Vladimir Putin

Our society, including the liberals, must understand that there must be order.

Nationalizing the whole oil sector would be a difficult and highly dangerous process, which could have negative consequences not only for the sector but for the whole economy.

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.

I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.

I think it’s fine when the mayor of the biggest city in Russia consults the president.

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

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

Kim Jong-un speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

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.

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.

It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.

[on Donald Trump] seems determined to add to the dangers [in the global situation] by recklessly escalating the confrontation with North Korea, unilaterally launching missile strikes on Syria, opposing President Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran and backing a new nuclear arms race.

While greatly honored internationally, Mandela remained on the US terrorist list until 2008, when at last a congressional resolution allowed him to enter the ‘land of the free’ without special dispensation.

[living at the White House] This isn’t about us. There’s so much history here that no one family can claim this space as their own.

I hold it to be… a detestable maxim that, politically speaking, the people have a right to do anything.

Let’s defend the principle of a society that cares for everyone and everyone cares for everyone else.

In 1995, Russia virtually gave Chechnya de facto statehood and independence even though, de jure, it didn’t recognize Chechnya as an independent state. And I would like to emphasize strongly that Russia withdrew all of its troops, we moved the prosecutors, we moved all the police, dismantled all the courts, completely, 100 percent.

The Russian parliament has condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

I would not use the term “totalitarian” to refer to the American system of “brainwashing under freedom.” It is, nevertheless, a remarkably effective system, a fact that is rarely recognized, analyzed or understood.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.