Vladimir Putin

It appears, our partners thought that this would never affect them, this counterproductive politics of restrictions and sanctions. But now we are seeing that this is happening.

At a certain point, we saw the police cracking down on the Occupy Wall Street activists. I won’t call the actions of police appropriate or inappropriate.

Recently one of Germany’s famous and popular publications wrote that President Trump is pushing Europe toward Putin. If we take this together with an earlier joke, that Russia influenced elections in the United States, then this all taken together starts sounding pretty funny. We apparently influenced the election of the U.S. President, and then he gifted us Europe. Total nonsense. There’s no way to describe this other than as a joke.

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

The Russian people have their own cultural code, their own tradition.

Between major countries, there certainly always are some common ground and points of tension.

Business power is very far from benign and it’s completely unaccountable. It’s a totalitarian system that has an enormous effect on our lives. It’s also the main reason why the government isn’t benign.

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

Mass education was designed to turn independent farmers into docile, passive tools of production. That was its primary purpose. And don’t think people didn’t know it. They knew it and they fought against it. There was a lot of resistance to mass education for exactly that reason.

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

When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.

Sometimes – history needs a push.

The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages…onward, to victory!

Another way to solve the traffic problems of this country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars be allowed to use the highways.

Well, I do think there’s blame — yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at — you look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either.

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

Demographers affirm that choosing to have a second child is already a potential choice in favour of a third.

We are no longer a leader. Putin has become the leader, and it’s an embarassment to our country.

I prefer to be in the grave in Colombia than in a jail cell in the United States.

The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill.