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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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We Have Spoken On

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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More From Vladimir Putin

I Believe That A Country, Russia In This Case, Which Can Defend The Honour And Dignity Of Its Citizens, Protect Their Lives, And Fulfill Its International Legal Commitments Under The Peacekeeping Mandate, Will Not Find Itself In Isolation, No Matter What Our Partners In Europe Or The United States May Think, Expressing Their Bloc Mentality.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Everyone Must Hoe His Plot Daily.

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.

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 Have A Professional Relationship [with Chancellor Angela Merkel].2016 Is The Year Of The German-russian Youth Exchange, So The Relations Are Moving On.

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

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

For Me, It [crimea] Is Not Borders And State Territories That Matter, But People's Fortunes.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

This Is The Large Range Of Issues We Have To Discuss [with Shinzō Abe] And Make A Decision On Each One Of Them. Look, After The Resumption Of The Negotiating Process In 2000, We Did Not Refuse To Consistently Work Toward Signing This Peace Treaty.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

When You Start To Meet With Ordinary People You Understand That A Russian Person, Really Any Person From Russia, A Tatar, A Mordvin, A Chechen, A Dagestani, They Are Very Open People, Even A Little Naive. But There's One Defining Trait That Probably All Peoples Have, Although It Comes Out Especially Strongly In Us. That's A Drive Toward Fairness. It's One Of The Dominating, I Think, Traits In The Mentality Of A Person From Russia, A Russian Person.

I Have Never Changed. I Feel As Young As I Always Did And Remain Close Friends With Gerhard Schröder.

I'm Sure Corruption In Chechnya Is Minimal.

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.

Just Take Kosovo: Back Then, Un Bodies Decided That Kosovo Should Become Independent Of Serbia And That The Interests Of Serbia's Central Government Had To Be Subordinated. You Can Read That In All The Records, Also In The German Ones.

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.

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

Economic Sanctions

Russia Is An Ancient Country With Historical, Profound Traditions And A Very Powerful Moral Foundation. And This Foundation Is A Love For The Motherland And Patriotism. Patriotism In The Best Sense Of That Word. Incidentally, I Think That To A Certain Extent, To A Significant Extent, This Is Also Attributable To The American People.

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.

If European Countries Want To Cater To U.s. Foreign Policy Interests, I Don't Think That They Stand To Gain Anything.

I Consider The Decision Of My Colleagues And Friends To Be The Best Birthday Present.

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

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

Difficult Situations

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

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.

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.

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.

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

We 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

I Have Criticized Foreign Policy, But That Does Not Mean That We Should Agree With Everything. Indeed, We Criticize A Lot Of Things, We Think That Our Partners Make Many Mistakes [may Be We Make Mistakes Too, No One Is Immune To Making Mistakes], But As For The Economy, I Repeat That, In My Opinion, The European Commission And The Leading European Economies Are Acting Very Pragmatically And Are On The Right Path.

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

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Let Us Resolve The Internal Political Problems Of Russia Ourselves

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Not All G8 Members Take The View That Chemical Weapons Were In Fact Used By The Syrian Army. Some Actually Agree With Us That There Is No Proof.

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'll Be Honest, I Felt An Urge To Squeeze Him Like A Kitten And That Led To The Gesture I Made. There Was Nothing Behind It Really.

Only A Developed Society, For Example, Only A Strong Democratic System In Modern Conditions Can Create A Climate In Which Any Manifestation Of Terrorism Is Unacceptable And Can Also Make The State Itself Stronger.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mistakes Can Occur During Hostilities.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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].

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

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.

Given The Cost Of Borrowings And The $100 Billion In Government Reserves, There Is No Reason For Us To Borrow. We Should Review The Situation Carefully. Besides, Borrowings Are Possible, But We Must Understand What Is More Profitable At This Point.

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

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

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.

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

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

Presidents Come And Go, And Even Parties Come To And Away From Power. But The Main Policy Tack Does Not Change.

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.

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.

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

I Think That All Countries Of The Region Should Join Their Efforts In The Fight Against A Common Threat - Terrorism In General And Isis In Particular. It Concerns Iran As Well, It Concerns Saudi Arabia (although The Two Countries Do Not Get Along Very Well, Isis Threatens Both Of Them), It Concerns Jordan, It Concerns Turkey (in Spite Of Certain Problems Regarding The Kurdish Issue), And, In My Opinion, Everybody Is Interested In Resolving The Situation. Our Task Is To Join These Efforts To Fight Against A Common Enemy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I Believe That The Presidential Term Should Be Limited.

The Aviation Industry, Including Combat Air Force, Has Been Traditionally Developing Here. It Is The Russian Far East Where The Su Aircraft, Which Are Well Known Worldwide, Are Manufactured.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

After All, China Is Our Largest Trading Partner. As I Said, Country-wise, Russia Trades The Most With China. That Is My First Point.

If We Do It, If We Work To Achieve All This [cultural Exchange With Japan], We Can And Should Talk About Joint Efforts Toward Ensuring International Security, And Not Only In The Far East.

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.

Our Microeconomic Indicators Are Stable And It Gives Me Reason To Believe That We Will Calmly And Steadily Pass This Uneasy Period In Our Economy, Which Has Already No Doubt Adapted To The Current Situation.

Opposition Can Be Useful. Every Opposition Movement Is Good And Useful If It Acts Within The Law... If There Are People Who Act Outside The Law, Then The State Must Use Legal Means To Impose Law In The Interests Of The Majority. That's The Way It's Done In The U.s. And That's The Way It's Done In Russia.

My English Is Very Bad.

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 Are Natural Partners [with Japan] In The World And The Far East, But The Absence Of A Peace Treaty Does Not Allow Us To Develop The Full Range Of Our Relations. Therefore, We Will Naturally Strive To Sign This Treaty.

[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 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.

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.

Russia Had To Take The Necessary Measures In Order To Prevent The Situation In Crimea Unfolding The Way It Is Now Unfolding In Southeastern Ukraine. We Didn't Want Any Tanks, Any Nationalist Combat Units Or People With Extreme Views Armed With Automatic Weapons.

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.

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.

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

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

Therefore, I Do Not Think We Should Go Only 60 Years Back But Should Look Deeper, Centuries Back. Maybe This Will Give Us [russia And Japan] An Opportunity To Look At The Future From A More Remote Perspective.

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.

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 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.

I Have Always Thought And I Still Think That The Central Bank Should Act Independently. Indeed, It Does, You Can Take My Word. I Do Not Interfere In The Decisions Of The Central Bank And I Do Not Give Instructions To The Bank Management Or To Its Head.

Our Anti-crisis Policy Is Aimed At Supporting Domestic Demand, Providing Social Guarantees For The Population, And Creating New Jobs. Like Many Countries, We Have Reduced Production Taxes, Leaving Money In The Economy. We Have Optimised State Spending.

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.

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.

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

The Biggest Nationalist In Russia: That's Me.

The Far East Is Of Particular Significance For Us In Terms Of This Region's Priority Development. Over The Last Few Years, Let Us Say Even Over The Last Decades, We Were Faced With Many Problems Here. We Paid Little Attention To This Territory Although It Deserves A Lot More Of It, Because It Concentrates Great Wealth As Well As Opportunities For Russia's Future Development.

We Should All Be Aware Of The Fact That When Revolutionary - Not Evolutionary - Changes Come, Things Can Get Even Worse. The Intelligentsia Should Be Aware Of This. And It Is The Intelligentsia Specifically That Should Keep This In Mind And Prevent Society From Radical Steps And Revolutions Of All Kinds. We've Had Enough Of It. We've Seen So Many Revolutions And Wars. We Need Decades Of Calm And Harmonious Development.

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

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

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

Terrorists Are Always A Threat To Someone. If We'll Be Scared Of Them, It Means They Have Won.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Challenging American Leadership Is Not At Stake.

American Leadership

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

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

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

One Of The Most Important Tasks Is To Broaden The Energy Supply ... Energy Determines Today International Security And Social As Well As Economic Development In Many Respects. In Reality The Wellbeing Of Millions Of People Is Directly Dependent In Energy Security.

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

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

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

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.

I'm Asking : If The Kosovars Have The Right To Self-determination, Why Should People On Crimea Not Have It? I Would Say: Everyone Should Comply With Uniform International Rules And Not Want To Change Them Any Time One Feels Like It.

A Foreign Threat Is Useful To Put Things In Order In One's Own Camp, To Make One's Allies Follow The Bloc Discipline. Iran Does Not Fit This Role Too Well, And It Is Very Tempting To Revive Russia's Image Of The Enemy. But Nobody In Europe Is Afraid Anymore.

Personally, I Think That Children Should Be Left Alone, They Should Be Given An Opportunity To Grow Up, To Become Aware Of Themselves And Decide Themselves Who They Are: Men Or Women, If They Want To Have A Traditional Or Homosexual Marriage.

It Is No Accident That I Mention Our American Friends, As They Are Always Influencing Our Relations With Our Neighbors Either Directly Or Behind The Scenes. Sometimes You Don't Even Know Who To Talk To - The Governments Of Certain Countries Or Directly To Their American Patrons.

Behind The Scenes

I Think The American People Should Express Their Preferences And We'll Accept Their Choice.

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.

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

Besides, Does It Really Matter Who Hacked Mrs. [hillary] Clinton's Election Campaign Team Database? Does It? What Really Matters Is The Content Shown To The Community. This Is What The Discussion Should Be Held About.

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.

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

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.

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