Vladimir Putin quotes

Born
7 October 1952, Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.

Occupation
President, Politician.

Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician who is the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012. He was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, President from 2000 to 2008, and again Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012.

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

My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
– Vladimir Putin

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

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

I am convinced that the norm in Russia should become a family with three children.
– Vladimir Putin

I am not prejudiced in any way.
– Vladimir Putin

The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space.
– Vladimir Putin

The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.
– Vladimir Putin

No one should be allowed to violently trample on the law.
– Vladimir Putin

What is a Rechtsstaat? It is obedience to the existing law.
– Vladimir Putin

The Russian people have their own cultural code, their own tradition.
– Vladimir Putin

It’s alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States.
– Vladimir Putin

I don’t read books by people who have betrayed the Motherland.
– Vladimir Putin

The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine.
– Vladimir Putin

No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights.
– Vladimir Putin

The strengthening of our statehood is, at times, deliberately interpreted as authoritarianism.
– Vladimir Putin

Any people has a right to self-determination, and now in Europe the process of diluting national sovereignty in the framework of a united Europe is more accepted.
– Vladimir Putin

I spend a little time every day to play sports.
– Vladimir Putin

To pay more is the easy way. In fact, the solution possibilities to the problem are many.
– Vladimir Putin

In accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the issues of foreign policy and defense are fully in the hands of the president.
– Vladimir Putin

Stalinism is linked with a cult of personality and massive violations of the law, with repression and camps. There is nothing like that in Russia and, I hope, will never again be.
– Vladimir Putin

Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.
– Vladimir Putin

The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.
– Vladimir Putin

Stalin is the most popular figure in all of Russia.
– Vladimir Putin

I believe that the presidential term should be limited.
– Vladimir Putin

If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God’s sake.
– Vladimir Putin

Our military might is the guarantor of Russia’s security and independence.
– Vladimir Putin

Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.
– Vladimir Putin

A considerable share of the world’s population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.
– Vladimir Putin

In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased.
– Vladimir Putin

Those who fight corruption should be clean themselves.
– Vladimir Putin

Journalism, as concerns collecting information, differs little if at all from intelligence work. In my judgment, a journalist’s job is very interesting.
– Vladimir Putin

It is wrong to make anyone into an enemy; it is wrong to scare the people of one’s own country with that enemy and try to rally some allies on that basis.
– Vladimir Putin

Thieves must sit in prison.
– Vladimir Putin

There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy.
– Vladimir Putin

The more intermediaries there are, the more problems there are.
– Vladimir Putin

I swim almost every day, a thousand meters.
– Vladimir Putin

I think happiness is love.
– Vladimir Putin

Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.
– Vladimir Putin

All attempts to appease the Nazis between 1934 and 1939 through various agreements and pacts were morally unacceptable and politically senseless, harmful and dangerous.
– Vladimir Putin

Above all, such sports as judo, in my view, teach people to relate to each other. They teach us to respect a partner, teach us to understand that an externally weak partner can not only put up worthy resistance, but, if you relax and take too much for granted, may even win.
– Vladimir Putin

I love the Russian classics very much, the Russian classical literature. But I also read modern literature. As far as Russian literature is concerned, I am very fond of Tolstoy and Chekhov, and I also enjoy reading Gogol very much.
– Vladimir Putin

Russia is opposed to the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, including nuclear weapons, and in this context we call upon our Iranian friends to abandon the uranium enrichment programme.
– Vladimir Putin

Everything will probably never be OK. But we have to try for it.
– Vladimir Putin

At last, Russia has returned to the world arena as a strong state – a country that others heed and that can stand up for itself.
– Vladimir Putin

A figure who receives money from abroad for his political work, and thus serves some foreign interest, cannot be a politician in Russia.
– Vladimir Putin

President Obama hasn’t been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia.
– Vladimir Putin

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.
– Vladimir Putin

Nobody should pin their hopes on a miracle.
– Vladimir Putin

I’m sure corruption in Chechnya is minimal.
– Vladimir Putin

In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.
– Vladimir Putin

History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior.
– Vladimir Putin

Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right.
– Vladimir Putin

We should not just consume hydrocarbon fuel but use it to develop nuclear energy, hydro power and renewable energy sources.
– Vladimir Putin

The ability to compromise is not a diplomatic politeness toward a partner but rather taking into account and respecting your partner’s legitimate interests.
– Vladimir Putin

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.
– Vladimir Putin

I think the international community should unite to fight such inhuman phenomena as terror attacks and the murder of totally innocent people.
– Vladimir Putin

I myself know some people who are gay. We’re on friendly terms. I’m not prejudiced in any way.
– Vladimir Putin