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This Gentleman Has Taken On The Very Fashionable Theme Of Fighting Corruption And I Say Again: In Order To Fight Corruption You Have To Be Crystal Clear Yourself. But There Are Problems Here, And In This Regard I Unfortunately Have A Suspicion That This Is Just A Way Of Getting Votes And Not A Genuine Desire To Solve The Problem.

-Vladimir Putin

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This Gentleman Has Taken

Vladimir Putin

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This Gentleman Has Taken On The Very Fashionable Theme Of Fighting Corruption And I Say Again: In Order To Fight Corruption You Have To Be Crystal Clear Yourself. But There Are Problems Here, And In This Regard I Unfortunately Have A Suspicion That This Is Just A Way Of Getting Votes And Not A Genuine Desire To Solve The Problem.

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More From Vladimir Putin

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.

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

Chess Makes Man Wiser And Clear-sighted.

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

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

There Is No Other Way To Settle The Syrian Conflict Other Than By Strengthening The Existing Legitimate Government Agencies, Support Them In Their Fight Against Terrorism And, Of Course, At The Same Time Encourage Them To Start A Positive Dialogue With The "healthy" Part Of The Opposition And Launch Political Transformations.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Without Russia's Contribution, Prices Would Rise Even More. Some Members Of The Eu Meet 90% Of Their Demands For Gas With The Help Of Russian Hydrocarbons And Have No Complaints So Far. Everybody Is Happy. Russia Is A Reliable Partner And Has Never Failed Her Partners In Europe, Even In The Hardest Times Of Its Economic Development.

Boris Nemtsov, Left His Mark On The History Of Russia, In Politics And Public Life. He Worked On Important Positions In The Difficult Transition Period For Our Country. He Always Openly And Honestly Stated His Position, Defended His Point Of View.

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.

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

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

Authoritarianism

Authoritarian Government

Nobody And Nothing Will Stop Russia On The Road To Strengthening Democracy And Ensuring Human Rights And Freedoms.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Nato Remains A Military Alliance, And We Are Against Having A Military Alliance Making Itself At Home Right In Our Own Backyard; In Our Historic Territory. I Simply Cannot Imagine That We Would Travel To Sevastopol To Visit Nato Sailors. Of Course, Most Of Them Are Wonderful Guys, But It Would Be Better To Have Them Come And Visit Us, Be Our Guests, Rather Than The Other Way Round.

As Regards Humanitarian Issues And How To Handle Them, That Was The Prime Minister's [shinzō Abe] Initiative. He Brought The Matter Up At Our Last Meeting In Lima And Asked Me Straightforwardly Whether We Would Agree To Let Japanese Citizens Travel On A Visa-free Basis, Resolve The Issue In Such A Way As To Enable Them To Visit The South Kurils, Visit Their Native Areas. I Said At Once That It Was Quite Possible.

We Are Expanding And Improving The Infrastructure Of Our Relations. You Must Have Heard About China's Plans To Participate In Building A High-speed Railway Line Between Moscow And Kazan In The Volga Region, In Central Russia. And Then We Plan To Extend It To Kazakhstan And On To China.

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.

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

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

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

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

There Are Some Gestures, Of Course, That You Can Only Interpret One Way, But No One Has Ever Seen Those Kinds Of Gestures Directed By Obama At Me Or By Me At Obama, And I Hope That Never Happens. Everything Else Is Fantasy.

We Believe In The Fundamental Principles Of The European Economy.

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.

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.

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 Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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.

If Britain Pursues A More Independent Foreign Policy, It Might Be Possible Then. And If It Is Guided By Commitments To Its Allies And Considers This To Be Of A Bigger National Interest Than Its Cooperation With Russia, So Be It.

History Proves That All Dictatorships, All Authoritarian Forms Of Government Are Transient. Only Democratic Systems Are Not Transient. Whatever The Shortcomings, Mankind Has Not Devised Anything Superior.

Notably, It Was Only Possible [ Negotiating On The Tarabarov Island], And This Is Very Important, Due To The High Level Of Trust Russia And China Reached In Their Relations By That Time. If We Reach The Same Level Of Trust With Japan, We Might Be Able To Reach Certain Compromises.

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.

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.

I Am In Regular Contact With Prime Minister [shinzo] Abe. We Have Met Several Times This Year [2016].

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Look, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Most European Countries, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Japan, There Is Parliamentary Democracy In Many Countries, But In The United States, For Some Reason, The State Is Organized Differently, There Is Quite A Stringent Presidential Republic.

It Is Well Known That Homosexuality Is A Criminal Offense In The United States, In Four Us States. If It Is Good Or Bad, We Know The Decision Of The Constitutional Court, But This Problem Has Not Been Dealt With Yet, It Is Still Being Addressed By The Legislation Of The United States. This Is Not The Case In Russia.

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

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even If States Sometimes Have Problems With Each Other, Arts And Sports Should Not Suffer From That. Arts And Sports Are There To Bring The People Together - And Not To Divide Them.

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

[yasuhiro] Yamashita Is A Respected Judo Master Not Only In Japan But Across The World. To Me, He Is An Example Of An Outstanding Athlete And A Very Good Man.

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.

Nuclear Weapons And Other Weapons Are The Means To Protect Our Sovereignty And Legitimate Interests, Not The Means To Behave Aggressively Or To Fulfil Some Non-existent Imperial Ambitions.

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.

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

This, For Instance, Is What Egon Bahr Said On June 26, 1990: "if We Do Not Now Undertake Clear Steps To Prevent A Division Of Europe, This Will Lead To Russia's Isolation."bahr, A Wise Man, Had A Very Concrete Suggestion As To How This Danger Could Be Averted.

One Of Our Objectives Today Is Very Important For Many People, For Millions Of People On Our Planet - It Is Joining Efforts In The Fight Against Terrorism And Other Similar Challenges: Countering Drug Trafficking And Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Fighting Famine, Preserving Environment And Biodiversity, Taking Efforts To Make The World More Predictable, More Stable.

Mass Destruction

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.

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

I Am A Human Being, A Citizen Of The Russian Federation, A Russian.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

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.

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

You Can Do A Lot More With Weapons And Politeness Than Just Politeness.

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

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

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.

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

It Is Clear That The International Community Has No Other Universal Organisation Of The Likes Of The United Nations.

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?

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

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?

I Would Like To Say, You Know, That, Unfortunately, We Have Many Unresolved Problems. But A Great Number Of People In Russia Know Japan And Love Japan, And I Am Sure That Eventually We Will Resolve All Our Problems.

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.

When We Talk About The Far East We Usually Mean The Far East Itself, Including Primorye Territory, Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka, And Chukotka, As Well As Eastern Siberia. All This Area Contains Tremendous Resources, Including Oil And Gas, 90 Percent Of Russian Tin, 30 Percent Of Russian Gold, 35 Percent Of Forest, 70 Percent Of Russia's Fish Is Harvested In The Local Waters.

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.

Respecting The Sovereignty Means Preventing Coups, Unconstitutional Actions And Illegitimate Overthrowing Of The Legitimate Government. All These Things Should Be Totally Prevented.

Nowadays, There Are Plans To Separate The Baltic States From The Common Power System Of The Former Soviet Union And To Integrate Them Into The European System. What Does It Mean For Us In Practice? In Practice, It Means That A Number Of Zones Will Emerge Between Several Regions Of The Russian Federation, Where We Will Have No Power Transmission Lines, Since Previously We Used To Have A Loop Transition Through The Baltic Countries.

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

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 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.

If There Were Any In China And Russia In This Connection, Though We Both Made Some Compromises. But These Were Compromises Between Friendly Countries. I Think It Is Almost Impossible To Achieve Such Compromise In Other Ways.

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

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

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.

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.

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

We 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.

There Is Another Domain That We Consider Relevant And Having Good Prospects - Marine Biology. For Many Years This Region [russian Far East] Has Been Home For One Of The Leading Institutes Of The Russian Academy Of Sciences, The Institute Of Marine Biology.

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

Cuban Missile Crisis

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

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.

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 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.

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

The United Nations' Founders Understood That Decisions Affecting War And Peace Should Happen Only By Consensus, And With America's Consent, The Veto By Security Council Permanent Members Was Enshrined In The United Nations Charter. The Profound Wisdom Of This Has Underpinned The Stability Of International Relations For Decades.

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

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.

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.

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.

International Terrorists Who Pursue Completely Mad Objectives Such As Establishing A World Caliphate Or Something Of The Sort, Are Quite Adept At Disguising Their Real Aims As A Struggle For Independence In Chechnya.

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

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

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

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

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.

As A Rule, [populism] Is Done For The Sake Of Political Expediency By Those Who Do Not Care About The Consequences, Who Do Not Think Even One Step Ahead, Who Do Not Want To Think And Do Not Intend To Honour Their Commitments.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Under The International Agreements, The Russian Peacekeepers Are Committed To Protect The Population Of South Ossetia.

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.

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.

Nothing Matters For A Drastic Change In Ukraine More Than Political Transformations.

I Think Happiness Is Love.

In 2009, Us President [barack] Obama Said That The Missile Defense Only Serves As Protection From Iranian Nuclear Missiles. But Now There Is An International Treaty With Iran That Bans Tehran From Developing A Potential Military Nuclear Project.

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

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.

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

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

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

In 2000 The Then Prime Minister Of Japan [yoshirō Mori] Asked Me To Return To This Process, This Conversation, These Talks, And To Do So, Incidentally, On The Basis Of The 1956 Declaration. I Agreed. Since Then We Have Conducted Dialogue In This Regard But I Cannot Say That Our Japanese Partners And Friends Have Remained Within The Limits Of The 1956 Declaration.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

We Had A Very Good Situation In 2005. The Common Budget Had A Volume Of 80 Billion Dollars Per Year. Thousands Of Jobs Were Created In Germany By Russian Investments. At The Same Time, A Large Number Of German Companies Invested In Russia. There Were Countless Cultural And Social Contacts.

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.

Here We Have 40 Million Russian Citizens Involved In The Sphere Of Agriculture One Way Or Another. This Is Very Important.

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

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

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.

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.

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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.

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

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.

It Is Only Up To The Syrian People Living In Syria To Determine Who, How And Based On What Principles Should Rule Their Country, And Any External Advice Would Be Absolutely Inappropriate, Harmful And Against International Law.

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

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

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.

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.

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

We Act In A Pragmatic And Careful Manner. We Reduce Spending On Budget Items That Do Not Constitute A Priority.

Indeed, Russia And The U.s. Were Allies During The Two Tragic Conflicts Of The Second And The First World Wars, Which Allows Us To Think There's Something Objectively Bringing Us Together In Difficult Times, And I Think - I Believe - It Has To Do With Geopolitical Interests And Also Has A Moral Component.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

There Is Also A Huge Potential For Developing The Aviation And Space Industries. As You Might Have Noticed We Have Launched A New Russian Spaceport In One Of The Far Eastern Regions.

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.

Why Don't You Meet Osama Bin Laden, Invite Him To Brussels Or To The White House And Engage In Talks, Ask Him What He Wants And Give It To Him So He Leaves You In Peace?

Frankly Speaking, I Could Never Even Imagine That Such Information Would Be Of Interest To The American Public Or That The Campaign Headquarters Of One Of The Candidates - In This Case, Mrs. [hillary] Clinton - Apparently Worked For Her, Rather Than For All The Democratic Party Candidates In An Equal Manner. I Could Never Assume That Anybody Would Find It Interesting.

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

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

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".

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.

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

We Are Marking The Anniversary Of The Arctic Convoys.we Really Do Consider Members Of The Arctic Convoy To Be Heroes. This Is True. I Am Not Saying This As A Fashion Of Speech.

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

I Did Not Know That [ The Chancellor Angela Merkel Is A Bit Frightened Of Dogs]. I Wanted To Make Her Happy. When I Learned That She Does Not Like Dogs, I Apologized, Of Course.

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.

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.

Representatives Of The American Intelligence Agencies - And I Hope They Won't Be Angry - But They Could Have Been More Professional, And The Diplomats As Well. After They Found Out That He Was Flying To Us, And That He Was Flying As A Transit Passenger, There Was Pressure From All Sides - From The Americans, From The Europeans - Instead Of Just Letting Him Go To A Country Where They Could Operate Easily.

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.

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.

There Is No Uniform, Global Model For Democracy.

We Are Currently Gradually Stabilizing Our Economy.

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