On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'

Those who are late will be punished by life itself.

The United States found dozens of billions of dollars for military action in Iraq, so it should certainly be able to find a few billions of dollars to get rid of weapons of mass destruction. I'll assume that since the most powerful nation - the United States - has promised to pay for much of this, then its word will be kept. If it isn't, I don't think we can have a true partnership.

Life punishes those who come too late.

We need a new system of values, a system of the organic unity between humankind and nature and the ethic of global responsibility.

I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.

I think the United States is sick. It suffers from the sickness, the disease of being the victor and it needs to cure itself from this disease.