Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.

If you want Russia to be a real fully developed partner, then America should invest in Russia and activate Russia as a strong nation.

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.'

My goal was to avoid bloodshed. But unfortunately there was some bloodshed, after all.

It will be difficult, even painful, but democracy will prevail in Russia. There will be no dictatorship, although relapses into authoritarianism are possible.

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.