Exclusive: Full Interview With Russian President Vladimir Putin

mr president it's been a long time since you sat down with an american television network almost three years i think thank you for your time there's a lot to discuss i hope we have time to get to all of the issues but i want to begin with some news from the u.s just today in the u.s it's reported that russia is preparing perhaps within months to supply iran with an advanced satellite system enabling tehran to track military targets is that true would you mind what kind of facilities no it's the report today is that russia is preparing to give or to offer to iran uh satellite technology which will enable iran to target uh military to make to make military targets we don't have that kind of programs with iran we it's just nonsense all over again yet again military and technical cooperation and all of this fits the framework of the decisions that were agreed upon in our program in regard to iran's nuclear program in the context of u.n decisions together with our partners in the preparation of the joint comprehensive plan of actions including in the area of military and technical cooperation should be lifted from iran do have certain programs they all concern conventional weapons if it gets that far however we haven't even gone to that stage yet we don't even have any kind of real cooperation even in the conventional weapons area so if anybody is making something up regarding modern space-based technology this is just plain fiction this is just fake news at the very least i don't know anything about this kind of thing those who are speaking about it probably know more about it it's just nonsense so presumably you'd agree that giving iran satellite technology that might enable it to target u.s service men and women in places like iraq or to share that information with hezbollah or the houthi in yemen so they could target israel and saudi arabia that giving iran that kind of satellite technology would be dangerous why are we talking about problems that don't exist there is no subject for a discussion has invented something has made something up maybe this is just a bogus story in order to limit any kind of military and technical cooperation with iran i will say once again this is just some fake information that i have no knowledge about solutions for the first time i'm hearing about this information from you we don't have this kind of intentions and i'm not even sure that iran is even able to accommodate this kind of technology this is like a separate subject a very high tech subject yes indeed we don't rule out that cooperation with many world nations and us is possible in space but probably everybody knows very well our position in terms that we are categorically against space militarization altogether we believe that space should be free from any and all kinds of weapons located in uh near earth orbits that is why we don't have this kind of plans or any plans especially concerning the transfer technology of the level that you have just described so let's move on to your summit with president biden at the context for the summit is that he is meeting with the g7 a group that you used to belong to with nato with european leaders president biden has defined his first trip to europe as quote about rallying the world's democracies he views you as a leader of autocrats who is determined to undermine the liberal democratic order is that true well i don't know somebody presents it from a certain perspective someone else looks at the development of the situation and at yours truly in a different manner all of this is being offered to the public in a way that is found to be expedient for the ruling circles of a certain country the fact that president biden has been meeting up with his allies there is nothing unusual about it there is nothing unusual about a g7 meeting we know what g7 is i have been there on numerous occasions i know what the values are in that forum when people get together and discuss something it's always good it's better than not to get together and not to discuss because even in the context of g7 there are matters that require ongoing attention and consideration because there are differences strange as it may seem there may be differences in assessments of international events on the international arena and among themselves very well then let them get together and discuss it as far as nato i have said on many occasions this is a cold war relic it's something that was born in the cold war era i'm not sure why it still continues to exist there was a time and there was some talk that this organization would be transformed now it has been kind of forgotten we presume that it is a military organization it is an ally of the united states every once in a while it makes sense to meet up with your allies although i can have an idea how the discussion goes along there clearly everything is decided by consensus however there is just one opinion that is correct whereas the other opinions all of the other opinions are not quite that correct putting it in careful terms well there we go allies are getting together what's so unusual about it i don't see anything unusual about it as a matter of fact it's a sign of respect to the us allies before a summit between the u.s and russian presidents take place probably it is being presented as desire to find out their opinion on the key issues of their current agenda including those issues that president biden and i will discuss however i'm inclined to think that despite all of these niceties the united states as far as their relationship with russia will be promoting what they consider important and necessary for themselves above all for themselves for their economic and military interests however to hear what their allies have to say about that probably never hurts this is a working procedure so let's talk about your uh meeting uh with president biden the summit that will happen after those meetings president biden asked you to meet with him he didn't make any preconditions were you we have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to what is the lowest point in recent years however there are matters that need a certain amount of comparing notes and identification and determination of mutual positions so that matters that our mutual interest can be dealt with in an efficient and effective way in the interests of both the united states and russia so there is nothing unusual about it in fact despite this seemingly harsh rhetoric we did expect suggestions because the us domestic political agenda made it impossible for us to restore the relationship at an acceptable level this meeting should have taken place at some point launched this initiative prior to that as you will know he had supported the extension of the start treaty which of course was bound to meet with support from our side because we believe that this is a treaty in the area of containment of strategic offensive weapons it has been worked through and thoroughly and meets our interests and meets the u.s interests so this offer could be expected will you go into the summit agreeing uh to begin more arms control talks immediately after the summit because as you mentioned president biden has extended new start by five years washington would like that to be the beginning not the end of that conversation um we understand these questions matters and problems we are prepared for this joint work yes we have certain if not differences then different understandings of what pays at what pace and in what directions we need to be moving we know what constitutes priorities for the u.s side and generally speaking this is a process that needs to be advanced at the professional level along the lines of the foreign ministry and defense ministry on the russian side and pentagon and the state department on the u.s side we are prepared for this work we've heard signals that the u.s side would like to see these negotiations resumed at this expert level of professionals we will see if the conditions for this have been created following the summit of course we're not saying no we are prepared to do this work president biden wants predictability and stability is that what you want no it's something well these are the most important things this is the most important thing this is the most important value if you will internationally sorry to interrupt you but he would say that you have caused a lot of instability and unpredictability and is different but if you ask my opinion now i'm telling you what it is the most important value in international affairs is predictability and stability i believe that on the part of our us partners this is something that we haven't seen in recent years what kind of stability and predictability could there be if we remember the 2011 events in libya where the country was essentially taken apart broken down what kind of stability and predictability were there has been talk of a continued presence of troops in afghanistan and then all of a sudden boom the troops are being withdrawn from afghanistan what is this predictability and the stability again now the middle east events is this predictability and stability what all of this will lead to or in syria what is stable and predictable about this i've asked my u.s counterparts you want assad to leave who will replace him what will happen when somebody replaces him the answer is odd the answer is i don't know well if you don't know what will happen next why change what there is it could be a second libya or another afghanistan do we want this no let us sit down together look for compromised solutions that are acceptable for all the parties that is how stability is achieved it cannot be achieved by imposing one particular point of view the quote unquote correct point of view whereby all the other ones are incorrect that is not how stability is achieved let's get to some of those issues i want to just talk a little bit more about your relationship with president biden um this will not be the helsinki summit uh president biden is is not president trump uh you once described president trump as a bright person talented how would you describe president biden well even now i believe that former u.s president mr trump is an extraordinary individual talented individual otherwise he would not have become a u.s president he's a colorful individual and you may like him or not and he didn't come of course from the u.s establishment he had not been part of big time politics before and some like it some don't like it but that is a fact president biden of course is radically different from trump because president biden is a career man he has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics he has been doing it for a great deal of years and i have already said that and that is an obvious fact just think of the number of years you spent in the senate and how many years he was involved in matters of uh international politics and disarmament virtually at the expert level that is a different kind of person and it is my great hope that yes there are some advantages some disadvantages but there will not be any knee-jerk reactions on behalf of the sitting u.s president and that we will be able to comply with certain rules of engagement certain rules of communications and will be able to find points of contact and common points that's about it and what will actually happen we will need to live and see based on the actual practical policies and results thereof well president biden says uh one time when you met you were inches away from each other close to each other and he said to you i'm looking in your eyes and i can't see a soul and you said we understand each other do you remember that exchange i should do sri is now as far as soul i'm not sure one has to think about what soul is but i do not remember this particular part of our conversations to be honest with you i do not remember we all when we meet when we get together when we talk when we work we strive and achieve for some solutions we all proceed from the interests of our nations and our states and this is fundamental and is the bedrock of all our actions and intentions and this is the driving force and the motive for organizing meetings of this kind and as far as soul goes that's something for the church yeah you're a religious man president biden is saying he told you to your face you don't have a song i do not remember this he says it was about it was 10 years maybe there's something wrong he was vice president with my memory well he probably has a good memory i i do not rule this out but i don't remember this generally in personal encounters people try to act appropriately i do not remember any inappropriate elements of behavior on the part of my counterparts i don't think that anything like that has happened would you have felt that was an inappropriate thing to say that depends on the context it depends on what form they're set in you know one can say it in different ways it can be presented in different ways but generally people meet up in order to establish a relationship and create an environment and conditions for joint work with a view to achieving some kind of positive results if one is going to have a fight with somebody else why bother and have a meeting to begin with one is better off looking into budget and social policies domestically we have many issues that we have to resolve what's the point then it's just a waste of time of course one can present this for domestic political consumption which i believe is what has been done in the united states in the last few years where the u.s russian relationship was sacrificed for the sake of a fierce political strife inside the u.s we can see that we know it well we have been accused of all kinds of things election interference cyber attacks and so on and so forth and not once not once not one time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof just unfounded accusations i'm surprised that we have not yet been accused of provoking the black lives matter movement that would have been a good line of attack what do you think we did not do that what do you think of the black lives matter movement i think that of course this movement was used by one of the political forces domestically in the course of uh election campaigns but there are some grounds for it let's remember colin powell who was secretary of state and he was also in charge of the pentagon even he wrote in his book that even he as a high-ranking official had felt some kind of injustice towards himself his entire life as someone with a dark complexion even from the ussr days and in russia we have always always treated with understanding the fight of african americans for their rights and there are certain roots to it there is a certain foundation for this but no matter how noble the goals that somebody is driven by if it reaches certain extremes if it spills over into extremism acquires elements of extremism we cannot approve this we cannot welcome this so our attitude to this is very simple we do support african americans fight for their rights but we are against any types and kinds of extremism which unfortunately sometimes regrettably we witness currently these days you mentioned cyber you mentioned cyber attacks um and deny any involvement uh by russia uh but mr president there is now a weight of evidence a long list of alleged state-sponsored cyber attacks let me give you five there's a lot but it makes a point the u.s intelligence community says russia interfered with the 2016 election election security officials said russia tried to interfere with the 2020 election cyber security researchers said government hackers targeted covid vaccine researchers hacking for coveted vaccines in april the treasury department said the solar winds attack was the world's worst with including not with targets including nine federal agencies and just before your summit microsoft says it's discovered another attack with targets including organizations that have criticized you at mr putin mr president president are you waging a cyber war against america take you have said that there is a weight of evidence of uh cyber attacks by russia and then you went on to list those official u.s agencies that have stated as much is that what you did well i'm telling i'm giving you information about who said it so you can answer that right you are conveying information to me as to who said that but where is evidence that this was indeed done i will tell you that this person has said that and that person has said this but where is the evidence where is proof there are charges like that without evidence i can tell you you can take your complaint to the international league of sexual reform will you be happy about it this is a conversation that has no subject whatsoever at least put something on the table so that we can look and respond but there isn't anything like that the latest thing as far as i know one of the latest attacks was against a pipeline system in the us right yes so what this is you'll mention just just just a moment as far as i know the shareholders of this company made a decision to pay the ransom they paid off the cyber gangsters if you have listed an entire set of u.s special services powerful respectable global after all they can't find whoever the ransom was paid too once they do that i hope they will realize that russia has nothing to do with it now there's some kind of a cyber attack they will say there was an attack against some easter eggs it's becoming farcical like an ongoing farcical thing a never-ending farcical thing plenty of evidence but you haven't cited any proof yet again but this is an empty conversation a pointless conversation what exactly are we talking about you've moved on to this question of uh ransomware and criminals uh russian-speaking criminals is the allegation are targeting the american way of life food gas water hospitals transport why would you let russian speaking criminals disrupt your diplomacy wouldn't don't you want to know who's responsible the simplest thing to do would be for us to sit down calmly and agree on joint work in cyberspace and we did suggest that to mr obama's administration we started in september during his last year in office they didn't say anything then in november they came back to us and said that yes it was interesting then the election was lost we restated this proposal to mr trump's administration the response was that it is interesting it didn't come to the point of actual negotiations there are grounds to believe that we can build an effort in this area with the new administration we hope that the domestic political situation in the united states will not prevent this from happening but we have proposed to do this work together let's agree on the principles of mutual work let's find out what we can do together let's agree on how we will structure counter efforts against this process that is gaining momentum we here in the russian federation have a cyber crime that has increased many times over in the last few years we're trying to respond to it we're looking for cyber criminals if we find them we punish them we are willing to engage with international participants including the united states you are the ones who have refused to engage in joint work what can we do we cannot build this work we cannot structure this work unilaterally well i'm not the government mr putin i'm just a journalist asking i understand questions but if you you clearly want to negotiate you must have something to negotiate with you you don't ask for a truce unless you're fighting in a war you know as far as the war nato officially i'd like to draw your attention to that nato has officially stated that it considers cyberspace a battlefield an area of military action and conducts military exercises and you're involved in that battlefield russia is fighting on that battlefield correct no no no really that is not correct really if we wanted to do that nato did say that it considers cyberspace an area of combat and it prepares and even conducts exercises what stops us from doing the same if you do that we will do the same thing but we don't want that just like we don't want space militarized in the same manner we don't want cyberspace militarized and we have suggested on many occasions agreeing on mutual work in this cybersecurity area but your government refuses to isn't i saw your proposal from from september from just in september isn't what you're proposing that if you can come to an agreement over hacking and election interference then you'll call off the hacking and the election interference if america agrees not to comment on your elections and your political opponents what we count on is that nobody should interfere in domestic processes in other countries neither the us and ours or we in the usa or any other nations all nations of the world should be given a chance to develop calmly even if there are crisis situations they have to be resolved by the people domestically without any influence or interference from the outside but i don't think that this called by the u.s administration is worth anything it appears to me that the us government will continue to interfere in political processes in other countries i don't think that this process can be stopped because it has gained a lot of momentum however as far as joint work in cyberspace to prevent some unacceptable actions on the part of cyber criminals that definitely is something that can indeed be agreed upon and it is our great hope that we will be able to establish this process with our u.s partners if you were in america what would you fear might happen next the lights being switched off the way they were in western ukraine in 2015 would i be afraid of if i were an american or or what what what should americans worry what might happen next if there's no agreement on cyber no it wasn't it this is a very dangerous area at some point in the past in order to achieve something in the nuclear area in terms of confrontation in the area of nuclear weapons the ussr and the united states did agree to contain this particular arms race cyberspace is a very sensitive area as of today a great deal of human endeavors rely upon digital technologies including the functioning of government and of course interference in these processes can cause a lot of damage and a lot of losses and everybody understands that and i'm repeating for the third time let's sit down together and agree on joint work and how to achieve security in this area that is all what is bad about it i don't even understand i'm not asking you i'm not trying to put you on the spot but for me as an ordinary citizen it would not be clear and understandable why is it that your government refuses to do it accusations keep coming including up to interference and involvement in a cyber attack against some kind of a meat processing plant but in the meantime our proposal to start negotiations in this area are being turned down this is some kind of nonsense but that's exactly what's been happening i repeat one more time it is my hope that we will be able to start engaging in positive work in this area in terms of what's to be afraid of why is it that we suggest agreeing on something because what people can be afraid of in america the very same thing can be a danger to us us is a high-tech country nato has declared cyberspace an area of combat that means they are planning something they are preparing something so obviously this cannot but worry us do you fear that american intelligence is deep inside russian systems and has the ability to do you a lot of damage in cyber i'm not afraid but i bear in mind that it is a possibility let me ask you about uh human rights an issue that president biden will raise uh mr president he'll raise the uh issue of alexi navalny targeted for assassination now in a russian jail mr president why are you so threatened by opposition who says that i feel threatened by opposition or we're threatened by opposition who told you who who told you that what a russian court has well well i rush excuse me i'm sorry a russian court has just outlawed organizations connected to mr navalny literally every non-systematic opposition figure is facing criminal charges in journalism and meduza and v times have been hit with foreign agent labels and face collapse mr president it's as if dissent is simply not tolerated in russia anymore you are presenting it as dissent and intolerance towards dissent in russia we view it completely differently you have mentioned the law on foreign agents but that's not something that we invented that law was adopted back in the 1930s in the united states the law and foreign agents and that law is much harsher than ours and it is intended among other things at preventing interference in the domestic political affairs of the united states what about this what about that it's a way of not answering the question let me ask you a direct question did you did you did you let me i will i will look let me answer i will look no let me answer you've asked me a question you're not liking my answers so you're interrupting me right away this is inappropriate so there we go in the united states this law was adopted a long time ago it's working and sanctions under that imprisonment yes yes yes correct again you're not letting me but i i will revert to us do not worry i will go back to us i will not remain focused on u.s problems exclusively because i will reverse the president and go back and comment comment on what's happening your belief was that nations shouldn't intervene in other countries domestic correct shouldn't correct on other countries politics but there you are doing it again no no no if you muster some patience and let me finish saying what i mean to say everything will be clear to you but you are not liking my answer you don't want my answer to be heard by your audience that is the problem you're shutting me down is that free expression or is that free expression the american way please answer thank you so thank you thank you very much here we go the u.s adopted this law we passed this law only very recently in order to protect our society against outside interference in the us if a foreign observer approaches a polling station the prosecutor says come a few feet closer and you'll go to jail is that normal is that democracy in the modern world but that is an actual practice in some of the states we don't have anything like that when i talk about these laws about non-interference or attempts at interference what do i mean as applied to russia many entities of the so-called civil society the reason i say so-called is because many of those entities are funded from abroad specific relevant action programs are prepared their core members are trained abroad and when our official authorities see that then in order to prevent this kind of interference in our domestic affairs we make relevant decisions and adopt relevant laws and they're more lenient than yours you have we have a saying don't be mad at the mirror if you're ugly it it has nothing to do with your person but if somebody blames us for something what i say is why don't you look at yourselves you will see yourselves in the mirror not us there is nothing unusual about it as far as political activities and the political system it is evolving we have 44 registered parties well 34 i think and 32 are about to participate in various electoral processes across the entire country in september we only have a limited amount of time there is also non-systemic opposition you have said that some people have been detained some people are in prison yes that is all true you mentioned certain names yes yes i i will i will talk about it i will not leave any of your questions unattended can i ask you can i just ask you a direct question did you order alexey navalny's assassination of course not we don't have this kind of habit of assassinating anybody that's one number two is i want to ask you did you order the assassination of the woman who walked into the congress and who was shot and killed by a policeman do you know that 450 individuals were arrested after entering the congress and they didn't go there to steal a laptop they came with political demands 450 people have been detained you're talking about the capital they're looking at jail time between 15 and 25 years and they came to the congress with political demands isn't that persecution for political opinions some have been accused of plotting to take over government power some are accused of robbery they didn't go there to rob the people the individuals whom you mentioned yes they were convicted for violating their status of individuals who had been previously convicted and given suspended sentences twice an individual was given suspended sentences essentially it was a warning not to violate the russian laws completely ignored the requirements of the law the court went on and turned the conviction into real jail time thousands and thousands of people ignore requirements of the law and they have nothing to do with political activities in russia every year and they go to jail if somebody is actually using political activities as a shield to deal with their own issues including to achieve their commercial goals then it's something that they have to be held responsible for there you go again mr president what about america when i've asked you about russia let me ask you you mentioned congress let me ask you another direct question that you can answer and it's an allegation that has been made an accusation that has been made again and again now in the united states the late john mccain in congress called you a killer when president trump was asked uh was told that you are a killer he didn't deny it when president biden was asked whether he believes you are a killer he said i do mr president are you a killer look over my tenure i've gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles from all kinds of directions under all kinds of pretexts and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness and none of it surprises me people with whom i work and with whom i argue on the international arena we're not bride and groom we don't swear everlasting love and friendship we are partners and in some areas we are rivals as far as harsh rhetoric i think that this is an expression of overall u.s culture of course in hollywood because we did mention hollywood at the beginning of our conversation there are some deep things that undoubtedly can be referred to as works of cinematic art but more often than not its macho behavior and that is also part of us culture including political culture and it is considered normal by the way not here it is not considered normal here if this rhetoric is followed by a suggestion to meet and discuss bilateral issues and matters of international policies i see it as desire to engage in joint work if this desire is serious we are prepared to support it i don't i don't think i heard you answer the question the direct question uh mr president i did answer i did i will add if you let me i have heard dozens of such accusations especially during the period of some grave events during our counter-terrorism efforts in north caucasus and when it happens i'm always guided by the interests of the russian people and the russian state and sentiments in terms of who calls somebody what what kind of labels this is not something i worry about in the least let me give you some names and anna polikovskaya shot dead alexander litvinienko poisoned by polonium uh sergey magninsky allegedly beaten and died in prison boris nemtsov shot moments from the kremlin moments from here uh mikhail lesson had died of blunt trauma in washington dc are all of these a coincidence mr president i don't want to come across as being rude but this looks like some kind of indigestion except that it's verbal in digestion you mentioned many individuals who indeed suffered and perished at different points in time for various reasons at the hand of different individuals you've mentioned lesson lesson used to work in my administration i liked him very much he perished in the united states died or perished i'm not sure which we should ask you how exactly he perished i regret to this day that he is not with us anymore in my opinion he's a very decent individual as far as the others we found some of the criminals who committed those crimes and some are in prison and we are prepared to continue to work in this mode and along this avenue identifying everybody who violated the law and by their actions damage including to the image of the russian federation however just piling everything together is meaningless inappropriate and baseless one sees this as a line of attack then very well let me listen to it one more time but i repeat i have heard it many times but this doesn't baffle me i know which direction to move in in order to secure the interests of the russian state let's move on to belarus and ukraine two issues that will certainly come up in your summit with president biden did you have prior knowledge that a commercial airliner would be forced to land in belarus and that a journalist would be arrested i did not know about this i didn't know about any airliner i didn't know about the individuals who were detained there subsequently i found out about it from the media i didn't know i didn't have a clue about any detainees i don't know it is of no interest to us you appeared to approve of it judging by your meeting with president lukashenko soon afterwards i said recently in one of my conversations with a european colleague i told him about the version of mr lokashenko who told me about it he said that information had been given to them that there was an explosive device on board the plane they informed the pilot without forcing the pilot to land and the pilot made a decision to land in minsk that is off can you believe that why should i not believe him ask the pilot it's the simplest thing ask the chief pilot as the commander of the aircraft did you ask him if he was forced to land because i have not heard or seen an interview with the aircraft commander that landed in minsk why not ask him why not ask him if he was forced to land why don't you ask him it's actually even odd everybody accuses lukashenko but the pilot hasn't been asked you know i cannot but recall another similar situation where the plane of the president of bolivia was forced to land in vienna at the orders of the u.s administration air force one presidential plane was forced to land the president was led out of the aircraft they searched the plane and you don't even recall that do you think it was normal so that was good but what lukashenko did was bad look let us speak the same language and let us use the same concepts if well lukashenko is a gangster how about the other incident then was it good in bolivia at the time it was seen as humiliation of the entire country but everybody kept mom in order to not aggravate the situation nobody's recalling that by the way of this kind with respect you're recalling it but so if it is if that means you gave him an example talking about a commercial flight shouldn't people be able to take a commercial flight across europe without fear of being shot down like in the case of mh17 or forced down so that a dictator can arrest a journalist i will tell you one more time what president told me i don't have any reason not to believe him for the third time i'm telling you ask the pilot why don't you ask the pilot was he being scared was he being forced the fact that information appeared that there was a bomb on the plane that individuals people had nothing to do with politics or any kind of domestic conflicts could perceive it negatively could worry about it of course that's a bad thing there is nothing good about this and obviously we condemn everything that has to do with this and international terrorism and the use of aircraft and so on of course we're against this and you've told me that the landing of the aircraft of the president of bolivia is a completely different matter yes it is different except that it is ten times worse than what was done if anything was done in belarus but you just won't acknowledge it you are ignoring it and you want millions of people around the world to either not notice it or forget about it tomorrow you won't get away with it it won't happen in the case of neighboring ukraine earlier this year the european union said you had more than a hundred thousand troops on the ukrainian border was that an attempt to get washington's attention look and i think is still doing that it kept bringing personnel and military equipment to the conflict area in the southeast of ukraine donbass that's one two is that we conducted exercises in our territory and not just in the south of the russian federation but also in the far east and in the north and in the arctic simultaneously military exercises were being held in different parts of the russian federation at the very same time the us was conducting military exercises in alaska do you know anything about it probably not but i'll tell you that i do know and that is in direct proximity to our borders but that's in your territory on your land we didn't even pay attention to it what is happening now now at our southern borders there is a war game defender europe 40 000 personnel 15 000 units of military equipment part of them have been airlifted from the us continent directly to our borders did we airlift any of our military technology to the us borders no we did not many of those why you any of those exercises are our response to your actions mr president do you worry that your opposition to nato has actually strengthened it for six years nato has spent more on defence some defense during the ussr era gorbachev who is still thank god with us you can ask him got a promise a verbal promise however it was a promise that there would be nato expansion to the east where are those promises two waves where is that where is that written down where is that promise written down don't do that right right right right right right well done well done correct you've got a point got you good well congratulations of course everything should be sealed and written on paper but what was the point of expanding nato to the east and bringing this infrastructure to our borders and all of this before saying that we're the ones who have been acting aggressively why on what basis did russia after the ussr collapsed present any threat to the united states or european countries we voluntarily withdrew our troops from eastern europe leaving them just on empty land our people there military personnel lived there for decades in what was not normal conditions including their children we went to tremendous expenses and what did we get in response we got in response infrastructure next to our borders and now you're saying that we're threatening to somebody we're conducting war games on a regular basis including sometimes surprise military exercises why should it worry the nato partners i just don't understand this we will you commit now not to send any further russian troops into ukrainian sovereign territory look did we say that we were planning to send our armed formations anywhere we conducted war games in our territory how can this not be clear i'm saying it again because i want your audience to hear it i want your listeners to hear it both on the screens of their television sets and on the internet we conducted military exercises in our territory imagine if we sent our troops into direct proximity to your borders what would have been your response we didn't do that we did it in our territory you conducted war games in alaska god bless you but you had crossed an ocean brought thousands of personnel and thousands of units of military equipment close to our borders and yet you believe that we are acting aggressively and somehow you're not just look at that pot calling the kettle black moving on the button administration has said that in your at your summit they will bring up uh the case of two u.s prisoners in russia um paul whelan and trevor reed uh they are two former marines uh trevor reed uh is uh suffering from uh kovid in prison uh why don't you release them ahead of the summit wouldn't that show goodwill i know that we have certain u.s citizens who are in prison have been convicted but if one considers the number of russian federation citizens who are in u.s prisons then these numbers don't even compare the united states in recent years has made a habit of catching russian federation citizens in third countries and taking them in violation of all international legal matters unless we can have more time i'm very happy to have to keep going for another 30 minutes i control the time here so don't worry about time your guy the marine he's just a drunk and a troublemaker uh what they say here he got himself shit-faced on vodka and started a fight among other things he hit a cop it's nothing it's just a common crime there's nothing to it as far as possible negotiations on this subject sure it can be talked about obviously we'll raise the matter of our citizens in prison in the united states yes it can be a specific conversation sure we're happy to do it although it doesn't seem that the us administration has raised that matter but we're prepared to talk about that our pilot yaroshenko has been in prison in the us for a good i don't know how many years 15 maybe 20 years and there the problem also seems to be a common crime we could and should talk about it but we haven't been talking about this but we could if the u.s side is prepared to discuss it so are we so his family will find that incredibly distressing to hear you talk about him that way it does sound though as if you would consider some kind of a prisoner swap there is there is nothing offensive about it he got drunk on vodka and started a fight he fought a cop there is nothing offensive about it these things happen in life there is nothing horrible about it somebody gulps down some vodka and starts a fight so you violate the law you go to prison what would have happened if you fought a cop in your country he would have been shot dead on the spot and that's the end of it isn't that the case and on the prisoner swap question is that something that you would consider are you looking to negotiate you're meeting with the president yes yes of course of course even better would be a discussion of the possibility of entering into an agreement on extradition of individuals who are in prison this is a standard international practice we have such agreements with several countries we are prepared to enter into such an agreement with the united states and just to be clear so we hear it from you which russian prisoners in the u.s would you be hoping to bring back to russia by name well we have a whole list i've just mentioned our pilot a pilot named yaroshenko who was taken to the u.s from a third country and was given a rather lengthy sentence he has some serious health issues but the prison administration is not paying attention to this you have mentioned that your citizen has coronavirus but nobody's paying attention to the health issues of our citizen we are prepared to discuss these issues moreover makes sense as you correctly said and i completely agree with you there are matters of humanitarian nature and why not discuss them as long as they pertain to the health and life of specific individuals and of their families of course sure thing just quickly before i move on on the subject of prisons again with alexi navalny will you commit that you will personally ensure that alexi navalny will leave prison alive such decisions in this country are not made by the president they're made by the court whether or not to set somebody free as far as the health all individuals who are in prison that is something that the administration of the specific prison or penitentiary establishment is responsible for and there are medical facilities in penitentiaries that are perhaps are far from the best condition and they're the ones whose responsibility it is and i hope that they do it properly but to be honest i have not visited such places for a long time i did visit one in petersburg some time ago and there was a very great impression that was made on me by the medical facilities in a prison but since then i hope some things have been done to improve the situation and i proceed from the premise that the person that you have mentioned the same kind of measures will apply not in any way worse than to anybody else who happens to be in prison that can be said for sure his name is alexey navalny people will note that you i don't care i don't care he would leave his name can't be anything he's one of the individuals who are in prison for me he is one of the citizens of the russian federation has been found guilty by a russian court of law and is in prison there are many citizens like that by the way our so-called prison population the people who are in prison in the last few years has been reduced by almost 50 percent which i consider a big victory for us and a major sign of the fact that our legal system is becoming more humane so he will not be treated any worse than anybody else nobody should be given any kind of special treatment it would be wrong everybody should be in an equal situation this is called the most favored nation treatment not worse than anyone else and the individual that you have mentioned that applies to him as well i appreciate the extra time mr president the team has been in quarantine for almost two weeks so this interview is very important to us i want to ask you about china china is working on its fourth aircraft carrier it has two russia has one and it's not in in service at the moment uh china refused to take part in arms control talks last year you complain so much about nato to your west why did you never complain about china's militarization to your east the first thing i want to say is that over the last few years the last few decades we have developed a strategic partnership relationship between russia and china that previously had not been achieved in the history of our two nations a high level of trust and cooperation and in all areas in politics in the economy in technology and in the area of military and technical cooperation we do not believe that china is a threat to us that's one china is a friendly nation it has not declared us an enemy as the united states has done china hasn't been don't you don't you know anything about this so that's number one number two is that china is a huge powerful country one and a half billion people in terms of purchasing power parity the chinese economy has exceeded the size of the us economy and in terms of trade for the previous year last year whereas the us dropped to the second position do you know about this china has been developing and i understand that what's beginning to happen is a certain well certain kind of confrontation with china everybody understands it we can see it why hide from this or be scared by these issues however we're not alarmed by it including among other things the fact that our defense efficiency as we call it is at a very high level including because of this but the most important thing is the nature and level of our relationship with china you said china will have four aircraft carriers how many does the united states have a lot more there you go that's my point why would we worry about the chinese aircraft carriers on top of everything else we have a vast border with china but it's a land border what do you think the chinese aircraft carriers will be sent to cross our land border into our territory this is just a meaning meaningless conversation but you also have a pacific coast but you're right there will be four of them yes there will be four of them coast well the coast is huge but the bulk of the border between us and china is a land border and yes you're right that there will be four of them because one needs to be in maintenance one it needs to be on combat duty one needs to be in repairs there is nothing excessive here for china that is why what you said that china won't engage in negotiations arms control it refuses to negotiate reductions in nuclear offensive weapons you should ask the chinese about it whether it's good or bad it's up to them but their arguments are simple and they're understandable the level both in terms of the amount of ammunition and warheads and delivery vehicles the united states and russia are far far ahead of china and the chinese justly asked why would we make reductions if we are already far behind what you have or do you want us to freeze our level of nuclear deterrence why should we freeze why we a country with a billion and a half population cannot at least set the goal of achieving your levels these are all debatable issues that require thorough consideration but making us responsible for china's position is just comical what do you think of china's treatment of the week is in xinjiang it's always possible to find individuals who criticized the central authorities i have met wiggers on my trips to china and i assure you at the very least from what i heard with my own ears that on the whole they welcome the policies of the chinese authorities in this area they believe that china has done a great deal for people who live in this part of the country from the perspective of the economy raising the cultural level and so on and so forth so why should i offer assessments looking at the situation indeed you know you know there are many uh uyghurs who do not say that and that america has accused china of genocide the secretary of state has accused china of genocide over the uyghurs there is the accusation of a million uyghurs in so-called concentration camps is that your message to the muslim communities in the former soviet union you don't think anything wrong is happening there muslim community in russia i need to give a message to it through the policies of the russian authorities muslims in the russian federation that is how i need to give a message to the muslim community in the russian federation russia is an observer in the organization of islamic conference about 10 percent of our population perhaps a little more are muslims they are citizens of the russian federation who do not have another fatherland they are making a colossal contribution to the development of this country and that pertains to both clerics and ordinary citizens why should i speak to and build a relationship with this segment of our population by reference to the situation in china without understanding thoroughly what is happening there i think you're better off asking about all these problems the foreign minister of the chinese people's republic or the state department it's just a question of whether you are prepared to criticize china china for example abstained on crimea at the security council china's biggest banks have not contravened american sanctions against russia do you think you get a hundred percent support from china wasn't it no you know we are neighboring countries as it has evolved over the last few decades and we cherish it just like our chinese friends cherish it which we can see why are you trying to drag us into some kind of issues that you evaluate as you see fit for building your relationship with china i will tell you completely honestly can i be completely honest we can see attempts at destroying the relationship between russia and china we can see that those attempts are being made in practical policies and your questions too have to do with that i have set forth my position for you i believe that this is sufficient and i am confident that the chinese leadership being aware of the totality of these matters including the part of their population who are uyghurs will find the necessary solution to make sure that the situation remains stable and benefits the entire multi-million strong chinese people including its uighur part you understand of course i'm just trying to question you about russia's position in relation to china and the united states let me ask you yeah let me ask you in a different way are you splitting off from the u.s space program and moving forward with china no no why would you say that we are prepared to work with the us in space and i think recently the head of nasa said that he could not imagine development of space programs without his partnership with russia we welcome this statement and can we just explain because the head of the russia space agency has threatened uh leaving the international space program in 2025 and specifically talked about sanctions in relation to that threat well honestly i do not think that mr rogazin which is the name of the head of ross cosmas has threatened anyone in this regard i've known him for many years and i know that he is a supporter of expanding the relationship with the united states in this area in space recently as i said the head of nasa spoke in the same vein and i personally fully support this and we have been working with great pleasure all of these years and we're prepared to continue to work for technical reasons though and that is a different matter is that the international space station is coming to an end of its service life and maybe in this regard ross cosmos does not have plans to continue their work however based on what i heard from our u.s partners they too are looking at future cooperation in this particular segment in their own way but on the whole the cooperation between our two countries in space is a great example of a situation where despite any kinds of problems in political relationships in recent years it is an area where we have been able to maintain and preserve the partnership and both parties cherish it i just think that you misunderstood the head of our space agency we are interested and i assure you in continuing to work with the us in this direction and we will continue to do so if our u.s partners don't refuse to do that it doesn't mean that we need to work exclusively with the us we have been working and will continue to work with china which applies to all kinds of programs including exploring deep space and i think there is nothing but positive information here frankly i don't see any contradictions here let me let me ask you one more way just to understand the relationship between china russia and the america if the people's liberation army made a move on taiwan how would russia respond to that are you aware of china's plans to militarily solve the taiwan problem i don't know anything about that as we frequently say politics do not require the subjunctive mood the subjunctive mood is inappropriate in politics there is no could be and would be in politics i cannot comment on anything that is not a current reality of the modern world please bear with me don't be upset with me but i think that this is a question about nothing this is not happening has china stated that it intends to solve the taiwan problem militarily it hasn't happened so far for many years china has been developing its relationship with taiwan there are different assessments china has its own assessment the us has a different assessment taiwan may have his different assessment of the situation but fortunately it hasn't come to a military clash i'm being told to wrap up but if i could just uh ask you a couple more questions sure please go ahead our own and our our own andrea mitchell uh saw just this month uh the last border crossing into syria uh where supplies literally keep people alive you're threatening to close that crossing in july [Music] at the security council why would you do that knowing that it will cause the death of refugees unfortunately there are already a great deal of tragedies there all our actions in their totality need to be geared at stabilizing the situation and bringing it into a normal course of events and with support of russia syria the syrian authorities have been able to bring back under their control over 90 percent of the syrian territory what needs to be set up now is humanitarian assistance to people irrespective of any kind of political context however our partners in the west in the west in general both the united states and uh the europeans have been saying that they're not going to give any help to assad what does assad have to do with it help people who need that assistance just the most basic things they won't even lift restrictions on supplies of medications and medical equipment even in the context of the coronavirus infection but that is just inhumane and this kind of cruel attitude to people cannot be explained in any way as far as the water crossings for delivery of humanitarian assistance there is the idlib area where combatants are still robbing people killing people raving people there is the al tanf zone which by the way is controlled by the us military recently we caught there a group of gangsters who had come from there and they directly said that they had specific goals as far as russian military facilities as far as border crossings our position is such that assistance needs to be given just as it should be done in the entire world and as it is provided for in the rules of international humanitarian law through the central government that is how assistance should be given and it should not be discriminated against and if there are grounds to believe that the central government of syria will plunder something will steal something well set up observers on the part of the international red cross and red crescent who will oversee everything i don't think that anybody in the syrian government is interested in stealing some part of this humanitarian assistance it just needs to be done through the central government and in this sense we support president assad because a different mode of behavior would be undermining the sovereignty of the syrian arab republic and that's all as far as the idlib zone the turkish troops there effectively controlled the border between turkey and syria and convoys cross the border without any restrictions on their numbers in both directions mr president you extended the constitution so that you could be president of russia until 2036. do you worry that the longer you are in power and without any sign of someone to replace you the more instability there may be when you finally do choose to leave office what will collapse overnight if we look at the situation in which russia was in the year 2000 where it was balancing on the brink of preserving its territorial integrity and sovereignty and the number of individuals living below the poverty line was colossal it was catastrophic the gdp level had dropped below anything that's acceptable our effects on gold reserves were 12 billion whereas our foreign debt was 120 billion if we counted in dollars now the situation is different there are many problems but the situation is completely different of course somebody will come and replace me at some point why would all of this collapse we've been fighting international terrorism we have nipped it in the bud is it supposed to come back to life i do not think so another matter is that on the political arena different people may emerge with different points of view well great very good you know i have linked my to such an extent that there isn't a more meaningful goal in my life than the strengthening of russia if anybody else and if i see the person even if that person is critical of some areas of what i have been doing if i can see that this is an individual who has constructive views that he or she is committed to this country and is prepared to sacrifice his entire life to this country not just a number of years no matter his personal attitude to me i will make sure i will do everything to make sure that such people will get support it is a natural biological process at some point naturally someday we will all be replaced you will be replaced where you are i will be replaced where i am but i am confident that the fundamental pillar of the russian economy and statehood and its political system will be such that russia will be firmly standing on its feet and looking to the future confidently and would you look from that person for some kind of protection the same way that you offered to boris yeltsin when you took over i'm not even thinking about that these are third tier issues the most important thing the single most important thing is the fate of this country and the fate of its people very good thank you very much for your time mr president we've gone over and i really appreciate it it was a really interesting conversation so thank you

Channel: NBC News

Views: 7,234,775

Rating: 4.5821233 out of 5

Keywords: vladimir putin, russia, putin

Id: m6pJd6O_NT0

Length: 82min 53sec (4973 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Command_Unit]

Hearing his opinion on china was very eye opening.

[u/hehez]

Interview? This is a state interrogator fishing for soundbytes for the consent manufacturing machine and failed miserably. What a cringe fest.

I gotta watch this steamroll again lol.

[u/rolldamnhawkeyes]

Holy shit I’ve never heard the Uyghurs or Xianjang or genocide openly talked about on tv, it’s really this bad huh?

“The US sec of defense has declared China is committing a genocide.”

Like so what? This shit is so unbelievably paper thin and Putin handles this prick like a boss

[u/FuzzyLittlePenguin]

Why would you let Russian-speaking criminals disrupt your diplomacy (referring to cyber-attack allegations)

Just because one can obtain a Russian IP address and transcribe variable names to Russian doesn't mean jack shit. Any criminal will scapegoat their actions. Might as well say, "Oh, it was a black man" in this political climate. Especially considering the leaked CIA Vault 7 tools provide such obfuscation.

UMBRAGE The CIA's hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a "fingerprint" that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity.

This is analogous to finding the same distinctive knife wound on multiple separate murder victims. The unique wounding style creates suspicion that a single murderer is responsible. As soon one murder in the set is solved then the other murders also find likely attribution.

The CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.

With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the "fingerprints" of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.

UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.

https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

[u/Orange0818]

"black lives matter was done for election campaigns" uhhhhhh not too sure about that chief. Putin, just like RT, sounds like a conservative when talking about domestic affairs. I think the George Floyd thing was so egregious that it spawned mass protests, not that it was "used" for an election campaign(s). You can see how similar Putin's thoughts on America are to RT's commentary. Their foreign policy and criticisms of monied influence in America's system is valid, but once they start talking about BLM conspiracies I get a little irked.

​

Also putin said "Gorbachov, who is thank god, still with us" lol

[u/Bruh5657]

Unfortunately his domestic policy is super cringe