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I Bow My Head To The Victims Of Terrorism. I Am Highly Impressed Of The Courage Of New York Residents. The Great City And The Great American Nation Are To Win!

-Vladimir Putin

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I Bow My Head

Vladimir Putin

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I Bow My Head To The Victims Of Terrorism. I Am Highly Impressed Of The Courage Of New York Residents. The Great City And The Great American Nation Are To Win!

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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.

America's Development Began With A Large-scale Ethnic Cleansing, Unprecedented In Human History.

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.

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.

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.

Under The International Agreements, The Russian Peacekeepers Are Committed To Protect The Population Of South Ossetia.

Yet Our Interests, The Interests Of The Russian Federation, Include The Normalisation Of Relations With Japan, Which Is Not At The Bottom Of The Agenda. The Whole Range Of What Will Be Proposed For A Solution, The Entire Range Of Matters Related To The Normalisation Of Our Relations And What That Would Bring After Normalisation, This Is The Whole Range Of Issues To Be Discussed And Decided, And Those Decisions Should Be Of A Practical Nature.

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.

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.

Just Take Kosovo: Back Then, Un Bodies Decided That Kosovo Should Become Independent Of Serbia And That The Interests Of Serbia's Central Government Had To Be Subordinated. You Can Read That In All The Records, Also In The German Ones.

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.

We Have Very Close Humanitarian Contacts [with China], Wide-ranging Youth Exchanges, Educational And Regional Contacts, And All Of Them Continue To Develop.

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.

Fifteen Percent Of Russia Badly Polluted.

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.

I Believe It Is Right When Not Only Me, But Also My Colleagues - The Prime Minister, Ministers, Deputies Of The State Duma - When They, Like Today, For Example, Participate In Two Marathons, When They Visit Football Matches, When They Themselves Take Part In Sport Competitions. That Is How, Inter Alia, Millions Of People Start Feeling Interest In And Love For Fitness And Sports. I Believe It Is Extremely Important.

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

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

There Is No Uniform, Global Model For Democracy.

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.

The Most Obvious Risk Was That The Russian Speaking Population Was Threatened And That The Threats Were Absolutely Specific And Tangible. This Is What Made Crimean Residents, The People Who Live There, Think About Their Future And Ask Russia For Help. This Is What Guided Our Decision.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Challenging American Leadership Is Not At Stake.

American Leadership

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.

You Too Would Prefer That Russia Maintained Good Relations With Both The United Kingdom And The United States, Wouldn't You? I Would Prefer It As Well. If Anybody In The U.s. Or In The United Kingdom Says: "i Would Like To Establish Good Partnership Relations With Russia", Then Both Of Us, You And Me, Should Welcome That. So Should People Like Me And People Like You. However, We Have No Idea Yet What Would Actually Happen After The Elections [2016]. That Is Why I Am Telling You That We Will Work With Any President Designated As Such By The American Public.

Russia Is A Part Of European Culture. Therefore, It Is With Difficulty That I Imagine Nato As An Enemy.

The Sooner The Iraqi People Are Able To Take Their Country's Destiny In Their Own Hands And Establish Their Own Control Over It And Its National Resources, The Sooner The Process Of Pushing The Forces Of International Terrorism Out Of Iraq Will Be Able To Begin. And The Sooner The Process Of Consolidating Iraqi Society Itself Will Also Be Able To Begin.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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].

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.

Nowhere Is It Written That Nato Had To Accept Certain Countries. All That Would Have Been Required To Refrain From Doing So Was The Political Will. But People Didn't Want To.

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.

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

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

Nuclear Weapons And Other Weapons Are The Means To Protect Our Sovereignty And Legitimate Interests, Not The Means To Behave Aggressively Or To Fulfil Some Non-existent Imperial Ambitions.

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.

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.

Brazil Is One Of The Biggest Latin American Countries, The Biggest, No Doubt, And, More Importantly, It Is A Country With Immense Development Potential.

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.

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.

The Absence Of A Peace Treaty [with Japan] Is An Anachronism We Inherited From The Past And It Must Be Removed. However, How To Do This Is A Complicated Issue.

I See The Collapse Of The Soviet Union As A Great Tragedy Of The Xx Century.

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

It Is Not What Your Supporters, Friends Or Your Political Adversaries Call You That Matters. What Is Important Is What You Think You Must Do In The Interests Of The Country, Which Put You In Such Position, Such Post As The Head Of The Russian State.

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

I Have Always Thought And I Still Think That The Central Bank Should Act Independently. Indeed, It Does, You Can Take My Word. I Do Not Interfere In The Decisions Of The Central Bank And I Do Not Give Instructions To The Bank Management Or To Its Head.

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].

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

When Saddam Hussein Was Eliminated, The Iraqi Statehood And Thousands Of People From The Former Baath Party Were Also Eliminated. Thousands Of Iraqi Servicemen, Who Were Part Of The State's Sunni Elite, Found Themselves Thrown Out Into The Street. No One Gave A Thought About Them, And Today They End Up In The Isis Army.

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.

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

Stalinism Is Linked With A Cult Of Personality And Massive Violations Of The Law, With Repression And Camps. There Is Nothing Like That In Russia And, I Hope, Will Never Again Be...

Cult Of Personality

It Is Impossible To Solve Health Problems Of Millions Of People With The Help Of Pills. People Need To Put It Into Practice, Have Passion For It; Healthy Lifestyle, Fitness And Sports Should Become Fashionable.

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

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.

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.

As For That Footage, Video Footage Showing The Dead Children Allegedly Killed In The Chemical Attack, It Is Horrible. The Question Is Only Who Did It And What They Did, And Who Is Responsible For This. These Pictures Do Not Answer The Questions I Have Just Posed. There Is An Opinion That It's A Compilation By These Very Rebels, Who Are Connected With Al-qaida And Who Were Always Distinguished By Exceptional Brutality.

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.

The Baltic Republics Have Invented Something Totally New. Do You Know What? They Use The Word 'non-citizens' For People Who Have Been Living For Decades In The Territory Of Baltic States And Have Been Deprived Of A Number Of Political Rights. They Cannot Participate In The Election Campaigns; They Have Limited Political And Social Rights. Everybody Keeps Quiet About It, As If This Is The Way It Should Be. Of Course, This Cannot But Cause A Certain Reaction.

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.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

I Would Like To Deal With A Person Who Is Able To Take Responsible Decisions And Implement The Agreements Reached. The Name [donald Trump Or Hillary Clinton] Does Not Matter.

We Would Like To See Science And Higher Education Developing Here [on The Russian Far East], So That It Could Become One Of The Major Research Centres In The Entire Apr System. Undoubtedly A Lot Remains To Be Done Here, But Given The Labour Market Demand, The Relevance Of Such A University Is Undeniable.

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.

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.

I Hope That There Will Be No Particular Need For Us To Attract External Funding. It Is Worth Noting That Despite The Fact The Turnover Is Smaller Now We Are Still Maintaining A Trade Surplus.

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.

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.

As Far As I Know, Russians Are The First Among Tourists Going To Turkey; Last Year Three Million Russians Visited That Country, Although Its Climate Zone Is Almost The Same As The One Of The Black Sea Region. Therefore, We Have Had An Important Task To Develop An Infrastructure In This Region Of The Russian Federation.

Though We Still Come First In The Sphere Of Gas Export, National Production Has Diminished Due To The Increasing Volumes Of Hydrogenation For The Electric Power Industry And Therefore There Is A Lower Need For Gas At Thermal Power Plants.

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.

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.

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

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 Go To The Gym, I Swim Daily And From Time To Time I Meet With Friends And Do Extra-curricular Stuff.

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.

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.

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 Am A Human Being, A Citizen Of The Russian Federation, A Russian.

My English Is Very Bad.

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.

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

No One Wants The United Nations To Suffer The Fate Of The League Of Nations, Which Collapsed Because It Lacked Real Leverage. This Is Possible If Influential Countries Bypass The United Nations And Take Military Action Without Security Council Authorization.

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

It's Difficult To Talk To People Who Whisper Even At Home, Afraid Of Americans Eavesdropping On Them. It's Not A Figure Of Speech, Not A Joke, I'm Serious.

If Britain Pursues A More Independent Foreign Policy, It Might Be Possible Then. And If It Is Guided By Commitments To Its Allies And Considers This To Be Of A Bigger National Interest Than Its Cooperation With Russia, So Be It.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

We Are Not Going To Waste Our Reserves And Burn Them For Any Political Ambitions. We Will Act Very Carefully.

I Think Happiness Is Love.

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

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

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.

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.

I Believe That The Presidential Term Should Be Limited.

After All, China Is Our Largest Trading Partner. As I Said, Country-wise, Russia Trades The Most With China. That Is My First Point.

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

I Have Already Spoken To Three Us Presidents. They Come And Go, But Politics Stay The Same At All Times. Do You Know Why? Because Of The Powerful Bureaucracy. When A Person Is Elected, They May Have Some Ideas. Then People With Briefcases Arrive, Well Dressed, Wearing Dark Suits, Just Like Mine, Except For The Red Tie, Since They Wear Black Or Dark Blue Ones. These People Start Explaining How Things Are Done. And Instantly, Everything Changes. This Is What Happens With Every Administration.

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.

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

No One Doubts That Poison Gas Was Used In Syria. But There Is Every Reason To Believe It Was Used, Not By The Syrian Army, But By Opposition Forces To Provoke Intervention By Their Powerful Foreign Patrons, Who Would Be Siding With The Fundamentalists.

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.

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.

Russian Police Force, Fortunately, So Far, Do Not Use Batons, Tear Gas Or Any Other Extreme Measures Of Instilling Order, Something That We Often See In Other Countries, Including In The United States. Speaking Of Opposition, Let Us Recall The Movement Occupy Wall Street. Where Is It Now? The Law Enforcement Agencies And Special Services In The Us Have Taken It Apart, Into Little Pieces, And Have Dissolved It.

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".

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.

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.

It Is Only Up To The Syrian People Living In Syria To Determine Who, How And Based On What Principles Should Rule Their Country, And Any External Advice Would Be Absolutely Inappropriate, Harmful And Against International Law.

60 Percent Of Syria Is Controlled Either By Isis, Jabhat Al-nusra Or Other Terrorist Organisations, Organisations That Have Been Recognised As Terrorist By The United States, As Well As Other Countries And The Un. It Is Them And Not Anyone Else Who Have Control Over 60 Percent Of Syrian Territory.

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.

There Is No One To Talk To Since Mahatma Gandhi Died.

All Civilised Countries Should Unite In The Fight Against International Terrorism.

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.

At Any Rate, Those Problems [ Non-proliferation Regime For Weapons Of Mass Destruction ] Would Not Be So Acute, With Numerous Terror Attacks And Victims Of Those Attacks In Many Areas Of The World - In Europe And In The United States. We Also Never Would Have Had Such An Urgent Problem With Refugees, I Have No Doubt About It.

Mass Destruction

Look, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Most European Countries, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Japan, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Many Countries, But In The United States, For Some Reason, The State Is Organized Differently, There Is Quite A Stringent Presidential Republic.

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.

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.

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

It's Better To Be Hanged For Loyalty Than Be Rewarded For Betrayal.

Russia Should Be Competitive, Be Able To Protect Its Own Interests And Influence The Processes That Are Important To It.

I Stress That We Unambiguously Support Strengthening The Non-proliferation Regime, Without Any Exceptions, On The Basis Of International Law.

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.

We Will Keep A Close Eye On What Is Happening And Wait For The Election Results And After That We Will Be Ready To Work With Any Administration Given That It Wants To Work With Us.

Election Results

Prisons Where People Can't Even Work Is The Worst Punishment You Can Think Of. And I Don't Think We Should Put All Convicts In Such Facilities Where People Are Deprived Of Their Freedom.

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.

Why Don't You Meet Osama Bin Laden, Invite Him To Brussels Or To The White House And Engage In Talks, Ask Him What He Wants And Give It To Him So He Leaves You In Peace?

Russia Had To Take The Necessary Measures In Order To Prevent The Situation In Crimea Unfolding The Way It Is Now Unfolding In Southeastern Ukraine. We Didn't Want Any Tanks, Any Nationalist Combat Units Or People With Extreme Views Armed With Automatic Weapons.

I See That Not Everyone In The West Has Understood That The Soviet Union Has Disappeared From The Political Map Of The World And That A New Country Has Emerged With New Humanist And Ideological Principles At The Foundation Of Its Existence.

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

There Are Also Other Areas. For Example, Culture. This Is Extremely Important. We Keep Revisiting Sport, Judo, Because I Practice It, But Other Than That, There Is Also Culture. Every Year Events That Are In Some Way Or Other Related To Russia Take Place In Japan.

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.

You Know Every Stage Of Your Life Has An Impact On You.

We Believe In The Fundamental Principles Of The European Economy.

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.

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.

There Are Both Things In International Law: The Principle Of Territorial Integrity And Right To Self-determination.

Russia Will Not Take Part In Any Field Operations On The Territory Of Syria Or In Other States; At Least, We Do Not Plan It For Now. But We Are Thinking Of How To Intensify Our Work Both With President Al-assad And Our Partners In Other Countries.

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.

There Is No Other Way To Settle The Syrian Conflict Other Than By Strengthening The Existing Legitimate Government Agencies, Support Them In Their Fight Against Terrorism And, Of Course, At The Same Time Encourage Them To Start A Positive Dialogue With The "healthy" Part Of The Opposition And Launch Political Transformations.

Our Microeconomic Indicators Are Stable And It Gives Me Reason To Believe That We Will Calmly And Steadily Pass This Uneasy Period In Our Economy, Which Has Already No Doubt Adapted To The Current Situation.

Democracy Cannot Be Exported To Some Other Place. This Must Be A Product Of Internal Domestic Development In A Society.

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.

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.

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

Therefore, Let Me Reiterate That The Rate Should Not Meet The Interests Of A Specific Group Or One Or Two Groups, It Should Meet The Fundamental Development Interests Of The Economy Itself.

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

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.

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.

Our Common Goal Should Be The Development Of A System Of Equal Security For All Governments. System Adequate [to Deal With] Modern Threats, Built On Regional And Global Nonaligned Bases. Only Then Can We Ensure Peace And Tranquility In The World.

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.

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.

Those Who Fight Corruption Should Be Clean Themselves.

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.

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 Do Not Exclude This, But I Would Like To Draw Your Attention To One Absolutely Key Aspect: In Line With International Law, Only The U.n. Security Council Can Sanction The Use Of Force Against A Sovereign State. Any Other Pretext Or Method Which Might Be Used To Justify The Use Of Force Against An Independent Sovereign State Is Inadmissible And Can Only Be Interpreted As An Aggression.

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

Even During The Years Of The Cold War, The Intense Confrontation Between The Soviet Union And The United States, We Always Avoided Any Direct Clash Between Our Civilians And, Most Certainly, Between Our Military.

The International Atomic Energy Agency Is Controlling This, The Sanctions Against Iran Are Lifted - But Still The Us Are Working On Their Missile Defense System. What Is The Point Of This?

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

We Have Never Meddled In The Domestic Affairs Of Any State And We Never Will.

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.

It's A Historical Phenomenon That In 250 Years, A Nation Could Move From A Colony Into The Most Prosperous Nation Of The World And The Leader Of The World. It Is Indeed An Achievement, A Tribute To The Talent Of The American Nation, The American People And An Optimal Political And Economic System.

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

President Al-assad And His Army Are The Only Force That Actually Fights Isis.

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.

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

Japan Has Joined The Sanctions Against The Russian Federation. How Are We Going To Further Economic Relations On A New And Much Higher Basis, At A Higher Level Under The Sanctions Regime?

I Firmly Believe That The Reputation Of Any Country Which Is Capable Of Defending The Life And Dignity Of Its Citizens, And Can Conduct Independent Foreign Policy Will Only Improve In Mid- And Long-term Perspective.

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

There Are Complicated Processes Going On In Society In The Crimea. There Are Problems Of The Crimean Tatars, The Ukrainian Population, The Russian Population, The Slavic Population In General, But This Is Ukraine's Domestic Political Problem.

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

We Want Full-scale Normalisation Of Relations [with Japan].

In Other Words, We Do Not Have To Be Obsessed With Privatizing Immediately And At Any Cost. No, We Will Not Do It At Any Cost. We Will Do It In A Way That Ensures Maximum Benefit For The Russian State And The Russian Economy.

Russian Economy

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.

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

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.

There Are Many Issues In The Global Economy In General And In The Western Economy As Well: Population Ageing, Drop In Labour Productivity Growth Rates. This Is Obvious. The Overall Demographic Situation Is Very Complicated.

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

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

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.

History Proves That All Dictatorships, All Authoritarian Forms Of Government Are Transient. Only Democratic Systems Are Not Transient. Whatever The Shortcomings, Mankind Has Not Devised Anything Superior.

The Crimea Is Not A Disputed Territory. Unlike The Case Of Georgia And South Ossetia, There Has Been No Ethnic Conflict There.

I Think That Rather Than Talking About Particular Models, Of Which There Could Be A Huge Number, We Should Talk About Basic Principles Of Democracy. After All, Even Within The West, There Is No Single Standard And Single Model.

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.

I Remember My Very First Encounter With Japan. At That Time, I Was Deputy Mayor Of St Petersburg. Out Of Nowhere, Japan's Consul General In St Petersburg Came To My Office And Said Japan's Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Wanted To Invite Me To Japan. I Was Very Surprised Because I Had Nothing To Do With Japan Except Being A Judoka. This Was An Opportunity To Visit Tokyo And A Couple Of Other Cities. And, You Know, A Capital Is A Capital Everywhere: There Is The Official Script And Certain Protocol. It Is Always Easier To Talk In The Provinces, The Conversation Is More Natural.

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?

I Would Prefer To Abandon The Terminology Of The Past. 'superpower' Is Something Which We Used During The Cold War Time. Why Use It Now?

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

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

If I Said That Oil Production Would Collapse I Was Wrong.

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.

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

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.

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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