In Putin's world, and in mine, it is inconceivable that women be harassed and raped in public.

Russian politics was focused for too long on fixing past mistakes - fixing the mistakes made in the 1990s.

In a crisis, we will destroy exactly the weapons. Russia will never again fight on its own territory .

The German chancellor said that our president lives in a different world. I believe he lives in a very real world.

We want to prevent further destabilization in the world. And we want the status of being a great power: We unfortunately cannot relinquish that. In the last 300 years, this status has become a part of our genetic makeup. We want to be the heart of greater Eurasia, a region of peace and cooperation. The subcontinent of Europe will also belong to this Eurasia.

The political elite in Russia don't want domestic reform, they aren't ready for it. As such, they welcome an external threat. You have to remember that Russia rests on two national concepts: defense and sovereignty. We approach the question of security much more reverentially than other countries do.

It scares me when the Europeans demand more and more democracy. It sounds like times past, when people here demanded more and more socialism.