Vladimir Putin Quotes
President of Russia
Those who fight corruption should be clean themselves.
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.
Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right.
Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.
Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.
The centuries-old history and culture of India, majestic architectural monuments and museums of Delhi, Agra and Mumbai have a unique attractive force.
We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
Nobody should pin their hopes on a miracle.
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 am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe, but in the whole world. I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia - I believe that is my greatest wealth.
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.
Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights and freedoms.
I don't read books by people who have betrayed the Motherland.
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.
Everything will probably never be OK. But we have to try for it.
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.
You need to put drones under control; you need to lay out certain rules of engagement in order to prevent or minimize collateral casualties. It is extremely important.
You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.
My English is very bad.
Terrorism has no nationality or religion.
Yes, life in Chechnya so far looks more like a life after a natural disaster.
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.
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.
In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased.
I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.
The democratic choice Russian people made in the early 90's is final.
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.
Politics should not interfere with sports. And sports should impact politics.
Political activities in Russia should be as transparent as possible. Financing political activities from abroad is something the state should keep an eye on.
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.
The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.
The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine.
I see that not everyone in the West has understood that the Soviet Union has disappeared from the political map of the world and that a new country has emerged with new humanist and ideological principles at the foundation of its existence.
The ability to compromise is not a diplomatic politeness toward a partner but rather taking into account and respecting your partner's legitimate interests.
It's a historical phenomenon that in 250 years, a nation could move from a colony into the most prosperous nation of the world and the leader of the world. It is indeed an achievement, a tribute to the talent of the American nation, the American people and an optimal political and economic system.
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.
We should not just consume hydrocarbon fuel but use it to develop nuclear energy, hydro power and renewable energy sources.
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.
Our aims are absolutely clear: They are a high living standard in the country and a secure, free and comfortable life.
Russia does not want confrontation of any kind. And we will not take part in any kind of 'holy alliance.'
I think happiness is love.
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.
To pay more is the easy way. In fact, the solution possibilities to the problem are many.
Despite all the achievements of civilisation, the human being is still one of the most vulnerable creatures on earth.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
NATO was built to counteract the Soviet Union in its day and time. At this point there is no threat coming from the Soviet Union, because there is no Soviet Union anymore. And where there was the Soviet Union once, there is now a number of countries, among them the new and democratic Russia.
Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.
Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.
The worst thing for a politician is to try and cling to power by every possible means, and focus only on that.
Indeed, Russia and the U.S. were allies during the two tragic conflicts of the Second and the First World Wars, which allows us to think there's something objectively bringing us together in difficult times, and I think - I believe - it has to do with geopolitical interests and also has a moral component.
I go to the gym, I swim daily and from time to time I meet with friends and do extra-curricular stuff.
It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.
Few people understand the magnitude of the catastrophe that happened late in the 1980s when the Communist Party had failed to modernize the Soviet Union.
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.
We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.
Construction of the first gas pipeline system was started during the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, and for all those years, from the 1960s until this day, Russia has been fulfilling its contract obligations in a very consistent and reliable way, regardless of the political situation.
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.
The strengthening of our statehood is, at times, deliberately interpreted as authoritarianism.
Terrorists are always a threat to someone. If we'll be scared of them, it means they have won.
The more intermediaries there are, the more problems there are.
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 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.
Thieves must sit in prison.
I believe the U.S. already understands and will understand more and more that only a strong Russia will respond to the genuine interests of the United States.
If the nation is not capable of preserving itself and reproducing, if it loses it vital bearings and ideals, then it doesn't need foreign enemies - it will fall apart on its own.
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.
Iraq is a small but very proud nation.
One can truly enjoy his or her life only while experiencing it, and it is inevitably related to a certain level of risk.
I swim almost every day, a thousand meters.
Stalin is the most popular figure in all of Russia.
Spying has always gone on since ancient times.
President Obama hasn't been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia.
Our society, including the liberals, must understand that there must be order.
If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God's sake.
Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan, 'You're either with us or against us.'
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
I am convinced that the norm in Russia should become a family with three children.
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.
Demographers affirm that choosing to have a second child is already a potential choice in favour of a third.
Russia will not soon become, if it ever becomes, a second copy of the United States or England - where liberal value have deep historic roots.
Libya is divided into tribes and clans.
Stalinism is linked with a cult of personality and massive violations of the law, with repression and camps. There is nothing like that in Russia and, I hope, will never again be.
Radicals can be found in any environment.
Nobody should have any illusion about the possibility of gaining military superiority over Russia. We will never allow this to happen.
I think the international community should unite to fight such inhuman phenomena as terror attacks and the murder of totally innocent people.
I think the American people should express their preferences, and we'll accept their choice.
Even during the years of the Cold War, the intense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we always avoided any direct clash between our civilians and, most certainly, between our military.
The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space.
I believe that the presidential term should be limited.
A considerable share of the world's population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.
In some of the states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony.
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.
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.
You can swim any way you like in the Dead Sea, actually.
No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights.
Any people has a right to self-determination, and now in Europe the process of diluting national sovereignty in the framework of a united Europe is more accepted.
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.
If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country.
I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work.
I spend a little time every day to play sports.