The Russian leader has rejected the reporters’ claims that after 2007 he changed compared with “the young Putin” who was friends with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, made common cause with the United States and called against confrontation with Europe, TASS reports.
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“They are telling lies”. Despite the existence of evidence showing the facts on the ground, Russia’s critics “prefer to ignore it”. “This can be corroborated”, the President said.
“We have done everything wrong”, Putin told BILD publisher Kai Diekmann and BILD politics editor Nikolaus Blome last week, according to a transcript provided to Business Insider.
“We were too late”, he said.
“I believe it’s necessary to move towards constitutional reform [in Syria]”.
“The Russians and Americans did not cite Assad [during the negotiations] and did not talk about his departure and that is clear backtracking”, he said. “And after that, on the basis of the new constitution, [Syria should] hold early presidential and parliamentary elections”, he said.
“Only the Syrian people can decide who should govern the country in the future”, Putin said.
“First the Syrian population has to be able to vote, and then we will see if Assad would have to leave his country if he loses the election”.
However, he added, it is “quite premature” to discuss the issue. “That was more hard than [it would be] to shelter [Bashar al-] Assad”.
Today, Putin says, he has a “businesslike” relationship with Merkel.
“After September 11, I was the first to phone President [George] Bush and express my solidarity”, Putin added.
Evidence of Russian airstrikes killing civilians in Syria is “phony” and claims that Russia is targeting rebel groups rather than the Islamic State terror group are “lies”, Vladimir Putin has said. But if Russia’s interests and security are threatened, Russian Federation will resist. “In my view, that is a misguided position”, said, answering a question on Obama’s remarks.
“I think that speculations about other countries, an attempt to speak disrespectfully about other countries, is an attempt to prove one’s exceptionalism by contrast”.
“It was not Russia that cut off cooperation through the G8 or the Russia-NATO Council”.
“From the beginning”, Putin replied, “we failed to overcome Europe’s division. However, the problems that have emerged have nothing to do with Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership; nobody has attacked Turkey”, Putin told the German newspaper Bild in an interview.
“I repeat, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has to protect its members from attack, but nobody has attacked Turkey”.
In the wide-ranging interview, Putin also condemned NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders and at an anti-missile shield being created by the United States, saying the West had exacerbated global crises, Reuters said.
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Moscow share prices on Monday dropped by more than five percent as Russian Federation s energy-dependent economy reels from low oil prices and fluctuations on the Asian market.
