Russia will not cling to START-3, expects non-interference in the events in Belarus from the outside and the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, is not afraid of possible disagreements with Turkey and does not exclude the extension of the current OPEC+agreements,
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke answering questions from participants of the Valdai international club discussion on Thursday.
While in his opening speech, the head of state focused mainly on world problems, calling on the international community to use the pandemic as a starting point for a global rethinking of what is happening on the planet, in his responses, he focused on specific problems, both external and internal.
ABOUT START-3
"We do not cling to this agreement. If our partners decide that it is not necessary, well, so be it, we can't keep them. <...> Our security, the security of Russia will not suffer from this, especially because we have the most modern weapons systems."
The United States should start a "direct, substantive, professional conversation" on this topic, and Moscow is not against discussing both the inclusion of new weapons in the agreements (which Washington insists on) and the involvement of China in them. "We just do not need to shift the responsibility for making this Treaty multilateral. If someone wants to do this, let them do it, we don't mind."
About Nagorno-Karabakh
"For us, both Armenia and Azerbaijan are equal partners," and no one is "more interested in resolving the situation in Nagorno - Karabakh than Russia."
"I would very much like this compromise to be found. You know, I am in very close contact with President [of Azerbaijan] Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister [of Armenia Nikol] Pashinyan. I talk to them on the phone several times a day. Our Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, and heads of special services are in constant contact."
"I very much hope that our American partners will act in unison with us and will help resolve the conflict. Let's hope for the best."
About disagreements with Turkey
Moscow is not afraid of possible disagreements with Ankara over the policy of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who allegedly seeks to expand his country's zone of influence to the borders of the former Ottoman Empire.
"I know that Turkey is really interested in collaboration to be continued."
About Belarus
"Russia did not interfere in what was happening there. We expect that no one will interfere, no one will promote this conflict in their own interests and impose any decisions on the Belarusian people. < ... > We need to give the Belarusians themselves the opportunity to calmly understand the whole situation, make appropriate decisions, including, perhaps, these decisions are on the way to amend the current Constitution."
About Kyrgyzstan
"What is happening there is a misfortune, a misfortune of the Kyrgyz people: both the elections and the coup." But any careless intervention from outside "destroys the fragile, nascent institutions of sovereignty and statehood" in such "young" countries.
"Of course, we cannot look at what is happening there without pity and anxiety. But we don't interfere. We do not meddle with our advice and instructions with the support of some individual political forces. We very much hope that everything will be normalized in Kyrgyzstan, it will get back on its feet, it will develop and we will maintain the best relations with it."
About OPEC+
"We believe that we do not need to change anything now, but we do not rule out that we can either keep the current restrictions on production, or not remove them as quickly as we planned to do earlier. And if necessary, maybe we will take other decisions on further reduction. < ... > But so far, we do not see such a need today."
About Navalny
"As soon as the wife of this citizen [Alexey Navalny] contacted me, I immediately instructed the Prosecutor's office to check the possibility of traveling abroad for treatment, meaning that they could not have released him, because he had restrictions related to the judicial investigation. He had restrictions on leaving. < ... > But I still asked the Prosecutor General's office to allow it, and he left."
We need to work together to investigate what happened with Navalny. "I still say this: if this is so (and Navalny, as they say in the West, was poisoned with a substance of the Novichok family-ed. TASS), we will certainly conduct an investigation. Unfortunately, we have had cases where attempts were made on public figures and businessmen. And all this was investigated in Russia, the perpetrators were found and punished. We are ready to work with full dedication in this case as well."
On the role in history and amendments to the Constitution
"I don't think about my role in history in any way, let those people who are interested in it think about it. <...> I just work day after day, solving current problems and turning my eyes to the future so that these current tasks do not interfere with the achievement of strategic goals."
"The amendments to the Constitution <...> are not only aimed at giving the current head of state the right to be elected in 2024 or even at a later date. They are mainly aimed at strengthening the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, defining our development prospects, creating a fundamental constitutional basis for the development of the economy and social sphere and strengthening our sovereignty."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS