“No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights.”

Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. This must be a product of internal domestic development in a society.

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

I am not prejudiced in any way.

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

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

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

The path towards a free society has not been simple. There are tragic and glorious pages in our history.

There are fundamentals of democracy, and they should be understood universally in different countries.

What is a Rechtsstaat? It is obedience to the existing law.

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

My English is very bad.

Russia and China are very natural partners. We are neighbors with an immense common border.

Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right.

Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the major geopolitical disaster of the century.

Prisons where people can’t even work is the worst punishment you can think of. And I don’t think we should put all convicts in such facilities where people are deprived of their freedom.

Russia’s big owo.