Putin
annual Q&A session 2015
Russia
sees no enemies among other countries and advises no one to treat it
as such. It wants to be America’s equal partner and refuses to be
Uncle Sam’s vassal. And Putin took Schröder to a Russian banya and
doesn’t want to be cloned.
These
are some of the highlights of President Putin’s 13th annual Q&A
marathon televised from Moscow on Thursday. The Russian leader spoke
for about four hours, falling some 50 minutes short of his previous
record. RT picked some memorable Putin quotes.
On
anti-Russian sanctions
“Pressuring
Russia with such measures is useless and senseless. I think our
partners will soon realize this and will at least try to seek
compromise instead of trying to fit us into the stereotypes they
consider right.”
On
passing the worst of the crisis
“Oil
prices did grow a little, but [recovery of the Russian economy] is
not directly linked to it, and experts see it. The ruble’s
appreciation is not linked to this rise, there are other factors.
Experts see that we have passed the worst of the problems with paying
our foreign debt, with our banking sector, with real sector
businesses. We corrected the ruble’s exchange rate and nothing
burst, everything is working.”
On
US vassals
“Big
superpowers which pretend to be exceptional and consider themselves
the only center of power in the world do not need allies, they need
vassals. I’m talking about the United States. Russia cannot exist
in such a system of relations.”
On
US repeating the USSR’s mistakes
“After
World War II we tried to impose on many Eastern European nations our
model of development and we did it through force. We must acknowledge
that. There’s nothing good in it, it still affects us today… The
Americans are doing something like that now, trying to impose their
model on virtually the entire world. They will fail too.”
On
Russia’s imperial ambition
“We
do not intend to rebuild an empire, despite what they are accusing us
of. We have no imperial ambition. But providing a decent living to
people, including Russians living abroad in countries close to us,
that we can do by developing cooperation with them… We don’t
really care if a Russian is living in this or that territory behind
the border, as long as he can visit his relatives freely, his living
standards improve, he feels himself a person of full value, his
rights are not violated, and no one forbids him to speak his
language.”
On
rumors that Ukrainian president offered Putin to take Donbass
Last
month some Russian media reported that Putin said at a closed
business meeting that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had
offered him the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine during the Minsk
talks in February. When asked for confirmation, Putin said:
“Nothing
of the kind. We discussed the issues of reviving the economy, the
social sphere of Donbass. There are many problems there.”
On
war with Ukraine
A
resident of a border town, where stray shells from the Ukrainian side
landed several times during the worst of the hostilities in eastern
Ukraine, asked Putin whether a war would start. He said:
“I
think it is impossible. Don't worry.”
On
political assassinations in Ukraine
Just
as the Q&A session was progressing, news broke in Ukraine that
prominent journalist Oles Buzina, who was in opposition to the
current government, was gunned down in Kiev. Putin said it was far
from being the first political assassination in Ukraine and compared
the situation to how Russia is handling the killing of former
opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
“In
Ukraine, which aspires to be a democratic country and seeks
membership in a democratic Europe [no thorough investigations of
these crimes] happen. Where are the killers of all those people?
There appear to be none. No killers, no people who hired them. And in
Europe and North America they prefer not to notice that.”
On
friends benefiting from his kindness
One
caller asked whether Putin’s friends benefited from his kindness.
Putin replied:
“Why
only friends? Everyone does.”
On
cloning Putin
There
was also a question whether Putin would like to be cloned or hire an
army of doubles to make Russian officials work better. He said no.
On
taking foreign leaders to banya
Answering
whether he had taken any foreign leaders to the traditional Russian
sauna, which is called a banya, the president had a story to tell.
“Former
German Chancellor Schröder and I were in my residence when he
visited me two years ago. We went to the banya, but a fire started. I
come out and tell him: Gerhard, look, we should go quickly. We are on
fire. He said, fine, but I’ll finish my beer first. I say: You’re
crazy, we’re on fire! But he still finished his beer. A man of
character!”
The
banya burned out completely, Putin added.
Ordinary
Russian farmer John
Among
several Russian farmers who called in to voice their grievances was a
man introduced as“ordinary Russian farmer John” by
a TV anchor. John Kopiski is all that. He is Briton, but moved to
Russia some two decades ago to marry a local woman and father five
children all while running a milk farm.
Kopiski
questioned the accuracy of the statistics that the Russian government
uses to formulate its policies. He doubted it because, as he said, in
the current business environment farms like his cannot be profitable
because the price distributers pay for their milk is too low. Putin
assured the farmer he was well aware of the problems Russian farmers
face, and said the preferred solution at the moment was subsidizing
agriculture bank loans.
From Sputnik News -
Sputnik
gathered the most memorable pieces from Putin's annual Q&A
session.
In
a 4-hour-long marathon televised session from Moscow, Putin
spoke about the Russian economy, the recovery of the ruble,
the Ukrainian crisis and the importance of finding a political
compromise between Russia and the West.
Besides
the meat and potatoes of Russian politics, the president took
on several less weighty, a bit amusing and somewhat funny
questions, answering them with ease in front of the
camera. Sputnik gathered the most memorable pieces from Thursday’s
Q&A session.
Farmer
John Kopiski, an Englishman who runs a farm in Russia,
complained that dairy farmers were struggling to keep their
businesses afloat and asked the President what could be done
to improve their situation. After addressing John’s concern
about his dairy business, Putin jokingly asked the Englishman
whether it was a woman who made him move to Russia to begin
with.
A
woman named Elena asked the president to tell her friend’s
husband to allow her to get a dog. Putin stood up for
the woman and asked Boris to do the right thing.
Next
was a 4-year-old boy from Nalchik who wants to become a
future Russian president. The little boy asked Putin how many hours
he sleeps. The president said it is important to sleep well
to be healthy.
Putin
was asked whether he had taken other foreign leaders to a banya,
the traditional Russian sauna. Turns out, the Russian president once
invited Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder to the banya
and while the two were bathing a fire started in the banya. When
Putin told his German colleague to leave the building
immediately, Schroder insisted on finishing his beer first.
max seddon
Putin says he went to the banya with Schroeder a few years ago and it burned down. Schroeder insisted on finishing his beer before fleeing.
Someone
asked Putin whether he wants to become a UN Secretary General
in the future. The Russian president firmly said “No”.
RBTH
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