Background Image

...

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.

-Vladimir Putin

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Russia Had To Take

Vladimir Putin

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Vladimir Putin

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

There Is No Uniform, Global Model For Democracy.

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

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.

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

[egon] Bahr Even Said: If Russia Agreed To The Nato Expansion, He Would Never Come To Moscow Again.

I Have Called President Obama, And President Obama Called Me On Various Issues. This Is Part Of Our Regular Contacts, There Is Nothing Unusual Or Extraordinary About It.

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

I'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.

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

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

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

Mass Destruction

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The Level Of Our Political Trust [with China] Is Also Very High. We Have Similar Positions On Major International Issues Or Even, As Diplomats Say, Our Views Are Identical. We Often Have Shared Positions On Key Issues Of The Modern International Agenda.

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 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.

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

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

In Russia, We Are Ready To Listen To Our Partners, Ready To Listen To Appraisals And Assessments When It Is Done In A Friendly Manner, In Order To Establish Contacts And Create A Common Atmosphere And Dedicate Ourselves To Shared Values. But We Absolutely Will Not Accept When Such Things Are Used As A Tool Of Political Struggle. I Want Everybody To Know That. This Is Our Message.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

I Think That People Are Able To See That I Am Working Hard, That I Am Striving Openly, Honestly And Sincerely To Achieve The Results The Results Our Country Needs. I Think That They Are Also Able To See That Not All Goes Well. Our People Are Smart And Sharp-sighted. Yet, I Believe That The Main Thing Is To Sincerely Aspire To Achieve The Maximum, So That The Country Feels More Secure And People Live Better. That's Precisely How I Am Trying To Go About My Work.

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

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.

[economic Restrictions] Is One Of The Elements That Is Destabilising The World Economic Order That Was At One Time Created Largely By The United States Itself At The Dawn Of The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade That Was Later Transformed Into The World Trade Organisation.

You Made These Things Up Yourselves And Now Scare Yourselves With Them And Even Use Them To Plan Your Prospective Policies. These Policies Have No Prospects. The Only Possible Future Is In Cooperation In All Areas, Including Security Issues. What Is The Major Security Problem Today? Terrorism. There Are Bombings In Europe, In Paris, In Russia, In Belgium. There Is A War In The Middle East. This Is The Main Concern. But No, Let Us Keep Speculating On The Threat From Russia.

We Spoke About Economic Sanctions Only Recently In Lima, Within The Framework Of Apec. Almost All The Leaders Represented At Apec (the Asia Pacific Region), Pacific Countries, Spoke About The Same Thing, Namely, That We Are Going Through A Very Acute Crisis In World Trade, International Trade, Related, Among Other Things, To Restrictions On The Markets Of Certain Countries.

Economic Sanctions

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

Mohammed Bin Salman Is Deputy Crown Prince, But This Is Not So Important. He Is A Very Active Statesman, We Have Really Warm Relations. This Is A Person Who Knows What He Wants And Can Achieve His Goals. At The Same Time I Consider Him To Be A Reliable Partner With Whom One Can Negotiate And Be Sure That Agreements With Him Will Be Implemented.

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.

Economic Activity Is Moving From The Atlantic Ocean To The Pacific Ocean... Russia Has A Certain Natural Advantage Because It Also Borders The Pacific Ocean.

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

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 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.

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.

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

The People Who Lost The Elections Do Not Want To Admit That They Really Lost, That The One Who Won Was Closer To The People And Better Understood What Ordinary Voters Want. They Are Absolutely Reluctant To Admit This, And Prefer Deluding Themselves And Others Into Thinking It Was Not Their Fault, That Their Policy Was Correct, They Did All The Right Things, But Someone From The Outside Thwarted Them. But It Was Not So. They Just Lost And They Have To Admit It.

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.

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 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.

I'm Still The Same. Take The Fight Against Terrorism: After The Attacks Of September 11, I Was The First To Side With Us President [george W.] Bush. And Now, After The Attacks In Paris, I Have Done The Same With The President Of France,[oliver] Hollande. Terrorism Threatens Us All.

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.

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

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

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

We Do Not Trade Territories Although Concluding A Peace Treaty With Japan Is Certainly A Key Issue And We Would Like To Find A Solution To This Problem Together With Our Japanese Friends.

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.

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.

There Are A Lot Of Hackers Today, You Know, And They Perform Their Work In Such A Filigreed And Delicate Manner And They Can Show Their "tracks" Anywhere And Anytime. It May Not Even Be A Track; They Can Cover Their Activity So That It Looks Like Hackers Operating From Other Territories, From Other Countries. It Is Hard To Check This Activity, Maybe Not Even Possible. Anyway, We Do Not Do That At The National Level.

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

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

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

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.

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".

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

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

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.

Policies Are Being Pursued That Place On The Same Level A Multi-child Family And A Same-sex Partnership, A Faith In God And A Belief In Satan. This Is The Path To Degradation.

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.

The Cold War Is Over. The World Has Become Much More Complicated.

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.

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.

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.

The Ability To Compromise Is Not A Diplomatic Politeness Toward A Partner But Rather Taking Into Account And Respecting Your Partner's Legitimate Interests.

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

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.

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

Russians Have Different Far Lofty Ambitions; More Of A Spiritual Kind. It's More About Your Relationship With God .

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

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Donald Trump Is A Brilliant And Talented Person, Without A Doubt.

We Handed Over Nothing, Those Territories [tarabarov Island To China] Were Disputed And We Have Been Negotiating This Issue With The People's Republic Of China, Let Me Stress That, For 40 Years, And Finally Managed To Come To An Agreement. One Part Of The Territory Was Assigned To Russia, While Another Part - To The People's Republic Of China.

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

We Cannot Decide For The American People.

Challenging American Leadership Is Not At Stake.

American Leadership

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

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.

Judo Has Been Part Of Japanese Culture For A Long Time. It Makes Sense To Me That This Sport, Which Is Both Athletic And Philosophical, Was Created In Japan. It Is Based On Respect For The Partner And For Our Elders As Our Teachers, Which Is Very Important And Makes A Strong, Positive Contribution To Human Relationships, And Not Only In Sports. I Am Happy That Life Brought Me To This Wonderful Sport As A Child. It Is Like My First Love.

However, Given The Fact That The State Has A Controlling Stake In The Company [rosneft], It Might Not Be The Best Course Of Action When One Company Under State Control Buys Another One Fully Owned By The State. This Is One Point.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I Think That A Person Cannot Be Criminally Or Otherwise Prosecuted, His Or Her Rights Cannot Be Infringed Upon The Grounds Of Nationality, Ethnicity Or Sexual Orientation In The Modern World. It Is Absolutely Unacceptable. And It Is Not The Case In Russia.

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.

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

The Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction Also Represents A Serious Danger. If These Weapons Were To Fall Into The Hands Of Terrorists, And They Pursue This Aim, The Consequences Would Be Simply Disastrous.

Mass Destruction

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

I Am Very Grateful To Our People Who Appreciate My Work And For Their Support, As Without That Support It Would Have Been Impossible To Get Anything Done.

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

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.

Europe And The United States Are Not The Whole World.

Iraq Is A Small But Very Proud Nation.

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.

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

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

The Central Bank Should Take Into Account Other Things As Well: The Stability Of The Bank System In The Country, The Increase Or Decrease Of Money Supply In The Economy, Its Influence On Inflation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We Should Not Forget Either About The Interests Of The Regular Consumers Who Need The Prices In Supermarkets To Be A Little Bit Lower.

How Was Kosovo Recognized? They Forgot About The Territorial Integrity Of A State, As Well As Un Security Council Resolution 1244, Which They Had Themselves Adopted And Supported. Why Could It Have Been Done There, But Not In Abkhazia And South Ossetia? Why Not?

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

One Thing Is Clear, Everyone, No Matter What Their Professional Or Material Status, No Matter What Their Influence On Various State Structures, Must Obey The Law.

Some Countries Have A Parliamentary Republic, Some Are Presidential Republics And Some Are Still Monarchies, But No One Sees Them As Not Being Democratic. In Some Countries Regional Leaders Are Appointed From The Centre And In Others They Are Elected. In Russia, The President Is Elected Through Direct Secret Ballot, And In The United States, The President Is Elected Through A System Of Electoral Colleges.

In 1995, Russia Virtually Gave Chechnya De Facto Statehood And Independence Even Though, De Jure, It Didn't Recognize Chechnya As An Independent State. And I Would Like To Emphasize Strongly That Russia Withdrew All Of Its Troops, We Moved The Prosecutors, We Moved All The Police, Dismantled All The Courts, Completely, 100 Percent.

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.

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

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.

An Increase Of Two Or Three Degrees Wouldn't Be So Bad For A Northern Country Like Russia. We Could Spend Less On Fur Coats, And The Grain Harvest Would Go Up.

I Hope That Being In Places From The [shinzo Abe] Prime Minister's Past Will Motivate Us To Have A Sincere, Very Practical And, I Hope, Productive Conversation.

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.

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.

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

Authoritarianism

Authoritarian Government

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!

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.

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.

We Have Created Islands, Small Islands Of Power, But We Have Not Built A Bridge Between Those Islands, .. The Center And The Territories, Regional And Local Authorities Are Still Competing With Each Other, Competing For Power. Those Who Take Advantage Of Disorder And Arbitrary Rule Are Watching Their Mutually Destructive Fight.

In Russia All People Enjoy The Equal Rights, Including Homosexuals.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I Am The Wealthiest Man, Not Just In Europe, But In The Whole World. I Collect Emotions.

Greatest Wealth

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.

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.

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.

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

The Us Wants To Subdue Russia, To Solve Us Problems At Russia's Expense. No One In History Ever Managed To Do This To Russia, And No One Ever Will.

This Terrible Tragedy.... The Entire International Community Should Unite In The Struggle Against Terrorism This Is A Blatant Challenge To Humanity.

It's Better Not To Argue With Women.

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

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

Donald Trump Is Targeting The Traditional Republican Voters, The Average Person With An Average Income, The Working Class, A Certain Group Of Entrepreneurs And Those People Who Embrace Traditional Values.

I'm Convinced That A Person In My Position Must Provide A Positive Example To People.

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.

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

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

However, The 1956 Agreement Refers To Two Islands While The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] Is Talking About Four Islands.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

Trending Author

Vinny Guadagnino

Courtney Thorne Smith

Category