It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.

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.'

In Russia, there are those who make their money in criminal ways, but I earn everything myself.

Sometimes when you stand face to face with someone, you cannot see his face.

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

Lake Baikal in Russia has 25 percent of the freshwater resources of the world. Sixty-five percent of the Russian ecosystems are in danger. So let's preserve what we have, and let's take good care of nature.

You cannot go to sleep with one form of economic system and wake up the next morning with another.