will Not Take Part In Any Kind Of 'holy Alliance.'

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.

I Am The President Of 146 Million Russians. I Have To Represent Their Interests. We Are Willing To Settle This Without Any Conflicts And To Search For Compromises On The Basis Of International Law.

I Believe That The 21st Century Economy Is An Economy Of People, Not Of Factories. The Intellectual Factor Has Become Increasingly Important In The Economy, Which Is Why We Are Planning To Focus On Providing Additional Opportunities For People To Realise Their Potential.

Thus, In View Of What I Have Said, We Could Not Officially Hack [hillary's Clinton Mail]. It Would Require Certain Intuition And Knowledge Of The U.s. Domestic Policy Peculiarities. I Am Not Sure That Even Our Experts From The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Have Such Intuition.

It Is True That The Role Of The State In The Russian Economy May Be Too Big Today, But From The Fiscal Standpoint, It Is Not Always Practical To Do This In A Falling Market.

Russian Economy

The Most Important Thing Is To Find Collective Solutions In Diplomacy And I Think That Is Possible.

I Have Great Love And Respect For Russian History And Culture. But The World Is Changing And Russia Is Too. Russia Is Part Of The Modern World, Not The World Of The Past But The Modern World. And I Believe It Has An Even Greater Future Than Some Other Countries That Can't Take Care Of Their Young People, Of The New Generations, Of Their Children, And Believe That They Can Just Let Things Slide.

The Sanctions May Be Imposed Only By The Decision Of The Un Security Council. A Unilateral Imposition Of Sanctions Is A Violation Of International Law.

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 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.

Anything That Is Missing In The Implementation Of The Minsk Agreement Is - Without Any Exception - Up To The Kiev Central Government Of Ukraine. You Cannot Demand Something Of Moscow That, In Fact, The Rulers In Kiev Have To Deliver. The Most Important Aspect Is The Constitutional Reform, Point 11 Of The Minsk Agreement.

The Sanctions Have Nothing To Do With Our Relations With China, Because Our Relations With The People's Republic Of China Are At An Unprecedented High Both In Terms Of Their Level And Substance. They Are What We Call "a Comprehensive Partnership And Strategic Cooperation".

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.

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 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.

I Am Deeply Convinced That No Interference From The Outside, In Any Country, Even A Small One, Let Alone In Such A Vast And Great Power As The United States, Can Influence The Final Outcome Of The Elections. It Is Not Possible. Ever.

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.

The Basic Principles Of Democracy Should Be Observed Whatever The Country - Principles Such As Civil Liberties, A Free Market, A Free Press, The Priority Of The Individual Over Mythical State Interests, A State Which Serves The Interests Of Ordinary People And Defends Their Rights And Interests. This Is All Easy To Say But Hard To Make Reality.

Of Course, This Person Is To Have The Trust Of The American People, Then He Or She Would Not Only Have The Wish But Also The Supported Political Will To Implement All These Agreements.

The Prime Minister [shinzō Abe] Also Highlighted The Need To Address General Humanitarian Issues. We Already Mentioned One Of These Issues: Visa-free Travel By Japanese Citizens To The South Kuril Islands.

I Believe That A Country, Russia In This Case, Which Can Defend The Honour And Dignity Of Its Citizens, Protect Their Lives, And Fulfill Its International Legal Commitments Under The Peacekeeping Mandate, Will Not Find Itself In Isolation, No Matter What Our Partners In Europe Or The United States May Think, Expressing Their Bloc Mentality.

Here Is The Thing: I Have Seen Several Times That Anti-russian Cards Are Being Played During Domestic Campaigns In The United States. I Find This Approach Very Short-sighted.

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

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

I Believe That The Europeans, First And Foremost, The Germans, Will Also Understand Me. Let Me Remind You That In The Course Of Political Consultations On The Unification Of East And West Germany... Some Nations That Were Then And Are Now Germany's Allies Did Not Support The Idea Of Unification. Our Nation, However, Unequivocally Supported The Sincere, Unstoppable Desire Of The Germans For National Unity. I Am Confident That You Have Not Forgotten This, And I Expect That The Citizens Of Germany Will Also Support The Aspiration Of The Russians, Of Historical Russia, To Restore Unity.

International Terrorists Who Pursue Completely Mad Objectives Such As Establishing A World Caliphate Or Something Of The Sort, Are Quite Adept At Disguising Their Real Aims As A Struggle For Independence In Chechnya.

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.

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

Not Everyone Likes The Stable, Gradual Rise Of Our Country. There Are Some Who Are Using The Democratic Ideology To Interfere In Our Internal Affairs.

Unfortunately, The Relations Between The United Kingdom And Russia Have Not Developed In The Best Possible Way; However, It Has Never Been Our Fault. It Was Not We Who Decided To Discontinue Relations With The United Kingdom; It Was The Uk Who Preferred To "freeze" Our Bilateral Contacts In Various Fields.

Boris Nemtsov, Left His Mark On The History Of Russia, In Politics And Public Life. He Worked On Important Positions In The Difficult Transition Period For Our Country. He Always Openly And Honestly Stated His Position, Defended His Point Of View.

I've Repeatedly Seen The Anti-russian Card Played During Domestic Political Campaigns In The States. I Think That It's A Very Short-sighted Approach. It Seems To Me That It Doesn't Fully Meet The Level Of Responsibility That Lies On The Shoulders Of The U.s. I Think That All This Should Be More Dignified, Calm And More Balanced.

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.

Radicals Can Be Found In Any Environment.

Now We Are Talking About Concluding A Free Trade Agreement Between The Eurasian Economic Council, Recently Established In The Post-soviet Space, And China. A Similar Agreement Was Concluded A Short Time Ago With Vietnam. Then, We Will Coordinate, At Least We Are Ready To Do This, The Chinese Concept Of The Silk Road Economic Belt With Our Newly-created Regional Organisation. So, Do You Understand How Diverse, Multi-faceted And Deep Russian-chinese Ties Have Become Over The Last Couple Of Decades? And We Resolved The Border Issue.

President Obama And I Can Meet, Shake Hands And Discuss Current Issues, We - And I Am Personally - Are Always Ready For Such Contacts.

We Need To Use The United Nations Security Council And Believe That Preserving Law And Order In Today's Complex And Turbulent World Is One Of The Few Ways To Keep International Relations From Sliding Into Chaos. The Law Is Still The Law, And We Must Follow It Whether We Like It Or Not.

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.

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.

We Believe That We Could Do A Great Deal To Neutralise Regional Conflicts. Also, For Example, To Continue Joint Activities In Space, For Peaceful Civilian Purposes.

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

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

Speaking Seriously, Russia Does Not Want To Aggravate Relations With Anyone. We Don't Want Any Tensions. We Want A Good, Friendly Partnership With Everyone.

The United Nations' Founders Understood That Decisions Affecting War And Peace Should Happen Only By Consensus, And With America's Consent, The Veto By Security Council Permanent Members Was Enshrined In The United Nations Charter. The Profound Wisdom Of This Has Underpinned The Stability Of International Relations For Decades.

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

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

However, Crisis In World Trade Is, Among Other Things, The Result Of Using Political Tools In Competition Or Simply For Achieving Political Objectives With The Help Of Economic Restrictions.

I Always Had A Problem When Someone Was Trying To Place Sport In Social And Political Context. Sport Is A Separate And Unique Kind Of Human Activity, Which Functions Under Its Own Rules And Principles. It Has Nothing To Do With The Political Agenda, And Neither It Should. When Politics Interferes With Sport, Unjust Things Happen.

I Think Happiness Is Love.

The Un Platform Was Created Precisely For This, To Seek Compromise, To Communicate With One Another. So It Will Definitely Be Nice If We Make Use Of This Platform.

The Russians Have Turned Out To Be The Largest Divided Nation In The World Nowadays. Is That Not A Problem?

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

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.

My English Is Very Bad.

At Some Point A Few Years Ago Japan Unilaterally Stopped Those Talks And Broke Off Contacts With Us. It Was Not We Who Broke Off Contacts With Japan, It Was The Japanese Side That Broke Off Contacts With Us.

Any Attention To Them (terrorists) On The Part Of The Media, Any Double-standard Interpretation Of Their Motives And Results Of Their Activity Means Nothing But A Political And Administrative Support Of Terrorist Acts

Kodokan Is, To A Large Degree, A Trendsetter In The Sport. This School Trained Outstanding Masters And Is A Kind Of Mecca For All Judokas. Certainly, I Would Be Pleased To Visit, If Time Permits.

All We Need Is Good Will, And We Have To Start Working In A Way That Considers Each Other's Interests [with U.s]. In My View, This Is A Mandatory Condition.

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