“Several years ago, it seemed, we were quite close to the settlement, but things turned out to be different”, Putin said.
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Particularly Putin stated that Russian Federation will make its contribution to the settlement of the conflict, but, of course, the final decision should be made by the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“I hope the leader of Chechnya and other leaders of Russian regions will be aware of the degree of their responsibility. and will come to realize that to act and to formulate their attitude to opponents in extreme ways will not be helpful to political stability, just the other way round”, Putin said.
Using a Russian idiom, Putin added: “As we say, husband and wife are the same devil”.
The dispute over four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has prevented the two countries from concluding a post-World War II peace treaty.
“I’m happy with my life”, he said, adding: “Maybe one day I’ll satisfy your curiosity”.
The relationship between Putin and Erdoğan has been deteriorating ever since Turkey shot down a Russian military jet that entered its airspace in November.
He said Russia’s foreign reserves had returned to the level of early 2014 at 387 billion dollars. “We will develop relations with all our partners including our neighbors based on our interests”, Putin said.
“This danger always exists if due attention is not spared to the fight against terrorism”, Putin said.
In patriotic rhetoric, Putin boasted that Russian Federation “cannot be manipulated” and must be “spoken to with respect”.
A visibly uncomfortable Putin avoided giving a direct answer, saying he believed Russians were more interested in his performance as president than they were in his private life.
He said he did not expect that Western countries would in the near future lift the sanctions imposed over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Many of those who got through were able to plead with him to deal with local problems and punish officials, such as the first caller, who complained there was “one hole after another” on her road in the Siberian city of Omsk.
A 12-year-old girl asked Putin whether he would choose to save Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko first if they were both drowning.
He delivered a spirited defence of his friend Sergei Roldugin, who, according to reports based on the so-called “Panama Papers” leaks, has a business empire involved in offshore transactions that might be linked to Putin.
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“Around Aleppo, the situation is very hard”, Putin said.
