Vladimir Putin > Quotes

“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”
― Vladimir Putin

“I have some rules of my own. One of them is never to regret anything. Over time, I came to the conclusion that this was the right thing to do. As soon as you start regretting and looking back, you start to sour. You always have to think about the future. You always have to look ahead. Of course you have to analyze your past mistakes, but only so that you can learn and correct the course of your life.  ”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them. ”
― Vladimir Putin

“One has to be insincere and promise something which you cannot fulfill. So you either have to be a fool who does not understand what you are promising, or deliberately be lying.”
― Vladimir Putin

“Bike is the most democratic transport vehicle. Bike is the most daring, challenging as it gives its owner the tempting feeling of freedom, that is why one can say without any exaggeration, bike is a symbol of freedom," Putin said.”
― Vladimir Putin

“He who does not regret the break-up of the Soviet Union has no heart; he who wants to revive it in its previous form has no head.”
― Vladimir Putin

“To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them there is up to me.”
― Vladimir Putin

“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as [inherently] exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”
― Vladimir Putin

“It's better to be hanged for loyalty than rewarded for betrayal”
― Vladimir Putin

“I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives.”
― Vladimir Putin

“There is no happiness in life, there is only a mirage on the horizon, so cherish that.”
― Vladimir Putin

“Maybe they have nothing else to do in America but to talk about me.”
― Vladimir Putin

“Haha come fight us now Napoleon”
― Vladimir Putin

“Yo what up BOYZZZZ”
― Vladimir Putin

“To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me.”
― Vladimir Putin

“My English is very bad.”
― Vladimir Putin

“I have always loved and avidly read the novels of Jack London, Jules Verne and Ernest Hemingway. The characters depicted in their books, who are brave and resourceful people embarking on exciting adventures, definitely shaped my inner self and nourished my love for the outdoors.”
― Vladimir Putin

“Or stay in Chechnya and wait to be attacked? What should we do? I have said what we must do. We must go through the mountain caves and scatter and destroy all those who are armed. Perhaps after the presidential elections, we should introduce direct presidential rule there for a couple of years. We must rebuild the economy and the social services, show the people that normal life is possible. We must pull the young generation out of the environment of violence in which it is living. We must put a program of education in place . . . We must work. We must not abandon Chechnya as we did before. In fact, we did a criminal thing back then, when we abandoned the Chechen people and undermined Russia. Now we must work hard, and then transfer to full fledged political procedures, allowing them and us to decide how we can coexist. It is unavoidable fact: We must live together. We have no plans to deport Chechens, as Stalin once solved the problem. And Russia has no other choice. Nobody can impose a solution on us by force but we are prepared to take maximum consideration of Chechen”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“Our society must understand that a minority--a certain category of people-- must be paid very well by the state, so that they can secure the interests of the majority. When will we finally begin to understand this? Our people aren't stupid. It's just that it hasn't been explained the right way.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President

“The meaning of our whole life and existence is love. It is love to the family, to the children, to the motherland (the world). This phenomenon which appears complicated lies at heart of any of our behaviors. It is exactly the top priority which all of us should go after, and I am absolutely sure that we will succeed.”
― Vladimir Putin

“The Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat, as the saying goes. It knows whom to eat and is not about to listen to anyone, it seems.”
― Vladimir Putin

“So there was basically the same kind of conflict in Peter as Yeltsin had with the Supreme Soviet [parliament]? Yes. But it is important to note that there wasn’t the same division between the law-enforcement agencies that there had been in 1991. The FSB11 leadership—Viktor Cherkesov was the head—announced their support for the mayor from the start. The FSB introduced a number of measures advocating the arrest of extremists who were plotting provocations, planning to blow things up, or trying to destabilize the situation. And that was the end of it.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“You want to establish a state of your own: you are welcome! But what are the terms? I will recall the assessment given by one of the most prominent political figures of new Russia, first mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. As a legal expert who believed that every decision must be legitimate, in 1992, he shared the following opinion: the republics that were founders of the Union, having denounced the 1922 Union Treaty, must return to the boundaries they had had before joining the Soviet Union. All other territorial acquisitions are subject to discussion, negotiations, given that the ground has been revoked.
In other words, when you leave, take what you brought with you. This logic is hard to refute. I will just say that the Bolsheviks had embarked on reshaping boundaries even before the Soviet Union, manipulating with territories to their liking, in disregard of people's views.”
― Vladimir Putin, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians: Essay by President Putin, Including His Other Statements and Speeches on the Same Theme

“Did you suffer? Terribly. In fact, it tore my life apart. Up until that time I didn’t really understand the transformation that was going on in Russia. When I had come home from the GDR, it was clear to me that something was happening. But during the days of the coup, all the ideals, all the goals that I had had when I went to work for the”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“Have you read the things that were published in Moskovskiye Novosti and Ogonyok in those days? For instance, General Kalugin’s exposures?10 Kalugin is a traitor. I saw Kalugin during my time in Leningrad when he was deputy head of the Directorate. He was an absolute loafer. A loafer, perhaps, but he remembers you. He doesn’t remember anything. He does remember, and he says that from the point of view of the intelligence service, you worked in a province and had nothing to show for your performance. Oh, he doesn’t remember a thing. He couldn’t remember me. I had no contact with him, nor did I meet him. It is I who remembers him, because he was a big boss and everybody knew him. As to whether he knew me, there were hundreds of us.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“У нас есть люди крайних взглядов, националистических, как в России, так и в Украине, но в целом, в большинстве своем – это один народ, народ одной истории, одной культуры, очень близкий этнически”
― Vladimir Putin

“KGB, collapsed. Of course it was incredibly difficult to go through this. After all, most of my life had been devoted to work in the agencies. But I had made my choice.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“If he gave an assignment, he didn’t really care how it was done or who did it or what problems they had. It just had to get done, and that was that.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“They invited a large investor, Coca-Cola, to take over a plot of land in Pulkovo Heights and install high-capacity power and communications cables, hoping that other companies would follow suit. It worked. After Coca-Cola developed their piece of land, Gillette came, then Wrigley, and then some pharmaceutical companies. An economic zone thus took shape within the city, where total investment now exceeds half a billion dollars. Furthermore, with the Committee’s encouragement, the city’s infrastructure began to be modernized to create the conditions necessary for successful business. The first major deal that Putin supported was the completion of a fiber-optic cable to Copenhagen. This project had been initiated back in the Soviet era but never completed. Now the efforts were successful, providing St. Petersburg with world-class international telephone connections.”
― Vladimir Putin, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

“To forgive the terrorists is up to god but to send them to him is up to me.”
― Vladimir Putin