Vladimir Putin

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.

There are both things in international law: the principle of territorial integrity and right to self-determination.

There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy.

I think: the powers like to talk about ‘freedom’ in order to wash the population’s brains.

The worst thing for a politician is to try and cling to power by every possible means, and focus only on that.

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

Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin’s still learning.

Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism.

You don’t have to set limits on your talent and your ambition – or those of your children. You don’t have to be grateful to survive in a world made by others.

I don’t mind what Congress does, as long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

Black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves.

There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

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

The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country.

But that [‘friendly Fascism’] requires an honest ideologue, a Hitler type, not someone whose only detectable ideology is Me.

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.’

I am most anxious that in dealing with matters which every Member knows are extremely delicate matters, I should not use any phrase or expression which would cause offence to our friends and Allies on the Continent or across the Atlantic Ocean.

Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It’s not 3,000. It’s tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

If every human rights atrocity is described as a Holocaust,[Adolf] Hitler’s attempted obliteration of the Jewish people is diminished or de-recognised in our history.