Vladimir Putin Quotes

I don't worry about superpower confrontation. You know, I lived through the Cold War days, and where everybody was worried about a Soviet Union armed to the teeth. I think we're going to get along fine with Russia, and I don't see them as internationally ambitious.

I do believe that both countries, China and Russia, that both of them are responsible countries.

I should drag in the United States.

That's the problem with Russia: The world has changed. Europe is not at war, and no one wants to negotiate with us. The world has changed, but Russia prefers to pretend it has not.

Anybody who says it is in America's interest to not have better relations with Russia doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to geopolitics.

President Trump say that relations between the United States and Russia may be at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

We have a much bigger objective. We've got to look at the long run here. This is an example - the situation between the United Nations and Iraq - where the United Nations is deliberately intruding into the sovereignty of a sovereign nation.... Now this is a marvelous precedent (to be used in) all countries of the world.

What Donald Trump is determined to do, as someone who has spent a lifetime looking for deals, is to see if we can have a new relationship with Russia and other countries that advances the interests of America first and the peace and security of the world.

It's better to get along with Russia than not.

With all this talk about the supposed strain in relations [with the Soviet Union], there is an inference that somehow it is our fault. But we didn't kill Russian civilians by shooting down a civilian airplane. We didn't attempt to conquer an adjacent country to ours. We didn't walk out on negotiations and refuse to give a date for when we would resume.

I have respect for leaders who defend the interests of their countries. Angela Merkel policies are positive for Germany, but they are unfortunately harmful for all other countries.

I believe that we are going to get along very well with him [Josef Stalin] and the Russian people - very well indeed.

This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.

If America can have a great relationship with Russia and with China and with all countries, I'm all for that. That would be a tremendous asset.

It would be much easier for me to be so tough - the tougher I am on Russia, the better. But you know what? I want to do the right thing for the American people. And to be honest, secondarily, I want to do the right thing for the world. If Russia and the United States actually got together and got along - and don't forget, we're a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. There's no up-side.

The friendships of nations, built on common interests, cannot survive the mutability of those interests.

If America could get along with Russia - and by the way, China and Japan and everyone. If we could get along, it would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.

I talk with countries, whether it's the Arab states or in the Middle East, and they talk about how they're glad to see us fighting against Iran. I talk with different countries in reference to Syria, and we talk about how we can get the Iranian influence out. We're talking about North Korea and what we need to do and the pressure we need to put on China. They're happy that we're finally beating up on Russia for what they've done in the Ukraine.

Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good.

The United States supports a strong, united Ukraine with productive and peaceful relationships with both the East and the West, with both Russia and Europe.

Finally we are a nation with some conscience. It means alliances are extremely important when they're based on a national interest. We have to have the ability to sustain our presence within those alliances.

We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington.

It's not just Iraq - it's the Atlantic partnership which is at stake.

This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.

For the Kremlin, it is more feasible to preserve its great-power status in cooperation with the United States than in confrontation.