When asked about the allegations that his government hacked into DNC servers, he said allegations were nothing but another instance of playing the “anti-Russian card”.
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From Tokyo’s perspective, better relations would allow Russian Federation and Japan to form a counter-balance to China, the region’s rising power.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday (Sept 3) spoke of their joint resolve to settle once and for all a territorial row over a string of tiny islands that has marred ties for more than seven decades. “Surely what’s important is the content of what was released to the public”, Putin said in an interview with Bloomberg News at an economic forum in Russia’s far east.
He also hinted that the U.S. backed the revolution that led to the diplomatic upheaval in 2014. Yet, after it was ratified, Tokyo ignored the agreement.
Putin said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed to Russian Federation eight initiatives for cooperation in the economic sector during this visit to Sochi. Experts view recent rapprochement efforts as a positive development for Moscow’s trade ties with stalwart USA ally Tokyo, but doubt that they will result in a resolution of their territorial dispute.
“I hope that it will become the center of global cooperation”, he added.
Talks between Russian Federation and OPEC on an output freeze collapsed in April after Iran insisted that it should be able to keep raising production that was depressed for years by worldwide economic sanctions.
Iran has pledged to increase its production to pre-sanctions levels of 4 million barrels per day. He said he views the attacks on Russian Federation as “part of the US political culture”.
In a telephone conversation last month, Putin and May agreed to meet to improve poor relations, expressing dissatisfaction about the state of ties, the Kremlin said at the time.
The dispute over the South China Sea involves rival territorial claims from China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
What is unfair is the current oil price, Putin said, but added that Moscow can deal with it. “We wish it were a little higher, but all in all we are OK with it”, he said.
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President Putin has given a rare hint about who might replace him as Russia’s head of state, suggesting that his successor should be “a fairly young yet mature person”.
