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Where In The World Have You Seen Construction People Who Do Everything On Time, With Good Quality And At Minimal Prices? Just Give Me One Country Like That. A Country Like That Doesn't Exist In The World, You Know. There's Not One Such Country Anywhere In The World.

-Vladimir Putin

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Where In The World

Vladimir Putin

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Where In The World Have You Seen Construction People Who Do Everything On Time, With Good Quality And At Minimal Prices? Just Give Me One Country Like That. A Country Like That Doesn't Exist In The World, You Know. There's Not One Such Country Anywhere In The World.

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More From Vladimir Putin

The Prime Minister [shindzo Abe] And I Will Negotiate Proceeding From Our National Interests: The Interests Of Russia And The Interests Of Japan. We Should Find A Compromise.

Take, For Example, Lithuania. Do You Know, What Was Its Population In The Soviet Times? It Was 3.4 Mln People. It Was A Small Country, A Small Republic. And What Is It Now? I Have Looked Though The Recent Statistics, Today The Population Of This Country Is 1.4 Mln People. Where Are The People? More Than Half Of The Citizens Have Left The Country.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Us Tactical Nuclear Weapons Are In Europe, Let Us Not Forget This. Does It Mean That The Us Has Occupied Germany Or That The Us Never Stopped The Occupation After World War Ii And Only Transformed The Occupation Troops Into The Nato Forces?

I Firmly Believe That The Reputation Of Any Country Which Is Capable Of Defending The Life And Dignity Of Its Citizens, And Can Conduct Independent Foreign Policy Will Only Improve In Mid- And Long-term Perspective.

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.

Where In The World Have You Seen Construction People Who Do Everything On Time, With Good Quality And At Minimal Prices? Just Give Me One Country Like That. A Country Like That Doesn't Exist In The World, You Know. There's Not One Such Country Anywhere In The World.

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.

It Is 60 Years Since The Restoration Of Diplomatic Relations, But Relations Between Japan And Russia Have Much Deeper Roots. In All, Our Diplomatic Ties Date Back 150 Years, More Than 150 Years Now.

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.

I Do Not Want To Speak About Our Cooperation With Japan Now. Thank God, We Have Had No Such Problems There. Nor Would We Want Any To Arise In The Future. Therefore, Everything Needs To Be Pre-calculated, And We Need To Agree Upon Everything In Advance.

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.

The Philosophy Of Fifa Is To Expand World Soccer Space, To Spread Out The World Football Space.

I Have Great Love And Respect For Russian History And Culture. But The World Is Changing And Russia Is Too. Russia Is Part Of The Modern World, Not The World Of The Past But The Modern World. And I Believe It Has An Even Greater Future Than Some Other Countries That Can't Take Care Of Their Young People, Of The New Generations, Of Their Children, And Believe That They Can Just Let Things Slide.

I Will Not Offer My Thoughts On What Japan Could And Should Have Done, This Is None Of My Business, It Is The Business Of The Japanese Leadership. But We Should Understand How Practicable All Our Agreements Are As A Whole Given The Allied Obligations Japan Has Assumed, How Much Independence There Is In Making Those Decision, And What We Can Hope For, What We Can Ultimately Arrive At.

From The Beginning, We Failed To Overcome Europe's Division. The Berlin Wall Fell, But Invisible Walls Were Moved To The East Of Europe. This Has Led To Mutual Misunderstandings And Assignments Of Guilt. They Are The Cause Of All Crises Ever Since.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

We Shall Fight Against Them, Throw Them In Prisons And Destroy Them.

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

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

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.

My Family Suffered Very Major Losses During The Second World War, That's True. In My Father's Family, There Were Five Brothers. I Think Four Of Them Died. On My Mother's Side The Picture Was Pretty Much The Same. Russia Has Suffered Great Losses. And Of Course We Can't Forget That.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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].

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.

Here Is The Thing: I Have Seen Several Times That Anti-russian Cards Are Being Played During Domestic Campaigns In The United States. I Find This Approach Very Short-sighted.

The Fact That The Union Of Different Nationalities And Denominations Resulted From The Liberation, This Is Particularly Symbolic And Important For Our Multinational Country, As Long As We Feel This Unity Inside Us, Russia Will Be Invincible.

Different Nationalities

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

Every Head Of State And Government In The World Is Allowed To Have His Opinion And To Voice It.

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

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.

Stalin Is The Most Popular Figure In All Of Russia.

I Believe That The 21st Century Economy Is An Economy Of People, Not Of Factories. The Intellectual Factor Has Become Increasingly Important In The Economy, Which Is Why We Are Planning To Focus On Providing Additional Opportunities For People To Realise Their Potential.

They Are Constantly Trying To Drive Us Into A Corner Because We Have An Independent Position, Because We Maintain It And Because We Tell It Like It Is And Don't Engage In Hypocrisy. But There Is A Limit To Everything. And With Ukraine, Our Western Partners Have Crossed The Line, Playing The Bear And Acting Irresponsibly And Unprofessionally.

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.

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

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

Fifteen Percent Of Russia Badly Polluted.

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.

At No Time In The Past, Now Or In The Future Has Or Will Russia Take Any Part In Actions Aimed At Overthrowing The Legitimate Government. I'm Talking About Something Else Right Now - When Someone Does This, The Outcome Is Very Negative. Libya's State Is Disintegrated, Iraq's Territory Is Flooded With Terrorists, It Looks Like The Scenario Will Be The Same For Syria, And You Know What The Situation Is In Afghanistan.

This Is Not Only A Matter Of Relations Between Russia And The United States. In My View, Any Restrictions In The Economic Sphere That Are Dictated By Considerations Of Political Expediency Are Extremely Harmful For The World Economy As A Whole. This Destroys Unity And The Rules Of The Game.

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.

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 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.

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.

Yet Our Interests, The Interests Of The Russian Federation, Include The Normalisation Of Relations With Japan, Which Is Not At The Bottom Of The Agenda. The Whole Range Of What Will Be Proposed For A Solution, The Entire Range Of Matters Related To The Normalisation Of Our Relations And What That Would Bring After Normalisation, This Is The Whole Range Of Issues To Be Discussed And Decided, And Those Decisions Should Be Of A Practical Nature.

We Have Never Meddled In The Domestic Affairs Of Any State And We Never Will.

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'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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

As Far As I Understand, The President-elect Of The United States [donald Trump] Is Ready For Such Joint Work. We Do Not Know Yet What It Will Be Like In Actual Practice. We Have To Wait For Him To Take Office And Form His Administration.

We Discussed This Very Important Issue Yesterday Over A Beer.

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.

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

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.

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

Russian Economy

Russia And China Also Cooperate In Mechanical Engineering, High-speed Railway Transportation, Lumber Processing, Nuclear Energy Production And So On. We Have Built The Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant. Two Units Are Already Operational And Are Showing Good Results.

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

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

Please, Accept The Most Sincere Words Of Sympathy Over The Natural Disaster That Affected The United States . I Know That Hurricane Katrina That Hit The Us South-western Coast Led To Casualties, Left Homeless Dozens Of Thousands Of Us Citizens And Inflicted A Strong Damage To The Economy Of This Region. I Ask You To Convey My Condolences To The Next Of Kin Of Those Killed,.

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

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.

Chechnya Is Part And Parcel Of The Russian Federation.

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

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.

Our Task Was Not To Conduct A Full-fledged Military Operation There [in Crimea], But It Was To Ensure People's Safety And Security And A Comfortable Environment To Express Their Will. We Did That. But It Would Not Have Been Possible Without The Crimeans' Own Strong Resolution.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Have Already Spoken To Three Us Presidents. They Come And Go, But Politics Stay The Same At All Times. Do You Know Why? Because Of The Powerful Bureaucracy. When A Person Is Elected, They May Have Some Ideas. Then People With Briefcases Arrive, Well Dressed, Wearing Dark Suits, Just Like Mine, Except For The Red Tie, Since They Wear Black Or Dark Blue Ones. These People Start Explaining How Things Are Done. And Instantly, Everything Changes. This Is What Happens With Every Administration.

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.

Respect For Sovereignty Means To Not Allow Unconstitutional Action And Coup D'états, The Removal Of Legitimate Power.

Legitimate Power

Russia Has Long Recognized The Borders Of Today's Ukraine. By And Large, We Have Completed Our Talks On The Border. Now We Have To Deal With The Demarcation, But This Is A Technical Issue.

I Do Not Want To Answer Provocative Question.

Iraq Is A Small But Very Proud Nation.

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

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.

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

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.

International Terrorists Have Proved Quite Skilled At Misleading Many People About What Is Actually Happening Here In The Caucasus, And They Continue To Mislead People Today.

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.

I Believe A Healthy Lifestyle Is An Extremely Important Thing Which Underpins Solution To Numerous Important Problems, Including The Health Of The Nation.

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

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

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

Russian Police Force, Fortunately, So Far, Do Not Use Batons, Tear Gas Or Any Other Extreme Measures Of Instilling Order, Something That We Often See In Other Countries, Including In The United States. Speaking Of Opposition, Let Us Recall The Movement Occupy Wall Street. Where Is It Now? The Law Enforcement Agencies And Special Services In The Us Have Taken It Apart, Into Little Pieces, And Have Dissolved It.

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

When Saddam Hussein Was Eliminated, The Iraqi Statehood And Thousands Of People From The Former Baath Party Were Also Eliminated. Thousands Of Iraqi Servicemen, Who Were Part Of The State's Sunni Elite, Found Themselves Thrown Out Into The Street. No One Gave A Thought About Them, And Today They End Up In The Isis Army.

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

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.

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.

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

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 Were Also Going To Develop Relations With The Current Administration [of Barack Obama], But Somehow They Did Not Work Out Well In Key Areas And, I Believe, Not Through Our Fault. I Will Not List All The Problems That Emerged In The Past Few Years.

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.

Even With The Help Of Anti-russian Propaganda In The Mass Media, Germany Has Not Succeeded In Damaging This Sympathy.

You Made These Things Up Yourselves And Now Scare Yourselves With Them And Even Use Them To Plan Your Prospective Policies. These Policies Have No Prospects. The Only Possible Future Is In Cooperation In All Areas, Including Security Issues. What Is The Major Security Problem Today? Terrorism. There Are Bombings In Europe, In Paris, In Russia, In Belgium. There Is A War In The Middle East. This Is The Main Concern. But No, Let Us Keep Speculating On The Threat From Russia.

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

Chess Makes Man Wiser And Clear-sighted.

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

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.

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

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

However, It Was Not Us Who Refused To Freeze Oil Production; Our Saudi Partners Changed Their Point Of View At The Last Moment And Decided To Slow Down The Adoption Of This Decision. I Would Like To Reiterate Our Position, It Remains The Same.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

There Is No Need For The Russian State To Hold Such Large Stakes And We Do Intend To Put Our Plans Into Practice. It Is Not About Whether We Want It Or Not, It Is About This Being Practical Or Not And The Best Timing. In General, It Is Practical From At Least One Point Of View - From The Point Of View Of Structural Changes In The Economy.

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

European And American Values Do Not Fully Coincide.

American Values

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Cuban Missile Crisis

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.

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.

All Issues - Purchasing And Selling Of Currency - Are Related To The Regulation Of The National Currency Market. However, It Is Still Difficult To Say What Will Be The Reaction Of The Central Bank And If It Would Lead To Increasing The Gold And Foreign Currency Reserves.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

No Doubt, The United States And The American People Are A Gear Country And A Great People. Nobody Disputes This, But Talking About Exceptionalism Is Way Too Much, And This Is Creating Certain Problems In Relations, And Not Only With Russia, As I See It.

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.

They [leaders In Western Europe] Do Not Misuse Financial Instruments, Financial Injections, But, First Of All, Seek Structural Change. This Is Urgent For Our Economy As Well, Maybe Even More Urgent Bearing In Mind The Problem That We Cannot Yet Deal With, Namely The Prevalence Of The Oil And Gas Sector In The Russian Federation And, As A Result, Dependence On Revenue From Oil And Gas.

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

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.

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

My Personal Position Is That Society Must Keep Children Safe.

We Cannot Decide For The American People.

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.

At Least Germany And France Have Recently Criticized That The Ukrainian Central Government Has Limited Certain Parts Of The Autonomy Regulations To Three Years. They Were Supposed To Last Permanently.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

We Have Made Mistakes! We Were Too Late. If We Had Presented Our National Interests More Clearly From The Beginning, The World Would Still Be In Balance Today.

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

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 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

Our Common Goal Should Be The Development Of A System Of Equal Security For All Governments. System Adequate [to Deal With] Modern Threats, Built On Regional And Global Nonaligned Bases. Only Then Can We Ensure Peace And Tranquility In The World.

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

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.

Some Are Addicted To Cigarettes, Some, God Forbid, To Drugs, And Some Become Addicted To Money. They Say That The Worst Addiction Is To Power. I Have Never Felt That. I Have Never Been Addicted To Anything

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

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.

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

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