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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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Over The Course Of

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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Anyhow, We Obviously Understand That, Being A United States' Ally And Having A Special Relationship With It, The Uk In Its Relations With Russian Has To Make An Allowance For The Opinion Of Its Partner - The U.s. We Take This Reality As A Given Fact, But Let Me Underscore Once Again That We Will Be Ready To Do As Much As Britain Will Be Ready To Do In Order To Resume Our Mutual Cooperation. This Does Not Depend On Us.

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.

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

How Can I Be A Gangster, If I Worked For The Kgb? It Is Absolutely Ridiculous.

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

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

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 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.

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

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!

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

Let Us Resolve The Internal Political Problems Of Russia Ourselves

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

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

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 Prime Minister [shinzō Abe] Proposed Advancing To A New Level Of Economic Engagement, Putting Forward Eight Lines Of Cooperation In The Most Important And Interesting Areas Both For Russia And For Japan.

Bp Found Itself In A Difficult Situation After The Tragic Events In The Gulf Of Mexico. We Did Everything We Could To Support It. Britain Is Interested In This, Isn't It? I Think It Is. The Same Is True Of Other Areas.

Difficult Situations

Millions Around The World Increasingly See America Not As A Model Of Democracy But As Relying Solely On Brute Force.

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.

Radicals Can Be Found In Any Environment.

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.

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.

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

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

However, Personally, I See This As Not Having The Right To Abuse This Trust [among The Citizens Of Russia And Japan], And Any Decision We Reach Should Correspond To The National Interests Of The Russian Federation.

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

The Thing Is, However Strange It May Seem, That The Interests Of The United States And Of The Russian Federation Do Coincide Sometimes.

We Negotiated The Construction Of A Gas Pipeline System Along The Bottom Of The Black Sea To Bulgaria. We Signed Certain Treaties Of A Technical Nature, Contracts For Laying The Gas Pipeline. And Then Bulgaria Created Such Conditions That The Project's Implementation Became Impossible, Which Was Obviously Against Its Own National Interests. The Former Bulgarian Leadership Was, In Fact, Aware Of That And Acknowledged It. But We Trusted Them When We Were Launching That Project. We Sustained Losses Amounting To Millions, Several Million Dollars. We Would Not Want To Get Into Such Situations.

The Point Is That In Any Country, Including The United States, May Be In The United States Even More Often Than In Any Other Country, Foreign Policy Is Used For Internal Political Struggle.

One Must Not Allow Oneself To Skid Down To Isolationism And Unbridled Economic Egoism. ... The Second Possible Mistake Would Be Excessive Interference Into The Economic Life Of The Country. And The Absolute Faith Into The All-mightiness Of The State.

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".

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

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

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.

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.

After The Unlawful Decision To Recognize Kosovo, Everyone Expected Russia To Respond By Recognizing The Independence And Sovereignty Of South Ossetia And Abkhazia. This Is True, This Is How It Was. Everyone Was Waiting For Russia's Decision. And We Had The Moral Right To Make It But We Did Not. We Were More Than Restrained. I Don't Even Want To Comment On It. In Truth, We "swallowed" It.

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.

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'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.

I Have Several Portraits Of Jigoro Kano And A Bust Too, A Very Beautiful One.

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

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.

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

We Were Also Going To Develop Relations With The Current Administration [of Barack Obama], But Somehow They Did Not Work Out Well In Key Areas And, I Believe, Not Through Our Fault. I Will Not List All The Problems That Emerged In The Past Few Years.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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.

Every Head Of State And Government In The World Is Allowed To Have His Opinion And To Voice It.

I Am Sure That, After All, Any Man In My Place Should Set A Positive Example For Other People.

We Must Create The Conditions For Immigrants To Normally Integrate Into Our Society, Learn Russian And, Of Course, Respect Our Culture And Traditions And Abide By Russian Law. In This Regard, I Believe That The Decision To Make Learning The Russian Language Compulsory And Administer Exams Is Well Grounded. To Do So, We Will Need To Carry Out Major Organisational Work And Introduce Corresponding Legislative Amendments.

Irrespective Of When This May Happen, It Would Not Be An Exaggeration To Say That Today Millions Of People Living In Russia And, I Am Sure, Millions Of People Living In Japan Have An Urge To Get To Know Each Other, Cooperate And Exchange Useful Information, As Well As A Sincere Desire That All Problems That Still Remain Unresolved Be Resolved.

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].

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

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

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

Back In 2007, Many People Criticized Me For My Talk At The Munich Security Conference. But What Did I Say There? I Merely Pointed Out That The Former Nato Secretary General Manfred Wörner Had Guaranteed That Nato Would Not Expand Eastwards After The Fall Of The Wall.

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.

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

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.

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

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

We See Serbs As Our Spiritual Brothers. And That Is What Is At The Base Of Our Relations Today And In The Future.

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 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.

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.

Where In The World Have You Seen Construction People Who Do Everything On Time, With Good Quality And At Minimal Prices? Just Give Me One Country Like That. A Country Like That Doesn't Exist In The World, You Know. There's Not One Such Country Anywhere In The World.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Problem Of Sexual Minorities In Russia Has Been Deliberately Made Controversial In Russia. There Is No Such Problem In Russia.

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.

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

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Climate Is Changing. This Year We Have Come To Understand This When We Faced Events That Resulted In Fires.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

We Cannot Decide For The American People.

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.

We Don't Need A Weakened Government But A Strong Government That Would Take Responsibility For The Rights Of The Individual And Care For The Society As A Whole.

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.

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

America Is A Powerful Country And It Has Earned The Right That Nobody From The Outside Can Interfere With It Or Comment On It. We Will Work With Any Administration, With Any President Who Will Win The Support Of The American People, If Of Course They Are Ready To Cooperate With Russia.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Kiev's Attempts To Exert Economic Pressure On Donbas (region Of East Ukraine) And Disrupt Its Daily Life Only Aggravates The Situation. This Is A Dead-end Track, Fraught With A Big Catastrophe.

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

Life Would Be Boring Without Gossip.

I Guess I Can Call Myself A Pragmatist With A Conservative Perspective. It Would Be Hard For Me To Explain This, But I Always Take Realities Of Today, Lessons From The Distant And Recent Past Into Consideration.

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

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

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

Russia Needs A Strong State Power And Must Have It. But I Am Not Calling For Totalitarianism.

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.

Russia Is The Biggest Country In The World. It Would Be Very Difficult To Surround It, And The World Is Changing So Fast That It Would Basically Be Impossible, Even In Theory.

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 Are Going To Set Up A Branch Of The St Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Here [on The Far Easter]. We Are Also Planning To Open Local Branches Of The Hermitage Museum And The Vaganova Academy Of Russian Ballet.

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

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.

Now They [nato And The Usa ] Are Sitting There, And We Are Talking About All These Crises We Would Otherwise Not Have. You Can Also See This Striving For An Absolute Triumph In The American Missile Defense Plans.

Russia, As Well As Any Other Country, Does Not Need Dictators, But It Needs Equitable Principles Of Organizing The State And Society: Just, Effective, Flexibly Responding To Changes Inside And Outside The Country - That Is What Russia Needs.

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

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, 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.

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.

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

In Relations Between The States ... The Interests Of The Country Should Be Correlated With The Interests Of Other Countries, And Compromise Is To Be Found When Resolving The Most Complex Issues.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Let's Recall Bosnia In 1995. As We Know Well, The European Peacekeeping Contingent, Represented By The Dutch Troops, Did Not Want To Get Involved With One Of The Attacking Sides, And Allowed It To Destroy A Whole Village. Hundreds Of People Were Killed Or Injured. The Tragedy In Srebrenica Is Well Known In Europe.

Their [the U.s.’s] Defense Budget In Absolute Figures Is Almost 25 Times Bigger Than Russia’s. This Is What In Defense Is Referred To As ‘their Home — Their Fortress.’ And Good For Them, I Say. Well Done!

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

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

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

We Have Made Mistakes! We Were Too Late. If We Had Presented Our National Interests More Clearly From The Beginning, The World Would Still Be In Balance Today.

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.

Terrorism Has Once Again Shown It Is Prepared Deliberately To Stop At Nothing In Creating Human Victims. An End Must Be Put To This. As Never Before, It Is Vital To Unite Forces Of The Entire World Community Against Terror.

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.

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

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.

Russia Can Offer State-of-the-art Technology, .. For Example, We Can Help Other Countries Launch Space Devices Such As Satellites.

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

Yes, Life In Chechnya So Far Looks More Like A Life After A Natural Disaster.

Iraq Is A Small But Very Proud Nation.

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.

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

The Centuries-old History And Culture Of India, Majestic Architectural Monuments And Museums Of Delhi, Agra And Mumbai Have A Unique Attractive Force.

We Still Have A Great Amount Of Work To Do In Social Development, Including Resolving One Of The Biggest Challenges We Face In This Area, Namely, Reducing The Gap Between High-income Earners And People, Citizens Of Our Country, Who Are Still Living On Very Modest Means Indeed. But We Cannot, Of Course, Adopt The Solution Used 80 Years Ago And Simply Confiscate The Riches Of Some To Redistribute Among Others. We Will Use Completely Different Means To Resolve This Problem, Namely, We Will Ensure Good Economic Growth.

We Believe In The Fundamental Principles Of The European Economy.

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

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

25 Million Of Russian People Suddenly Turned Out To Be Outside The Borders Of The Russian Federation. They Used To Live In One State; The Soviet Union Has Traditionally Been Called Russia, The Soviet Russia, And It Was The Great Russia. Then The Soviet Union Suddenly Fell Apart, In Fact, Overnight, And It Turned Out That In The Former Soviet Union Republics There Were 25 Million Russians. They Used To Live In One Country And Suddenly Found Themselves Abroad. Can You Imagine How Many Problems Came Out?

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.

At The Request Of Our Japanese Partners, We Have Reopened These Talks [about Territories]. What Command Is Given In This Case In Judo? You Probably Know Better Than I Do: Yoshi (continue). So We Will Continue.

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

I Think Shidzo Abe's Proposal May Be The Only Way To Achieving Our Goal.

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.

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

Brazil Does Have Every Right To Develop Its Own Peaceful Nuclear Programme.

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.

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

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

Ukraine Is The Closest Country To Us. We Have Always Said That Ukraine Is Our Sister Country And It Is True. It Is Not Just A Slavic People, It Is The Closest People To Russia: We Have Similar Languages, Culture, Common History, Religion Etc.

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

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.

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

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.

My Family Suffered Very Major Losses During The Second World War, That's True. In My Father's Family, There Were Five Brothers. I Think Four Of Them Died. On My Mother's Side The Picture Was Pretty Much The Same. Russia Has Suffered Great Losses. And Of Course We Can't Forget That.

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].

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

We Have Every Reason To Say, And I Note This With Great Satisfaction, That A Truly Friendly Relationship Has Evolved With China, And In Many Key Areas These Relations, Without Any Exaggeration, Have A Strategic Character. As We Say, The Strategic Character Of Privileged Partnership.

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

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.

I Want To Say That Russia Is Developing Along A Democratic Path, This Is Without Question So. No One Should Have Any Doubts About That. The Fact That, Amidst Political Rivalry And Some Other Domestic Developments, We See Things Happen Here That Are Typical Of Other Countries, I Do Not See Anything Unusual In It. We Have Rallies, Opposition Rallies. And People Here Have The Right To Express Their Point Of View. However, If People, While Expressing Their Views, Break The Current Legislation, The Effective Law In Place, Then Of Course, The Law Enforcement Agencies Try To Restore Order.

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].

We All Are Interested In An Open Development, Without Any Prejudice; This Refers Particularly And, Perhaps, Primarily To The Baltic Countries, For Them It Is More Important Than For Russia.

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.

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

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.

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.

All Issues - Purchasing And Selling Of Currency - Are Related To The Regulation Of The National Currency Market. However, It Is Still Difficult To Say What Will Be The Reaction Of The Central Bank And If It Would Lead To Increasing The Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] And I Will Negotiate Proceeding From Our National Interests: The Interests Of Russia And The Interests Of Japan. We Should Find A Compromise.

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

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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.

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