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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.

-Vladimir Putin

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We Must Create The

Vladimir Putin

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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.

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

If Nato Troops Walk In Crimea, They Will Immediately Deploy Their Forces There. Such A Move Would Be Geopolitically Sensitive For Us Because, In This Case, Russia Would Be Practically Ousted From The Black Sea Area. We'd Be Left With Just A Small Coastline Of 450 Or 600km, And That's It!

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.

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.

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

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.

The Last Time I Was In Japan As President Of Russia Was 11 Years Ago, If Memory Serves. I Later Visited In My Capacity As Prime Minister.

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.

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

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?

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

Very Interested In Expanding The Number Of Participants Who Will Take Part In Laying The New Gas Pipeline In Europe.

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

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.

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.

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

At The Request Of My Japanese Colleagues, In 2000 We Revisited The Possibility Of Signing A Peace Treaty Based On The 1956 Agreement.

We [with Shindzo Abe] Should Understand That The Results Of That Terrible Tragedy Of The 20th Century, Namely World War Ii, Are Enshrined In Corresponding International Documents, And Finding A Way To Settle All Disputes Without Destroying The Entire Foundation Of International Law That Evolved As A Result Of World War Ii Is A Highly Delicate Task. Therefore, I Would Like To Reiterate That We Cannot Second-guess The Course, Let Alone The Outcome Of Our Negotiations.

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

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.

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.

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

I Did Not Criticize The Central Bank's Position.

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

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

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

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

Britain Is Leaving And Has De Facto Left The European Union; However, It Has Not Withdrawn From Its Special Relationship With The United States And I Believe That The Uk's Relations With Russia Depend On Britain's Special Relationship With The United States Rather Than On Its Presence In Or Absence From The European Union.

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

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

This Is Not Our Job, But We Always Follow The Actions Of Our European Partners Closely And We Wish Them Luck.

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

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.

Four Years Ago, The Perpetrators Believed They Would Bring America And The Rest Of The World To Chaos, ... But They Were Mistaken.

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

It Is My Greatest Desire, I Want The People In Russia To Be Happy And I Want Our Partners Around The World To Seek To Develop Relations With Russia.

[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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

If Russia's Interests And Security Are Threatened, Russia Will Resist. Everyone Needs To Know That.

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

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.

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.

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

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

We Should Find Other Platforms, Other Forums For That [foreign Policy], And There Are Plenty Of Them, Including, For Example, The Un And The Security Council.

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

At The Request Of Our Japanese Partners, We Have Reopened These Talks [about Territories]. What Command Is Given In This Case In Judo? You Probably Know Better Than I Do: Yoshi (continue). So We Will Continue.

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

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

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

Political Activities In Russia Should Be As Transparent As Possible. Financing Political Activities From Abroad Is Something The State Should Keep An Eye On.

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

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

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

Protest Actions And Propaganda Are Two Slightly Different Things.

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

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

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

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.

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.

There Is Always A Chance [for Negotiations With Japan], Or Else It Makes No Sense To Talk. How Great Is It? Right Now, It Is Difficult For Me To Say, Because This Will Depend, Among Other Things, On The Flexibility Of Our Partners.

This Work Is Either Useless Or Harmful, Because There Is Nothing Good About Populism. If You Wanted To Hear My Opinion On This Issue, That Is What I Think.

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

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

We See That Leaders In Western Europe [there Are Some Debates Of Course, We Also See That And Analyse It All] Stick To, I Cannot Say Right Or Wrong Ones, It Always Depends On Someone's View, But I Think, Very Pragmatic Approaches In Addressing Economic Issues.

Crimea Has Always Been And Remains Russian, As Well As Ukrainian, Crimean-tatar, Greek (after All, There Are Greeks Living There) And German - And It Will Be Home To All Of Those Peoples. As For State Affiliation, The People Living In Crimea Made Their Choice; It Should Be Treated With Respect, And Russia Cannot Do Otherwise. I Hope That Our Neighbouring And Distant Partners Will Ultimately Treat This The Same Way, Since In This Case, The Highest Criteria Used To Establish The Truth Can Only Be The Opinion Of The People Themselves.

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.

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.

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.

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

Of Course, We Will Work Towards That End. Of Course, We Will Work To Achieve This Result. However, You Have Just Mentioned The 1956 Agreement, And One May Recall That These Negotiations Were Later Terminated, In Effect, On Japan's Initiative.

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

Homosexuals In Russia Live In Peace, Work, Are Promoted, Receive National Awards For Their Achievements In Science, Art Or Any Other Sphere, Medals Are Awarded To Them, I Have Awarded Them Myself.

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

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

If The World Economy Is Divided Into Isolated Economic Blocs Of This Kind, It Will Be Rather Difficult To Achieve The Same Interpretation And Application Of International Rules Of Economic Activity And World Trade.

Europe And The United States Are Not The Whole World.

I Often Heard The Same Question: What Place Does Russia Reserve For Itself In The World; How Does It See Itself; What Is Its Place? We Are A Peace-loving State And We Want To Cooperate With All Of Our Neighbors And With All Of Our Partners.

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

Differences In Approaches Do Exist, And In One Short Moment It Is Impossible To Overcome All Of Them, But I'm Convinced Ahead Of Us We Have A Constructive Dialogue.

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

You Too Would Prefer That Russia Maintained Good Relations With Both The United Kingdom And The United States, Wouldn't You? I Would Prefer It As Well. If Anybody In The U.s. Or In The United Kingdom Says: "i Would Like To Establish Good Partnership Relations With Russia", Then Both Of Us, You And Me, Should Welcome That. So Should People Like Me And People Like You. However, We Have No Idea Yet What Would Actually Happen After The Elections [2016]. That Is Why I Am Telling You That We Will Work With Any President Designated As Such By The American Public.

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

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

Cuban Missile Crisis

We Will Keep A Close Eye On What Is Happening And Wait For The Election Results And After That We Will Be Ready To Work With Any Administration Given That It Wants To Work With Us.

Election Results

Iraq Is A Small But Very Proud Nation.

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.

This Is Also Evident In Europe, Not The Dependence On Oil And Gas, But The Fact That Structural Reforms Are Long Overdue, And I Think That The Leading Economies Are Very Pragmatic And Efficient In Addressing The Issues Facing The European Economy. That Is Why We Keep Approximately 40 Percent Of Our Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Euros.

Sanctions Against Such Country As Russia Are Unlikely To Be Effective.

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.

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.

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

Addressing Issues, Including Controversial Ones, As Well As Domestic Issues Of The Former Soviet Republics Through The So-called Coloured Revolutions, Through Coups And Unconstitutional Means Of Toppling The Current Government. That Is Absolutely Unacceptable.

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

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

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

Of Course, It's Always Bad To Lose, Of Course It's Always A Hardship When You Lose To Yesterday's Miners Or Yesterday's Tractor Drivers. But Life Is Life. It'll Surely Go On.

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.

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

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

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

Next Year [2017], We Are Going To Hold A Series Of Events There That We Would Like To Call Russian Seasons [in Japan]. Over 40 Different Activities - And What Is More, In Different Cities.

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.

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

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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

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

Even If We Do Not Always Agree On Every Aspect, Nobody Should Take This As An Excuse To Declare Us As Enemies.

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

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

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.

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.

Let's Recall Bosnia In 1995. As We Know Well, The European Peacekeeping Contingent, Represented By The Dutch Troops, Did Not Want To Get Involved With One Of The Attacking Sides, And Allowed It To Destroy A Whole Village. Hundreds Of People Were Killed Or Injured. The Tragedy In Srebrenica Is Well Known In Europe.

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 Have A Huge Interest In Japan, Which Is Well Known, Including Its History And Culture, And So It Will Be Very Interesting For Me To See And Learn More About Japan.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I Want To Say That Russia Is Developing Along A Democratic Path, This Is Without Question So. No One Should Have Any Doubts About That. The Fact That, Amidst Political Rivalry And Some Other Domestic Developments, We See Things Happen Here That Are Typical Of Other Countries, I Do Not See Anything Unusual In It. We Have Rallies, Opposition Rallies. And People Here Have The Right To Express Their Point Of View. However, If People, While Expressing Their Views, Break The Current Legislation, The Effective Law In Place, Then Of Course, The Law Enforcement Agencies Try To Restore Order.

As For The Criticism We Receive, You Know, Even Mr. [donald] Trump's Team Criticize Us. For Instance, One Of The Participants Or Members Of His Team Claimed That Russia Was Giving Money To The Clintons Through Some Funds And That In Fact Russia Is Controlling The Clinton Family. This Is Nonsense.

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

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.

Journalism, As Concerns Collecting Information, Differs Little If At All From Intelligence Work. In My Judgment, A Journalist's Job Is Very Interesting.

Collecting Information

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

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

There Is No One To Talk To Since Mahatma Gandhi Died.

Anything That Is Missing In The Implementation Of The Minsk Agreement Is - Without Any Exception - Up To The Kiev Central Government Of Ukraine. You Cannot Demand Something Of Moscow That, In Fact, The Rulers In Kiev Have To Deliver. The Most Important Aspect Is The Constitutional Reform, Point 11 Of The Minsk Agreement.

Back In 1956, We Signed A Treaty And Surprisingly It Was Ratified Both By The Supreme Soviet Of The Soviet Union And The Japanese Parliament. But Then Japan Refused To Implement It And After That The Soviet Union Also, So To Say, Nullified All The Agreements Reached Within The Framework Of The Treaty.

I Have 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

I Have Been To Tokyo And Several Other Cities, But I Have Never Been To Yamaguchi Prefecture. I Wonder What It Is Like, What Interesting Things It Has To Offer. I Am Sure That Prime Minister [ Shinzō] Abe Will Tell Me All About It.

Kiev's Attempts To Exert Economic Pressure On Donbas (region Of East Ukraine) And Disrupt Its Daily Life Only Aggravates The Situation. This Is A Dead-end Track, Fraught With A Big Catastrophe.

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.

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.

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

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].

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.

In Order To Preserve A Balance, While We Aren't Planning To Build A Missile Defence Of Our Own, As It's Very Expensive And Its Efficiency Is Not Quite Clear Yet, We Have To Develop Offensive Strike Systems. They [u.s.] Should Give Us All The Information About The Missile Defence, And We Will Be Ready Then To Provide Some Information About Offensive Weapons.

Spying Has Always Gone On Since Ancient Times.

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.

Therefore Today We Have An Absolutely Sufficient Level Of Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves In Order To Ensure Economic Stability And Sustainable Foreign Trade Turnover.

I Assume Most People Trust Me, If They Vote For Me In Elections. And It Is The Most Important Thing. It Places Great Responsibility On Me, Immense Responsibility. I Am Grateful To The People For That Trust, But I Surely Feel Great Responsibility For What I Do And For The Result Of My Work.

Let Us Resolve The Internal Political Problems Of Russia Ourselves

Everything Must Be Organized In The Most Rational Way. The State Won't Accept Excessive Prices.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Not Everyone Likes The Stable, Gradual Rise Of Our Country. There Are Some Who Are Using The Democratic Ideology To Interfere In Our Internal Affairs.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I 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.

To Pay More Is The Easy Way. In Fact, The Solution Possibilities To The Problem Are Many.

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

Political Populism Always Poses A Great Danger Because It Disorients People, Creates Excessive Expectations Or, On The Contrary, Prioritises Objectives That Are Clearly Not Priorities Or Are Simply Impossible To Achieve.

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

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 Working In Other Areas [like Alrosa] As Well, So There Are No Radical Changes To Our Position. It Is Not The Case When We Have To, As We Say, Make A Lot Of Fuss About It. In Other Words, We Do Not Have To Be Obsessed With Privatizing Immediately And At Any Cost.

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

Without The Values At The Core Of Christianity And Other World Religions, Without Moral Norms That Have Been Shaped Over Millennia, People Will Inevitably Lose Their Human Dignity. One Must Respect Every Minority’s Right To Be Different, But The Rights Of The Majority Must Not Be Put Into Question.

World Religions

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.

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

Our Agreements On Creating The Conditions For Preparing A Peace Treaty [with Japan] Should Be Rooted In This Trust. This May Be Achieved, For Example, By Large-scale Economic Activities That Will Also Cover The Kuril Islands. It May Be Achieved By Solving Purely Humanitarian Issues, For Instance, Unhindered Visa-free Travel By Former Residents Of The Southern Kuril Islands To Where They Used To Live: Visiting Cemeteries, Native Places And So On.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

As For That Footage, Video Footage Showing The Dead Children Allegedly Killed In The Chemical Attack, It Is Horrible. The Question Is Only Who Did It And What They Did, And Who Is Responsible For This. These Pictures Do Not Answer The Questions I Have Just Posed. There Is An Opinion That It's A Compilation By These Very Rebels, Who Are Connected With Al-qaida And Who Were Always Distinguished By Exceptional Brutality.

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

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George Washington Carver

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