We always welcome when somebody says he or she is ready to work with Russia.

We should find other platforms, other forums for that [foreign policy], and there are plenty of them, including, for example, the UN and the Security Council.

We have very close humanitarian contacts [with China], wide-ranging youth exchanges, educational and regional contacts, and all of them continue to develop.

The breakup of the Soviet Union is a national tragedy on an enormous scale only the elites and nationalists of the republics gained.

I will not meddle in America's internal political squabbles.

I am deeply convinced that no interference from the outside, in any country, even a small one, let alone in such a vast and great power as the United States, can influence the final outcome of the elections. It is not possible. Ever.

It is very difficult to enter a single currency zone having fairly weak economic parameters and maintain a favourable state of the economy, not to mention positive growth rates. We have witnessed it not only in Europe, but for example in Argentina (nearly 10 years ago or more), when they tied the national currency to the dollar and later they did not know what to do about it.