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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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I Remember My Very

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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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.

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.

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

The Nationalists' Coup In The Ukrainian Capital Of Kiev In February 2014 Has Hugely Scared 2.5 Million Russian People Living On Crimea. So What Did We Do? We Have Not Gone To War, We Have Not Fired, Not A Single Person Was Killed. Our Soldiers Have Merely Prevented The Ukrainian Troops On Crimea From Impeding The Freedom Of Expression Of The People.

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 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.

The Chancellor [angela Merkel] And The European Partners Would Be Well-advised To Address The Problems In Eastern Ukraine More Thoroughly. Maybe They Have Too Many Domestic Problems Of Their Own At The Moment.

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.

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

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.

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

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

Trusting Each Other

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

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.

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

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.

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

Mass Destruction

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

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

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.

Everyone Must Be Equal Before The Law, Abide By It, Pay Their Taxes And Bear The Punishment Should They Break The Law.

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.

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

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

Prime Minister [shinzō Abe] And I Have Spoken A Lot, And We Said All The Right Things, In My Opinion, About Creating An Atmosphere Of Trust And Friendship Between Our Nations And Peoples.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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.

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

Syria Is Already In The Grips Of A Civil War, Unfortunately Enough, And Egypt Is Moving In That Direction. We Would Like To See The Egyptian People Avoid This Fate.

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

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Legitimate Power

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

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

Different Nationalities

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

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.

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.

A Happy Love Needs To Be Reciprocated.

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.

In Accordance With The Constitution Of The Russian Federation, The Issues Of Foreign Policy And Defense Are Fully In The Hands Of The President.

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?

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.

Fifteen Percent Of Russia Badly Polluted.

It's Better Not To Argue With Women.

Of Course, Nobody Does [want Another Cuban Missile Crisis].

Cuban Missile Crisis

Those Who Fight Corruption Should Be Clean Themselves.

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.

If Nato Troops Walk In Crimea, They Will Immediately Deploy Their Forces There. Such A Move Would Be Geopolitically Sensitive For Us Because, In This Case, Russia Would Be Practically Ousted From The Black Sea Area. We'd Be Left With Just A Small Coastline Of 450 Or 600km, And That's It!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

In The Soul Of A Russian Person There Is Always A Drive Toward Some Kind Of Lofty Moral Ideal, Lofty Moral Values. That Definitely Sets Us Apart, And I'm Certain It's In A Good Way.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

If We Had Joined Efforts Some Time Ago [with U.s], We Could Have Avoided Many Problems The World Is Facing Now, I Believe.

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

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.

Not All G8 Members Take The View That Chemical Weapons Were In Fact Used By The Syrian Army. Some Actually Agree With Us That There Is No Proof.

We Always Welcome When Somebody Says He Or She Is Ready To Work With Russia.

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

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

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.

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

Radicals Can Be Found In Any Environment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 Am Never Guided By A Possible Assessment Of My Work.

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

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.

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

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.

The Path Towards A Free Society Has Not Been Simple. There Are Tragic And Glorious Pages In Our History.

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...

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.

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.

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.

Are We Not Concerned, For Example, By The Growing Danger Related To The Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction And Missile Technology? All Of This Poses A Clear Threat To The World, To The Region. However, We Have Obvious Points Of Convergence That Are Related To Our Interests.

Mass Destruction

Four Years Ago, The Perpetrators Believed They Would Bring America And The Rest Of The World To Chaos, ... But They Were Mistaken.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

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

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.

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.

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.

You Recalled The 1956 Declaration, And This Declaration Established The Rules That Should Be Followed By Both Sides And That Should Be Put Into The Foundation Of A Peace Treaty. If You Carefully Read The Text Of This Document, You Will See That The Declaration Will Take Effect After We Sign A Peace Treaty And The Two Islands [kunashir And Shikotan] Are Transferred To Japan. It Does Not Say On What Terms They Should Be Transferred And What Side Will Exercise Sovereignty Over Them.

I Like Other Sports, Too, Including Skiing And Swimming, And I Am Learning To Play Ice Hockey Now. But Judo Is Definitely Part Of My Life, A Very Big Part, And I Am Glad That Judo Was The First Sport I Took Up And That I Have Practiced It Regularly And Seriously. I Am Also Grateful To Japan For This.

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.

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

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.

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.

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

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

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

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.

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

I Read Papers, Try To Watch News Programs On Television, But, As A Rule, Recorded. During The Day I Have No Time For That, So I Watch Something Taped. As For The Newspapers, I Try To Get Through Them Every Day. Additionally, Of Course, I Look Through News Bulletins.

We Can Tell The General Public That The Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves Of The Central Bank Are Not Designed To Finance The Economy, But Rather To Ensure Foreign Trade Turnover. Therefore, We Need This Level To Be Able To Provide The Necessary Foreign Trade Turnover For Such An Economy As Russia's For A Period Of At Least Three Months.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

We See And Realise That The Political Situation In The United States Is Influenced By Those Who Have Lost The Elections But Refuse To Accept Their Defeat, And Who Continue To Use The Anti-russia Card And Various Allegations Most Actively In The Political Infighting. This Is Why We Are In No Hurry, We Are Ready To Wait, Yet We Strongly Hope That Russian-us Relations Will Become Normal Again Sometime In The Future.

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,.

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.

I Believe That The G20 Should Not Interfere [foreign Policy], Because There Are Other Platforms For That.

Russia Should Be An Effective And Competitive State With A Sustainable Economy, Developed Social And Political System Flexible To Changes Domestically And Globally.

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.

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.

Changing Things Is Not Easy, And I Say This Without Any Irony. It Is Not That Someone Does Not Want To, But Because It Is A Hard Thing To Do. Take Obama, A Forward-thinking Man, A Liberal, A Democrat. Did He Not Pledge To Shut Down Guantanamo Before His Election? But Did He Do It? No, He Did Not. And May I Ask Why Not? Did He Not Want To Do It? He Wanted To, I Am Sure He Did, But It Did Not Work Out. He Sincerely Wanted To Do It, But Did Not Succeed, Since It Turned Out To Be Very Complicated.

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.

Our Intention Is To Develop Music, Theatre And Exhibition Activities On The Far Eastern Regions.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Think Happiness Is Love.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

We Have Good Joint Projects In The Helicopter And Aircraft Manufacturing Industry. We Are Considering Cooperation And Are Actively Cooperating In Space. There Are Good Prospects There [with China].

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.

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.

Political Activities In Russia Should Be As Transparent As Possible. Financing Political Activities From Abroad Is Something The State Should Keep An Eye On.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

When People Communicate Freely, When Labour Force, Goods, Services And Funds Move Freely As Well, When There Are No State Dividing Lines And When We Have Common Legal Regulation, For Example, In The Social Sphere - All That Is Good Enough, People Should Feel Free.

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

I Am Convinced That International Terrorism Gave Itself The Goal Of Not Allowing The Re-election Of Bush. The Statement By Bin Laden In The Final Stages Of The Pre-election Campaign Is The Best Confirmation Of This.

The Breakup Of The Soviet Union Is A National Tragedy On An Enormous Scale Only The Elites And Nationalists Of The Republics Gained.

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

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

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?

Russia Doesn't Negotiate With Terrorists. It Destroys Them.

We're No Longer In The Cold War. Eavesdropping On Friends Is Unacceptable.

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 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.

This Is A Region [ Far East] With A Substantially Developed Transport And Railroad Infrastructure. In Recent Years We Have Been Actively Developing Road Connection.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

There Are No Russian Units In Eastern Ukraine - No Special Services, No Tactical Advisors. All This Is Being Done By The Local Residents, And The Proof Of That Is The Fact That Those People Have Literally Removed Their Masks.

Sanctions Against Such Country As Russia Are Unlikely To Be Effective.

It Is Well Known That Russia Has Many Interesting And Promising Developments In The Military-technical Sphere. We Are Ready To Deliver The Needed Equipment And Ready For Joint Cooperation In Arms Production With Brazilian Specialists. This Is An Area That Is Very Closely Linked To High Technology In General. In This Respect, We Hope To Develop Closer Cooperation Between The Scientific Communities In Our Two Countries.

For Russia, There Is Not And There May Not Be Another Political Option But Democracy. However, Russian Democracy Is... Not At All The Realization Of Standards Imposed On Us From Outside.

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

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.

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

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