Paul Ryan Quotes

I'm not a big fan of Putin. I'm not a big fan of Russia.

Western States keep playing with, and around, Russia.

Other than being crazy enough to press a button, there is nothing that Putin can do militarily to fundamentally alter American interests.

I often heard Latvians compare Russia and America. Latvians find both countries and their leaders possessed of the same mysterious confidence.

America simply prefers to deal with dictators.

Russia doesn’t like it when it is humiliated, when it is pressured.

Anti-Western resentment and Russian patriotism appear particularly pronounced in Putin’s personality and life experiences, but a different Russian government not run by former KGB types would still be confronted with the challenge of weakness vis-à-vis the West and the desire for a special role in the world. Russia’s foreign policy orientation, in other words, is as much a condition as a choice. But if Russian elites could somehow redefine their sense of exceptionalism and put aside their unwinnable competition with the West, they could set their country on a less costly, more promising course.

The potential for regional conflict in the absence of an internationally active America is real.

Vladimir Putin is not our friend and never has been.

Putin is very - not the smartest guy in the world.

When Presidents Trump, Putin and Erdogan are mentioned in the same breath here in Germany, as they are all too often, this is a false equivalence that cannot be tolerated.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

You cannot compare America and Russia.

Ukraine is the instrument for Russia to test the West's 'red lines'

We have our differences with Russia. And some of those differences produce conflict. But by no means is this the Soviet Union. We have far more areas of cooperation with Russia than we have areas of conflict.

Donald Trump is going to have to live in the real world in which Vladimir Putin is exactly who he presents himself to be, and Putin is extremely skilled. He's not going to make it very easy for the United States or Germany. And he's going to test Trump.

Many politicians in the West cling to the notion of a partnership with Russia. They want to include [Vladimir] Putin, make compromises and constantly negotiate new deals with him. But history has taught us that the longer we pursue appeasement and do nothing, the higher the price will be later on. Dictators don't ask "Why?" before they seize even more power. They ask: "Why not?"

Today Russia announced that it will join America's fight with the terror group ISIS. Then Putin said, "But I did not say which side.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

Attempts to put pressure on Russia and to compel it to abandon its values, truth and justice have no prospects whatsoever.

Much of our national debate proceeds as if China and America were locked in a zero-sum game in which one's loss is precisely the other's gain.

Putin is going to do what Putin is going to do.

The threat to Russia isn't liberal Europe or America. It is nonliberal Islam and nonliberal China. Russia has to change. It can't be otherwise. It will take time. You have to be patient.

Foreign policy is about choosing from nasty options.

The US is a difficult partner, but an indispensable one. Everyone who have had to do with US politicians and diplomats knows they aren't easy to deal with. That is because of their immense sense of power. But an alliance with the US is absolutely necessary because of our relations with, on the one hand, Germany and France, and, on the other, Russia.