Vladimir Putin quotes:

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  • No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.

  • We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today's complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not.

  • 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.

  • I love the Russian classics very much, the Russian classical literature. But I also read modern literature. As far as Russian literature is concerned, I am very fond of Tolstoy and Chekhov, and I also enjoy reading Gogol very much.

  • The centuries-old history and culture of India, majestic architectural monuments and museums of Delhi, Agra and Mumbai have a unique attractive force.

  • A considerable share of the world's population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.

  • If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God's sake.

  • The Declaration on Strategic Partnership between India and Russia signed in October 2000 became a truly historic step. The developments in the first decade of the 21 century confirmed that it was a particularly significant and timely step.

  • Yes, life in Chechnya so far looks more like a life after a natural disaster.

  • The whole world recognizes Russia's cultural achievements. It is impossible to imagine the world culture without Russian culture, without our music and literature.

  • We need business to understand its social responsibility, that the main task and objective for a business is not to generate extra income and to become rich and transfer the money abroad, but to look and evaluate what a businessman has done for the country, for the people, on whose account he or she has become so rich.

  • History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior.

  • I have a very positive attitude to anyone who is protecting the environment, but it's inadmissible when people are using it as a means of promoting themselves, using it as a source of self-enrichment. I don't want to name any specific examples... but often, environmentalism is used to blackmail companies.

  • The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

  • Our aims are absolutely clear: They are a high living standard in the country and a secure, free and comfortable life.

  • Our military might is the guarantor of Russia's security and independence.

  • In 1995, Russia virtually gave Chechnya de facto statehood and independence even though, de jure, it didn't recognize Chechnya as an independent state. And I would like to emphasize strongly that Russia withdrew all of its troops, we moved the prosecutors, we moved all the police, dismantled all the courts, completely, 100 percent.

  • At least in Russia, you cannot just go and tap into someone's phone conversation without a warrant issued by court. That's more or less the way a civilized society should go about fighting terrorism.

  • Journalism, as concerns collecting information, differs little if at all from intelligence work. In my judgment, a journalist's job is very interesting.

  • The leaders of the world's largest economies agreed during the November 2008 G20 summit not to create barriers hindering global trade and capital flows. Russia shares these principles.

  • The point of conservatism is not that it prevents movement forward and upward, but that it prevents movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state.

  • The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space.

  • Where in the world have you seen construction people who do everything on time, with good quality and at minimal prices? Just give me one country like that. A country like that doesn't exist in the world, you know. There's not one such country anywhere in the world.

  • Some experts believe that somebody is deceiving WikiLeaks, that its reputation is being undermined in order for it to be used for political purposes.

  • McCain fought in Vietnam - I think that he has enough civilian blood on his hands.

  • In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

  • We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

  • The Eurasian union is a project meant to preserve the identities of nations and the historic Eurasian community in the new century, in a new world.

  • Everything will probably never be OK. But we have to try for it.

  • Above all, such sports as judo, in my view, teach people to relate to each other. They teach us to respect a partner, teach us to understand that an externally weak partner can not only put up worthy resistance, but, if you relax and take too much for granted, may even win.

  • The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.

  • I think the international community should unite to fight such inhuman phenomena as terror attacks and the murder of totally innocent people.

  • Terrorism has once again shown it is prepared deliberately to stop at nothing in creating human victims. An end must be put to this. As never before, it is vital to unite forces of the entire world community against terror.

  • How does one control weight? By not overeating. How does one stay in shape? One plays sports. There are no magic pills here.

  • It's alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States.

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

  • 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.

  • My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this.

  • We don't need a weakened government but a strong government that would take responsibility for the rights of the individual and care for the society as a whole.

  • I go to the gym, I swim daily and from time to time I meet with friends and do extra-curricular stuff.

  • My parents told me that children were taken from their families in 1941, and my mother had a child taken from her - with the goal of saving him.

  • China has created very good investment tools, including an entire network of very large funds. The Russian Private Investment Fund works with some of those funds, with China's largest investment funds.

  • Russian democracy is the power of the Russian people with their own traditions of national self-government, and not the realisation of standards foisted on us from outside.

  • Terrorism has no nationality or religion.

  • I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.

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

  • Political activities in Russia should be as transparent as possible. Financing political activities from abroad is something the state should keep an eye on.

  • A figure who receives money from abroad for his political work, and thus serves some foreign interest, cannot be a politician in Russia.

  • Russia does not and cannot have any political choice but democracy. I want to say, and even stress, that we share those universal democratic principles taken around the whole world.

  • I spend a little time every day to play sports.

  • Politics should not interfere with sports. And sports should impact politics.

  • I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work.

  • Economic activity is moving from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean... Russia has a certain natural advantage because it also borders the Pacific Ocean.

  • You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.

  • If you want my personal attitude, I would tell you that I don't care about a person's sexual orientation.

  • I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in Russia, unlike in one third of the world's countries, being gay is not a crime.

  • I am convinced that the norm in Russia should become a family with three children.

  • The Russian people and Russian culture are the linchpin, the glue that binds together this unique civilization.

  • You can swim any way you like in the Dead Sea, actually.

  • It is wrong to make anyone into an enemy; it is wrong to scare the people of one's own country with that enemy and try to rally some allies on that basis.

  • If there are people who act outside the law, then the state must use legal means to impose law in the interests of majority. That's the way it's done in the U.S., and that's the way it's done in Russia.

  • Despite all the achievements of civilisation, the human being is still one of the most vulnerable creatures on earth.

  • Russia does not have in its possession any trustworthy data that supports the existence of nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we have not received any such information from our partners as yet.

  • We should not just consume hydrocarbon fuel but use it to develop nuclear energy, hydro power and renewable energy sources.

  • The United States and Russian security services regularly exchange information.

  • At last, Russia has returned to the world arena as a strong state - a country that others heed and that can stand up for itself.

  • We're no longer in the Cold War. Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable.

  • I think every person should have some faith inside him, in his heart. What matters is not an external display of this faith, but the inner state of the soul.

  • Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.

  • Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.

  • The Russian people have unilaterally made their choice in direction of democracy in the early '90s. They will not be led astray. Nobody should be having any doubts.

  • We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.

  • In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased.

  • Protest actions and propaganda are two slightly different things.

  • In line with international law, only the U.N. Security Council could sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state are inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression.

  • I am not prejudiced in any way.

  • In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.

  • I have always loved and avidly read the novels of Jack London, Jules Verne and Ernest Hemingway. The characters depicted in their books, who are brave and resourceful people embarking on exciting adventures, definitely shaped my inner self and nourished my love for the outdoors.

  • China is a great country with a great culture, populated by fascinating, industrious and talented people.

  • It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

  • If we speak calmly, in a businesslike fashion, let me draw your attention to the fact that Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria in full compliance with the norms of international law. We are not breaching any rules and norms.

  • I think happiness is love.

  • Spying has always gone on since ancient times.

  • I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work

  • I don't think that neutrality is an obstacle to Austria's successful integration into European and world structures... but this is a question that the Austrian people themselves must decide

  • The strengthening of our statehood is, at times, deliberately interpreted as authoritarianism.

  • Berlusconi faces trial for bedding women. If he was gay, no one would ever lay a finger on him.

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

  • Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force

  • The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

  • Chechnya is part and parcel of the Russian Federation.

  • The Chechnya problem is a centuries-old problem. The thing is that today, fundamentalists and terrorists are exploiting those centuries-old problems to accomplish their own objectives that have nothing to do whatsoever with the interests of Chechnya.

  • I'm sure corruption in Chechnya is minimal.

  • Not all G8 members take the view that chemical weapons were in fact used by the Syrian Army. Some actually agree with us that there is no proof.

  • If NATO troops walk in Crimea, they will immediately deploy their forces there. Such a move would be geopolitically sensitive for us because, in this case, Russia would be practically ousted from the Black Sea area. We'd be left with just a small coastline of 450 or 600km, and that's it!

  • Love for one's motherland is one of the most powerful and uplifting feelings. It manifested itself in full in the brotherly support to the people of Crimea and Sevastopol, when they resolutely decided to return home, this event will remain a very important epoch in domestic history forever.

  • The most obvious risk was that the Russian speaking population was threatened and that the threats were absolutely specific and tangible. This is what made Crimean residents, the people who live there, think about their future and ask Russia for help. This is what guided our decision to let Crimea become a part of Russian Federation.

  • Our task was not to conduct a full-fledged military operation there [in Crimea], but it was to ensure people's safety and security and a comfortable environment to express their will. We did that. But it would not have been possible without the Crimeans' own strong resolution.

  • Russia had to take the necessary measures in order to prevent the situation in Crimea unfolding the way it is now unfolding in southeastern Ukraine. We didn't want any tanks, any nationalist combat units or people with extreme views armed with automatic weapons.

  • The events in Crimea themselves have nothing to do with what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other regions. In my opinion, when the world becomes unipolar, or when someone tries to make it so, then this one pole has the illusion that all issues can be settled through power. And only when there is a balance of power does the desire to negotiate appears.

  • We must create the conditions for immigrants to normally integrate into our society, learn Russian and, of course, respect our culture and traditions and abide by Russian law. In this regard, I believe that the decision to make learning the Russian language compulsory and administer exams is well grounded. To do so, we will need to carry out major organisational work and introduce corresponding legislative amendments.

  • Let us be frank: provoking military-political instability and other regional conflicts is also a convenient way of deflecting people's attention from mounting social and economic problems. Regrettably, further attempts of this kind cannot be ruled out.

  • The fact that the union of different nationalities and denominations resulted from the liberation, this is particularly symbolic and important for our multinational country, As long as we feel this unity inside us, Russia will be invincible.

  • Russia is opposed to the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, including nuclear weapons, and in this context we call upon our Iranian friends to abandon the uranium enrichment programme.

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

  • There is no such thing as a former KGB man.

  • Any fourth grade history student knows socialism has failed in every country, at every time in history,

  • An increase of two or three degrees wouldn't be so bad for a northern country like Russia. We could spend less on fur coats, and the grain harvest would go up.

  • We have spoken on many occasions of the need to achieve high economic growth as an absolute priority for our country. The annual address for 2003 set for the first time the goal of doubling gross domestic product within a decade.

  • Without Russia's contribution, prices would rise even more. Some members of the EU meet 90% of their demands for gas with the help of Russian hydrocarbons and have no complaints so far. Everybody is happy. Russia is a reliable partner and has never failed her partners in Europe, even in the hardest times of its economic development.

  • All people here have political rights, social rights, rights to employment, and no one should face discrimination, but our strategic choice is for traditional families, healthy families and a healthy nation. One does not exclude the other and does not hinder the other. I think this is a balanced approach and is entirely the right approach.

  • NATO remains a military alliance, and we are against having a military alliance making itself at home right in our own backyard; in our historic territory. I simply cannot imagine that we would travel to Sevastopol to visit NATO sailors. Of course, most of them are wonderful guys, but it would be better to have them come and visit us, be our guests, rather than the other way round.

  • President Obama and his fellow Democrats are either idiots or deliberately trying to destroy their own economy.

  • One must not allow oneself to skid down to isolationism and unbridled economic egoism. ... The second possible mistake would be excessive interference into the economic life of the country. And the absolute faith into the all-mightiness of the state.

  • Kiev's attempts to exert economic pressure on Donbas (region of east Ukraine) and disrupt its daily life only aggravates the situation. This is a dead-end track, fraught with a big catastrophe.

  • People in the eastern regions [of Ukaraine] are talking about federalisation, and Kiev has at long last started talking about de-centralisation. Order in the country can only be restored through dialogue and democratic procedures, rather than with the use of armed force, tanks and aircraft.

  • There is something that I have in common with every citizen of Russia, the love for our motherland.

  • Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.

  • I have to say that oil and gas revenues make up a large part of the Russian budget revenue. This is a serious component for us in addressing economic development, budget funding for our development programmes and, of course, and meeting of our social commitments to our citizens.

  • Easter celebrations are evidence of the increased benign influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional churches in our country on society.

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