When you start to meet with ordinary people you understand that a Russian person, really any person from Russia, a Tatar, a Mordvin, a Chechen, a Dagestani, they are very open people, even a little naive. But there's one defining trait that probably all peoples have, although it comes out especially strongly in us. That's a drive toward fairness. It's one of the dominating, I think, traits in the mentality of a person from Russia, a Russian person.

Today, it is imperative to end this hysteria, to refute the rhetoric of the Cold War and to accept the obvious fact: Russia is an independent, active participant in international affairs. Like other countries, it has its own national interests that need to be taken into account and respected.

Berlusconi is being tried because he lives with women. If he was homosexual, no one would have lifted a finger against him.

In Russia all people enjoy the equal rights, including homosexuals.

Russia is probably one of the first countries to have been confronted with this problem of terrorism. It took some time before the international community realised the danger terrorism poses.

We conducted talks on border issues with our friends in the People's Republic of China for 40 years. There were also issues related to specific territories.

The goal we have set for ourselves, which is to diversify our cooperation with China, is making progress.