Vladimir Putin

In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased.

Despite all the achievements of civilisation, the human being is still one of the most vulnerable creatures on earth.

But do the governors themselves need that? Are they ready to line up under the vertikal? They are. After all, the governors are part of the country, and they also suffer from management weaknesses. Not everyone is going to like everything. You can’t please everybody, but you can find some common approaches. I was also interested in learning more about the country. I had only ever worked in St. Petersburg, apart from the time I spent abroad. . . . Of course, my seven years of experience in Peter was good experience, both administrative and managerial. But Peter isn’t the whole country. I wanted to travel and see things. So, why did you drop that interesting job and go to work as director of the FSB? Do you have some affinity for the agencies? No. I wasn’t asked whether or not I wanted to go, and they had given me no inkling that I was even being considered for such an appointment. The president simply signed a decree. . . .

One can truly enjoy his or her life only while experiencing it, and it is inevitably related to a certain level of risk.

I don’t regret anything. I did everything absolutely correctly.

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

Distress is so severe that among white middle-aged Americans, mortality is actually increasing, something unheard of in functioning societies apart from war or pestilence. There are similar phenomena in Europe under the ‘business first’ (‘neoliberal’/’austerity’) assault.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

If a prospective Presidential approach can’t be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn’t been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won’t “sail” anyway. Send it back for further thought.

Germany is the place where when Hitler was the prime minister and supreme commander, he burned over six million Jews. This is because Hitler and all German people knew that Israelis are not people who are working in the interest of the world and that is why they burned the Israelis alive with gas in the soil of Germany.

We all have an equal interest in stability and security throughout Europe. The years the OSCE has existed, and particularly this year, have given rise to great expectations and at the same time to powerful disappointments.

Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.

Both prisons and inner-city schools target a kind of superfluous population that there’s no point educating because there’s nothing for them to do. Because we’re a civilized people, we put them in prison, rather than sending death squads out to murder them.

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

Banning guns is an idea whose time has come.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

I would bet if you took a poll in the FBI I would win that poll by more than anybody’s won a poll.

The day I made that statement, about the inventing the internet, I was tired because I’d been up all night inventing the Camcorder.

Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.

I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work.

Ex-Presidents of the United States get state subsidies. Not so in Russia. You get no government support.