There's certain things that we do work with Russia on and then there's certain things when they do something wrong, I have no problem calling them out on it.
China and Russia play very different roles. They both are getting involved across the world in all different pockets. Their tentacles are everywhere. Russia is doing it through elections and through military actions and through trying to get involved in conversations. China is doing it economically. If you look at their infrastructure, they are everywhere in the world now and they want to continue to do that so that they have a stronghold.
Political stability was at most a factor in assessing developing countries or Russia. It is now also an issue in Western democracies.
I expect that Trump believes we do not have an obligation to have a Cold War with Russia, but that he is very cautious.
Russia is modernizing its nuclear systems. They're moving toward more effective tactical nuclear systems. They're moving toward delivery systems designed to evade anti-ballistic missile defenses. The Russians are investing, by the way, in robotic weapons, including a potential robotic tank. Their investment in new technology, I suspect, outweighs all of the European defense research and development spending combined.
You cannot compare America and Russia.
When I remember my life in Russia it is in totally dark colours.
The book that really, really shaped my politics and has forever is Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," which is a novel based on terrible fact about what it was like in Russia during Stalin's time when people actually believed that to get to the point where the Proletariat would triumph, anything that was necessary to be done should be done; the means didn't count.
I know [Arthur Koestler] fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was in prison, I think, in Spain and in Russia. He came to the United States; that's when I saw him in the mid-1940s.
The amount of respect with which I engage Saudi Arabia, I engage Iran with the same amount of respect. The amount of respect with which I speak to America, I speak to Russia with the same amount of respect.
The Olympics create a space for the complete destruction of human rights in Russia.
Now I want to use money in a good way. I make foundations back home in Russia, I have sponsored vaccinations for more than one million children in my homeland and I have founded scholarships in the names of my great Russian compatriots - Oistrakh, Richter, Gilels, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schnittke.
We try to coordinate regularly with Russia, as well as with others - except for the United States - on what is happening in the region. And we're open to discussing with everybody the situation in Syria, because we believe it's a common threat.
Iran is the greatest national security threat America faces. Russia does continue to battle us in the U.N. time and time again. I have clear eyes on this.
Russia on its path has oftentimes discussed and overdiscussed what had happened earlier, instead of moving forward. The result is always the same: It is very difficult to move forward when you're looking backward.
In Russia, there are those who make their money in criminal ways, but I earn everything myself.
With Yeltsin, the Soviet Union broke apart, the country was totally mismanaged, the constitution was not respected by the regions of Russia. The army, education and health systems collapsed. People in the West quietly applauded, dancing with and around Yeltsin. I conclude therefore that we should not pay too much attention to what the West is saying.
What Donald Trump is determined to do, as someone who has spent a lifetime looking for deals, is to see if we can have a new relationship with Russia and other countries that advances the interests of America first and the peace and security of the world.
Hillary Clinton said her number one priority was a reset with Russia. That reset resulted in the invasion of Ukraine.
The provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength.
America is stronger than Russia. Our economy is 16 times larger than the Russian economy.
America's political system is superior to the crony corrupt corrupt capital system in Russia in every way.
What you have in President Trump is someone who is willing to, and is, in fact, engaging the world, including Russia, and saying, where can we find common interests that will advance the security of the American people, the peace and prosperity of the world? And he is determined to come at that in a new and renewed way.
The small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the United States, to the point where all the United States of America, the greatest nation on Earth, just withdraws from talks about a ceasefire while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defense system in Syria while he marshals the forces and begin - look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.
I go and film 50 people in Israel, 50 people in Russia, and 50 people in Romania, in Paris, because I really like to get some particles of something real.
