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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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I Have Criticized Foreign

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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

There Is No Need For The Russian State To Hold Such Large Stakes And We Do Intend To Put Our Plans Into Practice. It Is Not About Whether We Want It Or Not, It Is About This Being Practical Or Not And The Best Timing. In General, It Is Practical From At Least One Point Of View - From The Point Of View Of Structural Changes In The Economy.

America's Creative Approach To Solving The Problems The Country Is Faced With, Its Openness And Open-mindedness Which Make It Possible To Unleash The Potential Of The People. I Believe That Largely Due To These Qualities America Has Made Such Tremendous Strides In Its Development.

Easter Celebrations Are Evidence Of The Increased Benign Influence Of The Russian Orthodox Church And Other Traditional Churches In Our Country On Society.

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.

There Are Also Fundamental Issues Related To What The Current Leader, President [barack] Obama, Said. I Am Referring To His Idea About American Exceptionalism. I Am Skeptical About This Idea.

Crimea Has Always Been And Remains Russian, As Well As Ukrainian, Crimean-tatar, Greek (after All, There Are Greeks Living There) And German - And It Will Be Home To All Of Those Peoples. As For State Affiliation, The People Living In Crimea Made Their Choice; It Should Be Treated With Respect, And Russia Cannot Do Otherwise. I Hope That Our Neighbouring And Distant Partners Will Ultimately Treat This The Same Way, Since In This Case, The Highest Criteria Used To Establish The Truth Can Only Be The Opinion Of The People Themselves.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

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.

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.

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.

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

You 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.

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

We Have Seen Very Clearly Over These Past Years That There Are Quite A Few People Who Are Sceptical, Or Let Us Put It Another Way, Are Cautious About The Development Of Russian-american Relations, But The Underlying Fundamental Interests Of The United States And Russia Demand That Our Relations Be Normalised.

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

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

I'm Proud Of Russia, That's True. And We Have Something To Be Proud Of, But We Do Not Have Any Obsession With Being A Superpower In The International Arena.

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.

We Believe In The Fundamental Principles Of The European Economy.

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

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.

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

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

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.

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.

If Anybody,wants To Get Rid Of Us, Then This Is A Different Approach. However, We Will Get Over It; You Never Know Who Is Going To Lose More With Such An Approach.

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

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

The Mutual Sympathy Of Our Peoples Is And Will Remain The Foundation Of Our Relations [with Germany].

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

In General, Gazprom Is Doing Well And Is Increasing Export In Its Traditional Partner Countries.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

One Can Feel Calm And At Ease. Just Leave Kids Alone, Please.

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

Somebody Is Always Suspecting Russia Of Having Some Ambitions, There Are Always Those Who Are Trying To Misinterpret Us Or Keep Something Back.

The Central Bank Has A Lot To Handle And It Is Best Not To Interfere With Its Competence.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

As For The Criticism We Receive, You Know, Even Mr. [donald] Trump's Team Criticize Us. For Instance, One Of The Participants Or Members Of His Team Claimed That Russia Was Giving Money To The Clintons Through Some Funds And That In Fact Russia Is Controlling The Clinton Family. This Is Nonsense.

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.

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 Must Admit That We Have Yet To Understand How [donald Trump] Will Develop His Idea, His Pledge To Make America Great Again, But I Hope This Will Not Hinder The Development Of Our Cooperation.

Russia Is An Ancient Country With Historical, Profound Traditions And A Very Powerful Moral Foundation. And This Foundation Is A Love For The Motherland And Patriotism. Patriotism In The Best Sense Of That Word. Incidentally, I Think That To A Certain Extent, To A Significant Extent, This Is Also Attributable To The American People.

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

Do You Think That It Is Possible To Have A Dialogue With The Representatives Of Lugansk And Donetsk If They All Are Being Prosecuted And Subject To Criminal Proceedings? That Is Exactly Why The Minsk Agreements Establish To Adopt An Amnesty Law. However, It Has Not Been Adopted.

To Pay More Is The Easy Way. In Fact, The Solution Possibilities To The Problem Are Many.

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

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

If Russia's Interests And Security Are Threatened, Russia Will Resist. Everyone Needs To Know That.

Very Interested In Expanding The Number Of Participants Who Will Take Part In Laying The New Gas Pipeline In Europe.

Frankly Speaking, I Could Never Even Imagine That Such Information Would Be Of Interest To The American Public Or That The Campaign Headquarters Of One Of The Candidates - In This Case, Mrs. [hillary] Clinton - Apparently Worked For Her, Rather Than For All The Democratic Party Candidates In An Equal Manner. I Could Never Assume That Anybody Would Find It Interesting.

Honestly, I Do Not Even Know Whether This Is On The Visit Itinerary, But If There Is Time, I Would Be Pleased To Go To Kodokan. For Anyone Interested In Judo, Who Loves Judo, Kodokan Is A Special Place.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Mr. Mccain Fought In Vietnam. I Think That He Has Enough Blood Of Peaceful Citizens On His Hands. It Must Be Impossible For Him To Live Without These Disgusting Scenes Anymore. Mr. Mccain Was Captured And They Kept Him Not Just In Prison, But In A Pit For Several Years. Anyone [in His Place] Would Go Nuts.

I Am In Regular Contact With Prime Minister [shinzo] Abe. We Have Met Several Times This Year [2016].

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.

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

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.

I Think Happiness Is Love.

The G20 Was Established As A Forum To Discuss, First And Foremost, World Economic Issues. If We Load It With... Of Course, Politics Affects Economic Processes, This Is Obvious, But If We Bring Some Squabbles, Or Not Squabbles, Rather, Some Matters That Are Really Important But Relate Purely To World Politics, We Will Overload The G20 Agenda And Instead Of Addressing Such Issues As Finance, Structural Economic Reforms, Tax Evasion And So Forth, We Will Engage In Endless Debates Concerning The Syrian Crisis Or Some Other Global Challenges, Of Which There Are Many, Or The Middle East Problem.

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.

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

Our Trend In The Privatization Process And Gradual Withdrawal Of The State From Certain Assets Remains Unchanged.

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

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

Besides, Does It Really Matter Who Hacked Mrs. [hillary] Clinton's Election Campaign Team Database? Does It? What Really Matters Is The Content Shown To The Community. This Is What The Discussion Should Be Held About.

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.

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.

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

World Religions

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?

Each Country Has Its Own Particular Features, Its Own Traditions That Find Their Reflection Today And Will Find It In Future. There Are Such Traditions In Russia But It Is Not A Question Of A Strong Figure, Although A Strong Figure Is Needed In Power, It Is A Question Of What Is Implied By This Term. It Is One Thing If It Is A Person With Dictatorial Tendencies. But If It Is A Fair Leader, Who Acts Within The Law And In The Interests Of A Vast Majority Of Society, Who Acts Coherently And Is Guided By Principles, It Is A Completely Different Matter.

We [with Shindzo Abe] Should Understand That The Results Of That Terrible Tragedy Of The 20th Century, Namely World War Ii, Are Enshrined In Corresponding International Documents, And Finding A Way To Settle All Disputes Without Destroying The Entire Foundation Of International Law That Evolved As A Result Of World War Ii Is A Highly Delicate Task. Therefore, I Would Like To Reiterate That We Cannot Second-guess The Course, Let Alone The Outcome Of Our Negotiations.

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.

Any Country Is Hard To Govern, Even A Very Small Country. It's Not A Question Of Whether The Country Is Large Or Small. It's A Question Of How You Relate To The Work, To What Extent You Feel Responsible For It. Russia Is Also Hard To Govern. Russia Is At The Development Stage Of Both Its Political System And The Creation Of A Market-based Economy. It's A Complicated Process, But Very Interesting. Russia, Actually, Is Not Just A Large Country, It's A Great Country. I Mean Its Traditions, And Its Cultural Particularities.

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

There Is Nothing In Common Between Al-assad And Isis, They Fight Against Each Other.

Britain Is Leaving And Has De Facto Left The European Union; However, It Has Not Withdrawn From Its Special Relationship With The United States And I Believe That The Uk's Relations With Russia Depend On Britain's Special Relationship With The United States Rather Than On Its Presence In Or Absence From The European Union.

We Should Find Other Platforms, Other Forums For That [foreign Policy], And There Are Plenty Of Them, Including, For Example, The Un And The Security Council.

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

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.

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.

This Is Also Evident In Europe, Not The Dependence On Oil And Gas, But The Fact That Structural Reforms Are Long Overdue, And I Think That The Leading Economies Are Very Pragmatic And Efficient In Addressing The Issues Facing The European Economy. That Is Why We Keep Approximately 40 Percent Of Our Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Euros.

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

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.

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.

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.

Back In 1956, We Signed A Treaty And Surprisingly It Was Ratified Both By The Supreme Soviet Of The Soviet Union And The Japanese Parliament. But Then Japan Refused To Implement It And After That The Soviet Union Also, So To Say, Nullified All The Agreements Reached Within The Framework Of The Treaty.

It Is Wrong To Make Anyone Into An Enemy; It Is Wrong To Scare The People Of One's Own Country With That Enemy And Try To Rally Some Allies On That Basis.

As Regards Humanitarian Issues And How To Handle Them, That Was The Prime Minister's [shinzō Abe] Initiative. He Brought The Matter Up At Our Last Meeting In Lima And Asked Me Straightforwardly Whether We Would Agree To Let Japanese Citizens Travel On A Visa-free Basis, Resolve The Issue In Such A Way As To Enable Them To Visit The South Kurils, Visit Their Native Areas. I Said At Once That It Was Quite Possible.

I Would Like To Draw Attention To The Fact That We Have Gone From Pure Trade [with China] In Traditional Goods [energy Resources, Such As Hydrocarbons, Oil And Now Natural Gas, Petrochemicals On The One Hand And Textiles And Footwear On The Other] To A Whole New Level Of Economic Cooperation. For Example, We Are Working Together On Space Programmes. Moreover, We Are Developing And Soon Will Begin The Production Of A Heavy Helicopter. We Are Now Tracing The Plan For The Creation Of A Wide-body Long-range Aircraft.

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

Stalin Is The Most Popular Figure In All Of Russia.

There Is No One Else At All Who Is Fighting Isis On The Ground, Except For President Al-assad's Army.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Mass Destruction

Russia 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.

The Aviation Industry, Including Combat Air Force, Has Been Traditionally Developing Here. It Is The Russian Far East Where The Su Aircraft, Which Are Well Known Worldwide, Are Manufactured.

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,.

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.

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.

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.

I Believe That In Fact It Would Be Economically Reasonable And Logical To Reach A Compromise [on Oil Production], I Am Sure That Everybody Understands This.

Let Us Resolve The Internal Political Problems Of Russia Ourselves

Fifteen Percent Of Russia Badly Polluted.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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...

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.

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

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

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.

However, It Was Not Us Who Refused To Freeze Oil Production; Our Saudi Partners Changed Their Point Of View At The Last Moment And Decided To Slow Down The Adoption Of This Decision. I Would Like To Reiterate Our Position, It Remains The Same.

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

In My Opinion, Provision Of Military Support To Illegal Structures Runs Counter To The Principles Of Modern International Law And The United Nations Charter.

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.

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.

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.

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

Legitimate Power

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

If Regional Associations Are Created, They Should Work On The Basis Of Wto Norms, On The Wto Basis.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Believe That Global Common Interests Are A Good Foundation For Finding Solutions Together.

The Fight Against Terrorism Is Something Very Real And Practical For Us. This Is A Fight To Preserve Our Territorial Integrity, And In This Sense We Need To Have The Instruments And Create An Environment In Russia That Would Make It Impossible For The International Terrorist Organisations To Achieve The Aims They Have Set For Themselves Here.

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

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

President Obama Hasn't Been Elected By The American People In Order To Be Pleasant To Russia.

A Happy Love Needs To Be Reciprocated.

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.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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

No One Except For Al-assad's Army Is Fighting Against Isis Or Other Terrorist Organisations In Syria, No One Else Is Fighting Them On Syrian Territory. Minor Airstrikes, Including Those By The United States Aircraft, Do Not Resolve The Issue In Essence; In Fact, They Do Not Resolve It At All.

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

We Have Wide-ranging Joint Projects In The Nuclear Energy Sphere, Logistics, Machine Building And Trade As A Whole [with China].

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

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

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

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 Is No Accident That I Mention Our American Friends, As They Are Always Influencing Our Relations With Our Neighbors Either Directly Or Behind The Scenes. Sometimes You Don't Even Know Who To Talk To - The Governments Of Certain Countries Or Directly To Their American Patrons.

Behind The Scenes

It Is My Greatest Desire, I Want The People In Russia To Be Happy And I Want Our Partners Around The World To Seek To Develop Relations With Russia.

Take The Creation Of The Pacific Partnership Or The Creation Of The Atlantic Partnership. We Are Somewhat Concerned Because This Is Being Done Bypassing The World Trade Organisation, Since It Has Proved Impossible To Reach Compromise Solutions With Developing Economies Within The Framework Of That Organisation. Is That Good? Not Really, In My Opinion.

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

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

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.

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

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 Reputation Of Those Countries Which Cater To The Foreign Policy Interests Of Other States At The Expense Of Their Own National Interests Will Go Down Regardless Of How They Explain Their Actions.

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.

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

The Us Tactical Nuclear Weapons Are In Europe, Let Us Not Forget This. Does It Mean That The Us Has Occupied Germany Or That The Us Never Stopped The Occupation After World War Ii And Only Transformed The Occupation Troops Into The Nato Forces?

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.

In The Near Future, Despite The Development Of Alternative Energy, When You Look At The Economics And Environmental Standards, Then There's No Other Source Of Primary Energy In The World Than Natural Gas. Well, Perhaps There Is Nuclear Energy But There Are Also A Lot Of Issues There And There Are Opponents Of Nuclear Energy. Gas Doesn't Have Those Opponents. But There Is A Country That Is, Obviously, The World Leader In Gas Reserves. That's Our Country, The Russian Federation.

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.

They Are Constantly Trying To Drive Us Into A Corner Because We Have An Independent Position, Because We Maintain It And Because We Tell It Like It Is And Don't Engage In Hypocrisy. But There Is A Limit To Everything. And With Ukraine, Our Western Partners Have Crossed The Line, Playing The Bear And Acting Irresponsibly And Unprofessionally.

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.

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.

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