Vladimir Putin Quotes

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.

European and American values do not fully coincide.

Everyone must be equal before the law, abide by it, pay their taxes and bear the punishment should they break the law.

Russia should be competitive, be able to protect its own interests and influence the processes that are important to it.

The UN, of course, must also adapt to modern demands and take into account the reality of the modern world in its work.

Brazil does have every right to develop its own peaceful nuclear programme.

Russia itself is a European country, and not just because our major political and economic centres are in Europe, but because Russian culture is primarily European culture.

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.

International terrorists have proved quite skilled at misleading many people about what is actually happening here in the Caucasus, and they continue to mislead people today.

We do not trade territories although concluding a peace treaty with Japan is certainly a key issue and we would like to find a solution to this problem together with our Japanese friends.

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

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.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is controlling this, the sanctions against Iran are lifted - but still the US are working on their missile defense system. What is the point of this?

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

Russia is the biggest country in the world. It would be very difficult to surround it, and the world is changing so fast that it would basically be impossible, even in theory.

I believe that global common interests are a good foundation for finding solutions together.

Russia has not taken part and is not going to take part in any actions aimed at removing legitimate government.

In relations between the states ... the interests of the country should be correlated with the interests of other countries, and compromise is to be found when resolving the most complex issues.

It turned out that capitalism alone could make people not only rich and happy but also poor, hungry, miserable, and powerless.

Somehow, people always forget that it's much easier to install a dictator than to remove one

One of the strengths, and weaknesses, of liberal democratic societies is giving the benefit of the doubt even to one's enemies

Dictators seem to learn from history much better than democrats

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, compromises on principles are the street lights

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

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

As far as oligarchs who acquire sports team abroad, and invest money abroad, I wouldn't treat this phenomenon as something bad.

I spend a little time every day to play sports.

When the States already had nuclear weapons, and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels.

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

Terrorism has no nationality or religion.

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

What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master.

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

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

The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine.

My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.

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.