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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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The Constitutional Reform Is

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

I Do Not Want To Answer Provocative Question.

There Are Many Other Areas. And I Am Confident That Each Of Them Is Of Interest To Both The People Of The United States Of America And The Russian People.

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.

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.

Russia Does Not Want Confrontation Of Any Kind. And We Will Not Take Part In Any Kind Of 'holy Alliance.'

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

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

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.

There Are Enough Forces In The World That Are Afraid Of Our Strength, “our Hugeness,” As One Of Our Sovereigns Said. So, They Seek To Divide Us Into Parts, This Is A Well-known Fact. Look At What They Did With Yugoslavia: They Cut It Into Small Pieces And Are Now Manipulating Everything That Can Be Manipulated There, Which Is Almost Anything. Apparently, Someone Would Like To Do The Same With Us...

We 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.

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.

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.

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.

Any Attention To Them (terrorists) On The Part Of The Media, Any Double-standard Interpretation Of Their Motives And Results Of Their Activity Means Nothing But A Political And Administrative Support Of Terrorist Acts

How Can A Bureaucrat Or A Politician Be Trusted If He Says Loud Words For The Sake Of Russia's Good While Trying To Take His Funds, His Money Abroad?

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].

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.

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

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.

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

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

We Were In Negotiations, But Then The Japanese Side Suspended Them Unilaterally. Now, At The Request Of Our Japanese Partners, We Have Reopened These Talks.

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

The Participants Expressed Anxiety About The Problems The Defense Ministry Had Been Meeting In Realizing Its Plans For Future Development.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Cuban Missile Crisis

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!

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

I Think Happiness Is Love.

Russia Is A Very Reliable And Big Market. I Don't Remember The Figure But, For Example, The German Machine-building Industry Has Been Increasing Its Supplies To Russia Every Year. These Supplies Are Huge. Does Someone Want To Discontinue These Supplies? We'll Buy From Somebody Else.

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

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

However, There Is A Fundamental Difference Between The Issue Related To Japan's History And Our Negotiations With China. What Is It All About? The Japanese Issue Resulted From World War Ii And Is Stipulated In The International Instruments On The Outcomes Of World War Ii, While Our Discussions On Border Issues With Our Chinese Counterparts Have Nothing To Do With World War Ii Or Any Other Military Conflicts. This Is The First, Or Rather, I Should Say, The Second Point.

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

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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.

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

The Period Of My Service Will Depend On Two Conditions. Firstly, Of Course, There Are Rules Stipulated By The Constitution, And I Surely Will Not Infringe Them. But I Am Not Sure Whether I Should Take Full Advantage Of These Constitutional Rights. It Will Depend On The Specific Situation In The Country, In The World And My Own Feelings About It.

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

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

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

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

The United Nations Remains The Sole Universal International Organisation Designed To Maintain Global Peace. And In This Sense It Has No Alternative Today. It Is Also Apparent That It Should Adapt To The Ever-changing World, Which We Discuss All The Time: How It Should Evolve And At What Rate, Which Components Should Undergo Qualitative Changes. Of Course, I Will Have To Or Rather Should Use This International Platform To Explain Russia's Vision Of Today's International Relations, As Well As The Future Of This Organisation And The Global Community.

Love For One's Motherland Is One Of The Most Powerful And Uplifting Feelings. It Manifested Itself In Full In The Brotherly Support To The People Of Crimea And Sevastopol, When They Resolutely Decided To Return Home, This Event Will Remain A Very Important Epoch In Domestic History Forever.

Contractors Always Pursue Large Profit, The Customer - A High-quality End Product In Due Time And At A Lower Cost. This Struggle Never Ends, But This Is Natural.

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].

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.

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.

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.

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

Now We Are Talking About Concluding A Free Trade Agreement Between The Eurasian Economic Council, Recently Established In The Post-soviet Space, And China. A Similar Agreement Was Concluded A Short Time Ago With Vietnam. Then, We Will Coordinate, At Least We Are Ready To Do This, The Chinese Concept Of The Silk Road Economic Belt With Our Newly-created Regional Organisation. So, Do You Understand How Diverse, Multi-faceted And Deep Russian-chinese Ties Have Become Over The Last Couple Of Decades? And We Resolved The Border Issue.

There Are 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.

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.

In The 1990s And Early 2000s, There Was A Grave Social Situation In Russia; Our Social Protection System Was Destroyed; Numerous Problems Emerged Which We Have Not Been Able To Cope With Effectively Yet, To Get Rid Of Them, In Health, Sports Development.

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.

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

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

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

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.

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

Now We Characterise Russian-chinese Relations As A Strategic Partnership, Even A Special Strategic Partnership. We Have Never Had Such A Level Of Trust With China Before. China Is Our Major Trade And Economic Partner Among Foreign States. We Implement Joint Multi-billion Projects. We Cooperate Not Only Within The Un Security Council, Which Is Logical, As Both China And Russia Are Permanent Members Of The Un Security Council, But Also Within Such Regional Organisations As The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Brics, Etc.

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.

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

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

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

We Are Ready To Meet [with Donald Trump] At Any Time, This Is No Problem For Us, But I Believe We Should Be Patient And Wait For The Complicated Process Of Forming The New Administration To Be Complete.

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 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.

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

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.

The West's Sanctions Are Not Aimed At Helping Ukraine, But At Geo-politically Pushing Russia Back. They Are Foolish And Are Merely Harming Both Sides.

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

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.

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

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

There Is No Uniform, Global Model For Democracy.

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.

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.

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.

My English Is Very Bad.

I Trust Angela Merkel, She Is A Very Open Person. She Is Also Subject To Certain Constraints And Limitations. But She Is Honestly Trying To Settle The Crisis, Also In The South-east Of Ukraine. However, What The European Union Is Doing With Those Sanctions Is Nothing But A Theatre Of The Absurd.

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

We Are Currently Gradually Stabilizing Our Economy.

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

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

I Do Not Even Know Where Bill Clinton Delivered His Speech And I Know Nothing About Any Funds. Both Parties Simply Use It As A Tool In Their Internal Political Contention, And I Am Sure It Is A Bad Thing. But Again, We Welcome The Fact That Somebody Expresses Readiness To Work With Russia Whatever The Name Of That Person.

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.

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

Our Aims Are Absolutely Clear: They Are A High Living Standard In The Country And A Secure, Free And Comfortable Life.

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 Believe That The Presidential Term Should Be Limited.

We Have Established The Customs Union And The Eurasian Economic Union Not By Force, But Through A Compromise. It Was A Challenging, Complicated, Multi-year Process Based On Agreement, Compromise And Mutually Acceptable Conditions In The Hope Of Creating For Our Economies And For Our People Better Competitive Advantages In The World Markets And In The World As A Whole.

Kodokan Is, To A Large Degree, A Trendsetter In The Sport. This School Trained Outstanding Masters And Is A Kind Of Mecca For All Judokas. Certainly, I Would Be Pleased To Visit, If Time Permits.

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.

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

Thank God, I Think No One Is Thinking Of Unleashing A Large-scale Conflict With Russia. I Want To Remind You That Russia Is One Of The Leading Nuclear Powers.

Today's Meeting Was Extremely Important And Brought Exceptional Results, ... The Talks Have Shown That The Long-term National And Geopolitical Interests Of Russia And India Coincide.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

This Issue Is Not Economic But Political. I Hope That All Market Participants Interested In Maintaining Stable And Reasonable World Energy Prices Will Finally Make The Right Decision.

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.

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

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.

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.

I Have Criticized It [europe], But I Repeat: We Keep 40 Percent Of Our Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Euros, We Are Not Interested In The Collapse Of The Eurozone, But I Do Not Rule Out The Possibility Of Decisions Being Made That Would Consolidate A Group Of Countries Equal In Economic Development And This, In My Opinion, Will Lead To A Consolidation Of The Euro. But There Can Also Be Some Interim Decisions In Order To Keep The Present Number Of Members Of The Eurozone Unchanged.

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

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.

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

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

There Can Be No Democracy Without Observing The Law And Everyone Must Observe It - That Is The Most Basic And Important Thing That We All Should Remember.

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.

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.

[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.

It Has Nothing To Do With Any Kind Of Exchange Or Sale [of Kuril Island To Japan]. It Is About The Search For A Solution When Neither Party Would Be At A Disadvantage, When Neither Party Would Perceive Itself As Conquered Or Defeated.

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

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

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 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?

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

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.

At The Same Time We Receive Different Signals All Around That In Fact, Everything Is Fine. The Same Situation Occurred With The Previous Administrations During The Election Campaigns, Claims That Everything Will Be Restored Later. I Do Not Think It Matches The Level Of Responsibility Shouldered By The United States. I Suppose It Should Be More Sound, Calm And Balanced.

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.

Chess Makes Man Wiser And Clear-sighted.

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.

Terrorists Are Always A Threat To Someone. If We'll Be Scared Of Them, It Means They Have Won. But That Doesn't Mean We Can Have A Devil-may-care Attitude Toward This Threat. We Must Do Everything To Stop These Threats And Not Give The Terrorists A Single Chance To Demonstrate Their Brutality And Hatred Of Mankind.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

We Ask That (other Countries) Do Not Interfere In Our Regulation.

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.

Europe And The United States Are Not The Whole World.

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

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

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.

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".

Japan Announced That It Would Not Comply With This Declaration [ 1956]. Later On, The Soviet Union Also Declared That The Declaration Could Not Be Fulfilled Unilaterally, By The Ussr Alone.

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

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

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.

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

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

We Should Cooperate Much More Closely In Fighting Terrorism, Which Is A Great Challenge.

South Korea's Investment In Russia Has Not Been Smooth, ... Korea Had Planned To Carry Out 126 Investment Projects Worth 273 Million, But In Reality, Only 91 Projects Worth 137 Million Are Under Way.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I Am Never Guided By A Possible Assessment Of My Work.

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.

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.

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.

The Prime Minister [shinzō Abe] Also Highlighted The Need To Address General Humanitarian Issues. We Already Mentioned One Of These Issues: Visa-free Travel By Japanese Citizens To The South Kuril Islands.

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

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.

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.

Russian Culture Is Multifaceted And Diverse. So If You Want To Understand, To Feel Russia, Then Of Course You Need To Read Books, Tolstoy And Chekhov And Gogol And Others. Listen To Music. Tchaikovsky. Watch Our Classical Ballet. But The Most Important Thing Is That You Need To Talk With People.

It Is A Major World Power, And Today It Is An Economic And Military Leader - No Doubt About It. That Is Why America Has A Strong Influence On The Situation In The World In General.

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

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

If We Act Together Along These Lines, We Will Create Conditions, The Conditions For Trust That Shinzō Abe Speaks About, So As To Take Another Step And Conclude A Peace Treaty On Certain Terms. However, First, It Is Essential To Cover This Part Of The Way And Then Agree On The Terms For Signing A Peace Treaty. Both Are Challenging Tasks But They Are Feasible.

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.

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.

No Matter Who Uses Chemical Weapons Against People And Organisations, The International Community Must Formulate A Common Policy And Find A Solution That Would Make The Use Of Such Weapons Impossible For Anyone.

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

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

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

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

Russian Economy

I 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.

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