Putin doing stuff

Yes, he had humour and diplomacy. So did his predecessors (Mitterand, Giscard d'Estaing): it was another era. In the same situation, Sarkozy responded "casse-toi pov'con" (something like "get the f* out poor asshole"). Hollande, when he had flour on him, was not happy and the woman had been taken to the police station. The current president, you know how he is. It's another era in France, the era where presidents no more worry about their image, the importance of showing the illusion of a democraty, because they have full whealth, all powers, and because now the programming is complete.

Previous president where diplomatic. So was Chirac. That doen't mean he is a man of peace, lots of wars have been directed under his presidency too. Don't forget that Chirac, who ran for election for the 3rd time without succeeding the other times, has been elected by forcing, because people didn't want to elect his opponent, Jean-Marie Lepen, not because they appreciated Chirac. Don't you remember the 'vote pour faire barrage à Lepen"? (the vote for block the way of Lepen). History repeats, Macron has been elected because "block against the "racist" Lepen daughter"

France never put his veto on Iraq war at the UN. At that time everyone in France was against Iraq's invasion: people manifestations in France, all political parties, even Chirac opponents, even Lepen (known as the Arabs' racists), all parties! Such an unanimity should have encouraged Chirac to oppose his veto. Because he was afraid of usa, afraid for his economy? Look at Putin, he opposes veto without fear! THIS IS being a president! I don't judge a president on his beautifull words, but on his acts. @ca and Ellipse.

Coming on Putin's thread and saying about Chirac's "good stuff" is displaced! Chirac at the same level as Putin :rotfl:
 
"Strong sensations": 20 years ago, Putin took to the air on a Su-25 attack aircraft

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The President visited the country's oldest creative university - the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov.
 
Another year has passed. Putin had another 4 hour plus press conference today:

There is a translated transcription on the website of the Russian Government: Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference

Below is a section where Vladimir Putin talks about Ukraine:
Here is my first point regarding the Minsk Agreements and disbanding, as you said, administrative bodies in the unrecognised republics.

Former president Petro Poroshenko who represented Ukraine at the Minsk talks, which were followed by the Minsk Agreements, insisted on having this document signed by the leaders of these two unrecognised republics. They just grabbed me by the throat, all three of them, and representatives of these unrecognised republics refused to sign. I am giving you, so to speak, the inside facts about our talks in Minsk. However, we managed to persuade them, and they signed the document. Thus, Ukraine itself recognised the existence of these authorities. This is the first part of the Ballet de la Merlaison, so to say.

The second part is that the elections were held there, and the people cast their votes. This, I believe, is a very democratic way of organising government bodies.

Third, the Minsk Agreements themselves outline explicitly the rights of these republics, and what they are entitled to claim. Everything is spelled out there about the language, the local police, and so on.

The next aspect has to do with what it is all about, and I am getting to the controversial part. I will not hide anything, and there is no need to do it. People in both Russia and Ukraine must know what these agreements are about.

There is a clause about withdrawing mercenaries and foreign troops and closing the border. Under the Minsk Agreements, the process of closing the border is to begin on the second day after an election takes place, and to be completed only after an inclusive political settlement is achieved, including amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution and these republics acquiring the rights as set forth in the Minsk Agreements. As soon as this is done, the border can be completely sealed.

Finally, let me respond to the question about the withdrawal of foreign troops. There are no foreign troops there. Yes, there are local militias, local self-defence forces staffed with local residents. I get questions all the time: Where did they get tanks or heavy artillery? Look, conflicts and hostilities of all kinds are unfolding in many hotspots around the world, involving tanks, artillery, etc. Where do they get them? Probably from those government agencies that sympathise with them. But let me emphasise that these weapons are theirs, not foreign.

As for the mercenaries, I have just said in Paris that there are French and Germans fighting there on both sides. We must address this issue of mercenaries, but they are not the bedrock of these armed groups.

You know what the main problem is? I will be completely honest with you. The most important problem is that there is a lack of willingness to resolve this question through dialogue with the people. We have yet to see any willingness to move in this direction, instead of trying to create favourable conditions for resolving the problem by force using tanks, artillery and air power. I said: air power was used. And the current President of Ukraine replied: What air power? He did not even remember or did not know this. But they did use air power, you see?

As soon as we, or rather the Ukrainian leadership, abandon what I believe to be a completely misguided approach to resolving this problem and move into dialogue mode, this is when there will be a path towards a solution. It is stated in the agreements that they need to restore economic and other infrastructure, but instead they just cut off this part of the country from the Ukrainian territory by imposing a blockade. Was Moscow the one who imposed this blockade? The Kiev authorities were the ones who did it.

However, we are seeing some positive shifts in this sphere, at least I hope we do. As you already know, there are some changes for the better there. At least there are crossing points, and the demining effort is underway. This is not enough. A lot has to be done to improve the lives of the people who live there. But it can be done.

If we proceed from this premise and focus on finding common ground and promoting dialogue, the problem will be resolved. If attempts to strangle them by force continue, I do not think that it can be done. There is a saying that people in Donbass never yield under pressure. It definitely has a ruffian and aggressive side to it, but this is how people feel deep inside. People who live there have a sense of pride, so this problem is unlikely to be resolved by force.

The gas war. You mentioned three billion. Let me point out that part of our reserve money from the Russian National Welfare Fund is invested in Ukrainian bonds: $3 billion, exactly. There is a court ruling from London on this, but it is not fulfilled.

Speaking about gas relations, it is a complicated and sensitive issue. We want to solve this problem. As someone who has a degree in law, I believe that this ruling of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is not legal but more likely political. Here’s one of the grounds for this ruling (everyone here will find it strange, too, but it is interesting): “…due to the difficult economic situation in Ukraine.” That is nonsense. But it is written there. They should have refrained from writing such a phrase.

Well, we have the court decision, it is true, and we must proceed from this. We will proceed from this and look for a solution that would suit everyone, including Ukraine, while preserving transit through Ukraine, despite the construction of new facilities, such as Nord Stream 1, Nord Stream 2, and TurkStream. The question is what the volume of transit and contract duration will be.

Let me also note that we are not going to sign any contract to stop transit later. No, we are interested in this, we want to do this; it is a good route.

By the way, the Ukrainian route to Europe is longer than via the Baltic Sea. It is longer and more expensive for us. But it is a good and well-known route to Central and Southern Europe, and we are ready to preserve it. We would also be ready to provide Ukraine with a gas discount of 20–25 percent, as I have already mentioned, by the way. It can be done.

This would also mean decreasing costs for the end consumer instead of increasing them as you are planning now. Starting from January 1, 2020, all the discounts will be cancelled, as far as I know, and the average gas price will be $300 for all categories of consumers, including individuals.

I think we will come to an agreement. By the way, we are already making headway. We will try to make Ukraine happy with the agreement, too. We do not want escalations in the energy sector that can be used to affect the situation in Ukraine.

We are interested in Ukraine getting the resource properly, so that our consumers in Europe are calm about us having normal relations with our neighbours and that everything goes as planned.
 
Just a few hours after Putin Press conference a terror act was committed today near the FSB-Headquarter in Moscow Putins Press Conference was held not far away in the World trade center in Moscow. One wonders of course if that was a message toward Putin and Co.:

 
A photo series of what Vladimir Putin has been doing in the last 20 years is being published, so far only the first four years, but the rest is coming. The Russian presentation of the event on channel one is on Выпуск программы "Время" в 21:00 30 декабря 2019 года. Новости. Первый канал
It is being published as it December 31st 2019 is 20 years since President Yeltsin retired and asked Vladimir Putin to take over his responsibilities.

For the Russian version see http://20.kremlin.ru/
For the English version see Путин. 20 лет
 
For all the "party animals" out there interested in watching Putin videos tonight, here's his New Year Message for 2020 :love: t:wizard:


Thanks Ant22. Call me sentimental but he sounded just like a father and parent who wishes that we make fond memories for our children to take into their futures.

Their National Anthem at the end of his talk never fails to move me. All in all understated stuff but potent.

The Chinese presidents New Year greetings has a whole different mood and content. GDP's, space programmes and national developments. The contrast is stark and maybe gives us a peep into different psyches and attitudes.

All in all, a lesson in opposites.
 
The Kremlin recently started to publish a lot of Pictures and Video Material about Putin from their archives. It spans the 20 years Putin has been in power in Russia and as of now includes 3,500 photos and 300 videos, many of which have never been seen before. You can find it here. Each event is accompanied by a short written historical summary of what happened on that date when the video/picture was taken.

Putin: 20 Years is an album of archival photographs and video footage, mainly from the President’s personal photographers and camera team. The album features selected events over a period of the past 20 years that Vladimir Putin has served as President and Prime Minister. More than 3,500 photos and 300 videos are now available at 20.kremlin.ru/en.

The "About the Album" page reads (translated out of russian via Yandex) as follows:

This project is not an encyclopedia, not a chronicle, and certainly not a collection of reports on the work done. This is a multimedia album that contains highlights and interesting milestones related to Vladimir Putin's work as head of state and Prime Minister of Russia for 20 years. Of course, it is impossible to tell about everything: fortunately or unfortunately, there are not so many events that would be equally significant for everyone. These are either joyful or, on the contrary, tragic pages of our history. But both found a place in this project.

Some of the materials collected here are widely known, some have probably already been forgotten, and some of them are published for the first time. Among the working and Protocol subjects, there was a place for informal events.

We hope it was interesting.

The project is based on the archives of personal operators and photographers of the President, Prime Minister, TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies.

Here is a new short clip about new Material that has been published there:


The album is chronogically ordered. If you click on the years you can go through each picture/video in order as it happened.
 
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