Vladimir Putin Quotes

This issue is not economic but political. I hope that all market participants interested in maintaining stable and reasonable world energy prices will finally make the right decision.

There are also fundamental issues related to what the current leader, President [Barack] Obama, said. I am referring to his idea about American exceptionalism. I am skeptical about this idea.

I did not know that [ the Chancellor Angela Merkel is a bit frightened of dogs]. I wanted to make her happy. When I learned that she does not like dogs, I apologized, of course.

Now we are talking about concluding a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Council, recently established in the post-Soviet space, and China. A similar agreement was concluded a short time ago with Vietnam. Then, we will coordinate, at least we are ready to do this, the Chinese concept of the Silk Road Economic Belt with our newly-created regional organisation. So, do you understand how diverse, multi-faceted and deep Russian-Chinese ties have become over the last couple of decades? And we resolved the border issue.

Judo has been part of Japanese culture for a long time. It makes sense to me that this sport, which is both athletic and philosophical, was created in Japan. It is based on respect for the partner and for our elders as our teachers, which is very important and makes a strong, positive contribution to human relationships, and not only in sports. I am happy that life brought me to this wonderful sport as a child. It is like my first love.

Let us not forget that we have two governmental reserve funds: the Reserve Fund and the National Wellbeing Fund that represent together $100 billion.

There is no one to talk to since Mahatma Gandhi died.

We may have more control, but my point is that, strictly speaking, Rosneft is not a state company. I think that this is an obvious fact, as a foreign investor has a 19.7 percent stake in it.

However, it was not us who refused to freeze oil production; our Saudi partners changed their point of view at the last moment and decided to slow down the adoption of this decision. I would like to reiterate our position, it remains the same.

The Central Bank is constantly purchasing, purchasing and selling and vice versa - this is their job.

I consider the decision of my colleagues and friends to be the best birthday present.

The United Nations' founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America's consent, the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

It is simply that we treat Japanese history, the history of the Japanese people and its unique culture with greater respect and interest. This generates enormous interest in Russia!

We handed over nothing, those territories [Tarabarov Island to China] were disputed and we have been negotiating this issue with the People's Republic of China, let me stress that, for 40 years, and finally managed to come to an agreement. One part of the territory was assigned to Russia, while another part - to the People's Republic of China.

Somebody is always suspecting Russia of having some ambitions, there are always those who are trying to misinterpret us or keep something back.

It is well known, widely known that the US President-elect [Donald Trump] has publicly spoken in favour of normalising Russian-American relations. We cannot but support this. Of course, we understand that it will not be an easy job, taking into account the degree to which Russian-American relations have degraded. But we are ready to cover our part of the way.

Changing things is not easy, and I say this without any irony. It is not that someone does not want to, but because it is a hard thing to do. Take Obama, a forward-thinking man, a liberal, a democrat. Did he not pledge to shut down Guantanamo before his election? But did he do it? No, he did not. And may I ask why not? Did he not want to do it? He wanted to, I am sure he did, but it did not work out. He sincerely wanted to do it, but did not succeed, since it turned out to be very complicated.

Democracy is not possible without effectively working legal system.

If someone is willing to reconsider the results of World War II, let us discuss this. But then we will have to discuss not only Kaliningrad, but also the eastern lands of Germany, the city of Lvov, a former part of Poland, and so on, and so forth. There are also Hungary and Romania on the list.

No doubt, the United States and the American people are a gear country and a great people. Nobody disputes this, but talking about exceptionalism is way too much, and this is creating certain problems in relations, and not only with Russia, as I see it.

America's development began with a large-scale ethnic cleansing, unprecedented in human history.

Nowhere is it written that NATO had to accept certain countries. All that would have been required to refrain from doing so was the political will. But people didn't want to.

Notably, it was only possible [ negotiating on the Tarabarov Island], and this is very important, due to the high level of trust Russia and China reached in their relations by that time. If we reach the same level of trust with Japan, we might be able to reach certain compromises.

I'm eternally grateful to fate and the citizens of Russia that they've trusted me to be the head of the Russian government.

For Russia, there is not and there may not be another political option but democracy. However, Russian democracy is... not at all the realization of standards imposed on us from outside.

If you want to become an Islamic radical and have yourself circumcised, I invite you to come to Moscow... I would recommend that he who does the surgery does it so you'll have nothing growing back afterward.

Stalin is the most popular figure in all of Russia.

The Crimea is not a disputed territory. Unlike the case of Georgia and South Ossetia, there has been no ethnic conflict there.

This, for instance, is what Egon Bahr said on June 26, 1990: "If we do not now undertake clear steps to prevent a division of Europe, this will lead to Russia's isolation."Bahr, a wise man, had a very concrete suggestion as to how this danger could be averted.

Even with the help of anti-Russian propaganda in the mass media, Germany has not succeeded in damaging this sympathy.

Napoleon once said that justice is the incarnation of God on Earth. I'm telling you: the reunification of Crimea and Russia is just.

We have made mistakes! We were too late. If we had presented our national interests more clearly from the beginning, the world would still be in balance today.

Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights and freedoms.

[Egon] Bahr even said: If Russia agreed to the NATO expansion, he would never come to Moscow again.

I am a human being, a citizen of the Russian Federation, a Russian.

In general, Gazprom is doing well and is increasing export in its traditional partner countries.

We have a contract for the delivery of the S-300s. We have supplied some of the components, but the delivery hasn't been completed. We have suspended it for now. But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.

The sanctions have nothing to do with our relations with China, because our relations with the People's Republic of China are at an unprecedented high both in terms of their level and substance. They are what we call "a comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation".

Today's meeting was extremely important and brought exceptional results, ... The talks have shown that the long-term national and geopolitical interests of Russia and India coincide.

We understand that the Iranian position is very bad because of the well-known sanctions against that country, and it would be unfair to leave it on this sanction level.

When people communicate freely, when labour force, goods, services and funds move freely as well, when there are no state dividing lines and when we have common legal regulation, for example, in the social sphere - all that is good enough, people should feel free.

If somebody prefers to work by means of sanctions, he is welcome to do so. But sanctions are a temporary measure. Firstly, they contradict the international law. Secondly, tell me where this policy of sanctions proved to be effective. The answer is nowhere.

Therefore today we have an absolutely sufficient level of gold and foreign currency reserves in order to ensure economic stability and sustainable foreign trade turnover.

Russia has long recognized the borders of today's Ukraine. By and large, we have completed our talks on the border. Now we have to deal with the demarcation, but this is a technical issue.

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted.

You too would prefer that Russia maintained good relations with both the United Kingdom and the United States, wouldn't you? I would prefer it as well. If anybody in the U.S. or in the United Kingdom says: "I would like to establish good partnership relations with Russia", then both of us, you and me, should welcome that. So should people like me and people like you. However, we have no idea yet what would actually happen after the elections [2016]. That is why I am telling you that we will work with any President designated as such by the American public.

The Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat, as the saying goes. It knows whom to eat and is not about to listen to anyone, it seems.

As far as I understand, the president-elect of the United States [Donald Trump] is ready for such joint work. We do not know yet what it will be like in actual practice. We have to wait for him to take office and form his administration.