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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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They Say That Pyotr

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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There Are Complicated Processes Going On In Society In The Crimea. There Are Problems Of The Crimean Tatars, The Ukrainian Population, The Russian Population, The Slavic Population In General, But This Is Ukraine's Domestic Political Problem.

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

Spying Has Always Gone On Since Ancient Times.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Everyone Must Hoe His Plot Daily.

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

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

I Keep [portraits Of Jigoro Kano And A Bust] At Home, In My Residence, Where I Live Permanently. It's A Very Good, High-quality Work By A Russian Sculptor, Depicting Not Just A Strong-willed But Also Thoughtful And Kind Man.

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

[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.

The Un Platform Was Created Precisely For This, To Seek Compromise, To Communicate With One Another. So It Will Definitely Be Nice If We Make Use Of This Platform.

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

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.

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.

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.

Oil Production, Energy Production Are Growing, Though The Latter Has Gone Down By About 1 Percent Here, I Believe... By The Way, We Occupy The First Place In The World In Gas Export, Accounting For 20 Percent Of The World Market. We Are Also First In The Sphere Of Liquid Hydrocarbons Export.

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.

Iraq Is A Small But Very Proud Nation.

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.

President Obama And I Can Meet, Shake Hands And Discuss Current Issues, We - And I Am Personally - Are Always Ready For Such Contacts.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 Think That Rather Than Talking About Particular Models, Of Which There Could Be A Huge Number, We Should Talk About Basic Principles Of Democracy. After All, Even Within The West, There Is No Single Standard And Single Model.

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

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.

We All Want At Renewal Of Our Dialogue And Restoration Of Our Relations With Turkey In The Interests Of Russian And Turkish Peoples.

It Is Impossible To Solve Health Problems Of Millions Of People With The Help Of Pills. People Need To Put It Into Practice, Have Passion For It; Healthy Lifestyle, Fitness And Sports Should Become Fashionable.

It Is Very Difficult To Enter A Single Currency Zone Having Fairly Weak Economic Parameters And Maintain A Favourable State Of The Economy, Not To Mention Positive Growth Rates. We Have Witnessed It Not Only In Europe, But For Example In Argentina (nearly 10 Years Ago Or More), When They Tied The National Currency To The Dollar And Later They Did Not Know What To Do About It.

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.

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

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The Absence Of A Peace Treaty [with Japan] Is An Anachronism We Inherited From The Past And It Must Be Removed. However, How To Do This Is A Complicated Issue.

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

Our Economy Has Become Completely Different, On The Whole. The Size Has Changed. The Economy Has Almost Doubled In Size. And The Quality Is Changing, Not As Fast As We Would Like It To, But The Structure Is Changing. Our Armed Forces Are Completely Different Today From What They Were, Say 15 Years Ago Or So. All Of This, Including Our Great History, Great Culture, All Of This, Not Just What We See Today, Is What Makes The Vast Majority Of Russia's Citizens Feel Proud For Their Country.

The 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.

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Collecting Information

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

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Mass Destruction

No One Doubts That Poison Gas Was Used In Syria. But There Is Every Reason To Believe It Was Used, Not By The Syrian Army, But By Opposition Forces To Provoke Intervention By Their Powerful Foreign Patrons, Who Would Be Siding With The Fundamentalists.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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.

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

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.

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

In Some Cases, I Would Not Want Us To Follow Their [donald Trump And Hillary Clinton] Pattern. I Do Not Believe They Are Setting The Best Example.

This Is The Political Culture Of The United States, Which One Should Accept As Is. The United States Is A Great Country And It Deserves Non-interference And No Third-party Comments.

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

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

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Economic Crimes Are Complex In Nature, Difficult To Untangle, And They Must Be Investigated According To The Procedures Set By The Law.

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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.

Japan Has Joined The Sanctions Against The Russian Federation. How Are We Going To Further Economic Relations On A New And Much Higher Basis, At A Higher Level Under The Sanctions Regime?

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.

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

Russia Will Not Take Part In Any Field Operations On The Territory Of Syria Or In Other States; At Least, We Do Not Plan It For Now. But We Are Thinking Of How To Intensify Our Work Both With President Al-assad And Our Partners In Other Countries.

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.

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

They Act As They Please: Here And There, They Use Force Against Sovereign States, Building Coalitions Based On The Principle 'if You Are Not With Us, You Are Against Us.' To Make This Aggression Look Legitimate, They Force The Necessary Resolutions From International Organizations, And If For Some Reason This Does Not Work, They Simply Ignore The Un Security Council And The Un Overall.

The European Union's Enlargement Is Part Of The Natural Process Of Integration And Globalisation That Is Underway In The World Today.

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.

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

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

I Do Not Know Whether The Government Will Be Able To Get Ready To Conduct This Transaction Together With The Management Of Rosneft Itself, Whether The Appropriate Strategic Investors Will Be Found. And I Believe It Is About Such Investors That We Should Talk. But We Are Getting Ready, And It Is In The Current Year That We Are Planning To Do This.

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.

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

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

However, Crisis In World Trade Is, Among Other Things, The Result Of Using Political Tools In Competition Or Simply For Achieving Political Objectives With The Help Of Economic Restrictions.

Some Western Politicians Are Already Threatening Us With Not Just Sanctions, But Also The Prospect Of Increasingly Serious Problems On The Domestic Front. I Would Like To Know What It Is They Have In Mind Exactly: Action By A Fifth Column, This Disparate Bunch Of 'national Traitors', Or Are They Hoping To Put Us In A Worsening Social And Economic Situation So As To Provoke Public Discontent? We Consider Such Statements Irresponsible And Clearly Aggressive In Tone, And We Will Respond To Them Accordingly.

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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

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

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.

We Have Spoken On Many Occasions Of The Need To Achieve High Economic Growth As An Absolute Priority For Our Country. The Annual Address For 2003 Set For The First Time The Goal Of Doubling Gross Domestic Product Within A Decade.

If One Looks At The Map Of The World, It's Difficult To Find Iraq, And One Would Think It Rather Easy To Subdue Such A Small Country.

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

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.

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

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.

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].

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

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 Wish That In The Course Of My Visit To Places The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] Calls Home, All Of A Sudden, We Would Reach A Clear Understanding On How We Can Resolve The Matters. We Will Be Very Glad If That Happens. Are There Any Chances? Perhaps.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Today, Terrorism Threatens A Great Number Of States, A Great Number Of People - Hundreds Of Thousands, Millions Of People Suffer From Its Criminal Activity. And We All Face The Task Of Joining Our Efforts In The Fight Against This Common Evil.

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

A Very Interesting And Promising Cluster Has Formed Here [in The Russian Far East ], And We Would Be Happy If Our Potential Investors, Our Counterparts From Abroad, First Of All Those From The Asia-pacific Region, Knew More About It.

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.

It Is A Fact That The Us Defence Budget Is Larger Than The Defence Budgets Of All Other Countries Taken Together. This Is Why I Understand The Us President When He Says That His Nato Allies Should Take Over Part Of This Burden. It Is A Pragmatic And Understandable Approach.

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

Radicals Can Be Found In Any Environment.

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

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

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

Then, The Specialists Themselves, Probably Believe That In The Course Of Eu Expansion, For Example, Some Elements Concerning The Readiness Of Some Economies To Enter The Eurozone Have Not Been Taken Into Account.

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.

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

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.

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

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.

Though We Still Come First In The Sphere Of Gas Export, National Production Has Diminished Due To The Increasing Volumes Of Hydrogenation For The Electric Power Industry And Therefore There Is A Lower Need For Gas At Thermal Power Plants.

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

We Must Seek Support In The Moral Values That Have Ensured The Progress Of Our Civilization. Honesty And Hard Work, Responsibility And Faith In Our Strength Are Bound To Bring Us Success. There Should Be No Place For Despondency. The Crisis Can And Must Be Fought By Uniting Our Intellectual, Spiritual And Material Resources.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 Remember My Very First Encounter With Japan. At That Time, I Was Deputy Mayor Of St Petersburg. Out Of Nowhere, Japan's Consul General In St Petersburg Came To My Office And Said Japan's Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Wanted To Invite Me To Japan. I Was Very Surprised Because I Had Nothing To Do With Japan Except Being A Judoka. This Was An Opportunity To Visit Tokyo And A Couple Of Other Cities. And, You Know, A Capital Is A Capital Everywhere: There Is The Official Script And Certain Protocol. It Is Always Easier To Talk In The Provinces, The Conversation Is More Natural.

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.

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.

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.

I Know Very Well About The Necessary Level Of Reserves Of The Central Bank As Well As The Purpose.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

If You Want To Become An Islamic Radical And Have Yourself Circumcised, I Invite You To Come To Moscow... I Would Recommend That He Who Does The Surgery Does It So You'll Have Nothing Growing Back Afterward.

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 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.

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".

It's A Historical Phenomenon That In 250 Years, A Nation Could Move From A Colony Into The Most Prosperous Nation Of The World And The Leader Of The World. It Is Indeed An Achievement, A Tribute To The Talent Of The American Nation, The American People And An Optimal Political And Economic System.

I Hope That There Will Be No Particular Need For Us To Attract External Funding. It Is Worth Noting That Despite The Fact The Turnover Is Smaller Now We Are Still Maintaining A Trade Surplus.

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.

I'm An Adult And I Know What Power Means In The Modern World. In The Modern World, Power Is Mainly Defined By Such Factors As The Economy, Defence And Cultural Influence. I Believe That In Terms Of Defence, Russia Is Without Any Doubt One Of The Leaders Because We Are A Nuclear Power And Our Nuclear Weapons Are Perhaps The Best In The World.

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.

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.

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.

America's Development Began With A Large-scale Ethnic Cleansing, Unprecedented In Human History.

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

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

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

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

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.

I Assume That Our Colleagues From Both The United States And The European Union Will Proceed From Current Humanitarian Law And Ensure Political Freedoms And Rights Of All People, Including Those Who Are Living In The Territory Of Baltic States After The Disintegration Of The Soviet Union.

We Want Full-scale Normalisation Of Relations [with Japan].

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.

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

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.

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

We Will Work With Any Administration And With Any President In Whom The American People Have Placed Their Trust. That Is, Of Course, If They Wish To Cooperate With Russia.

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.

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.

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

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].

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

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

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

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

I Believe That Meetings At The Top Level In A Relatively Informal Atmosphere Are Always Useful, And There Is Reason To Hope That We Will Make Progress In Resolving The Matters We Will Be Considering.

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

How Long Has It Taken The Democratic Process To Develop In The United States? Since It Was Founded. So, Do You Think That As Regards Democracy Everything Is Settled Now In America? If This Were So, There Would Be No Ferguson Issue, Right? There Would Be No Other Issues Of Similar Kind, There Would Be No Police Abuse. Our Goal Is To See All These Issues And Respond To Them Timely And Properly. The Same Applies To Russia. We Also Have A Lot Of Problems.

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

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.

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.

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.

Here Is An Example: While Resolving Current Issues, Our American Colleagues Made A Proposal On The Syrian Settlement But Then Suddenly Declared At The Un That They Were Not Going To Discuss Anything With Us. It Is Necessary To Understand What People Want In One Department Versus Another Department Of The United States. Do They Have A Common Position? And This Happened Many Times On Very Many Areas Of Our Cooperation.

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

The Democratic Choice Russian People Made In The Early 90's Is Final.

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

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 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.

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