Please remember one lesson of the 20th century. One cannot force happiness, impose happiness on nations by imposing any kind of utopia on others. The Communist model of society was a kind of imposed utopia for which the Russian people in particular paid a great price. Still, sometimes we see that attempts are being made to impose some other kind of model on the entire world - maybe a Westernized or Americanized model... This is not the way to go because this can only create conflict.

Sometimes its difficult to accept, to recognise ones own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for that.

Putin wants to stay in power, but not so that he can finally solve our most pressing problems: education, health care, poverty.

Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor.

Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.

Those who are late will be punished by life itself.

A new world order is taking shape so fast that governments as well as private citizens find it difficult just to absorb the gallop of events.