I consider it to be the meaning of my whole life and my obligation to serve my fatherland and our people.

Absolute trust is something hard to achieve even in a family, and it is much harder to achieve on an international level.

There is no one else at all who is fighting ISIS on the ground, except for President al-Assad's army.

There are complicated processes going on in society in the Crimea. There are problems of the Crimean Tatars, the Ukrainian population, the Russian population, the Slavic population in general, but this is Ukraine's domestic political problem.

This is not only a matter of relations between Russia and the United States. In my view, any restrictions in the economic sphere that are dictated by considerations of political expediency are extremely harmful for the world economy as a whole. This destroys unity and the rules of the game.

Respect for sovereignty means to not allow unconstitutional action and coup d'états, the removal of legitimate power.

It is a fact that the US defence budget is larger than the defence budgets of all other countries taken together. This is why I understand the US President when he says that his NATO allies should take over part of this burden. It is a pragmatic and understandable approach.