Please sit down. Good morning. I have brought something with me so ill start off with our economic performance. If i have the opportunity, oh, you brought me another copy. Thank you. So ive got some more info with me. I will try to use your questions to share the most important data with you and that is a lot of relevance with what will happen in the future. I will try to get to your questions as soon as possible. Its a press conference and i dont want to take too much of your precious time. Its a great opportunity for you to do your duty to ask the questions that you feel are relevant for our people so lets start with the questions. Usually the first person to ask a question is a veteran from the kremlin but this year i would like to give the first question. [inaudible] this is a new generation of journalists and he was one of the most active media organizations. Thank you very much. I did not expect it. Mr. Putin, why are you running for president. What is your goal. What is your mission. What you want to accomplish for russia . What is your vision of russia at the end of your term if you win . Thank you. I have painted my vision of russia many times and there have been massive vents were have spoke and shared my visions during other interviews so it should be a forward leaning russia. It should be a modern country. We need to have a flexible political system. Our economy should rely on hightech and productivity should increase multiple times. I dont want to talk about my election promises that i should have and i will have as many other candidates print ive almost finalized it but its not the right time to present it. Here are the main things we need to focus our attention. The relevant vote for the government and for our people. We need to develop our infrastructure of healthcare, education and hightech, increasing labor productivity, and without doubt our ultimate goal to increase income of our people so thats in Broad Strokes but im sure well go back to these issues over and over again. Hello mr. President. While we were waiting for your announcement to declare, their other people nominating themselves, but there reading is within the margin of error. Why do you think in the 20 years that you have been ruling that we did not have an influential opposition candidate. Is it just boring for you maybe to run without worthy opponents . There was a poster that said byebye. Im sorry ive got poor eyesight. The one who is afraid of me sai Vladimir Putin byebye. Or they call you grandpa. I have a question about children and language. Should i asked the question right now . Lets do it right now. You know that our republic and many parts of russia had this issue of language and the ministry of education made this decision about minority languages so we would not know if you may revisit this issue in a year or two or three. Do you have any plans to consolidate different provinces. Number one. I dont think that the National Issue is really irrelevant one, and what we are doing about languages is to ensure one goal, every child needs to have a level Playing Field so you just raise the question, but they dont only live, they also live in other russian regions. Everyone should have a level Playing Field so i think its important to know the Mother Tongue of your ethnic group but you should also learn russian. If you take russian universitie universities, training is done in the russian language so children should know the russian language really well to be able to study at a russian university. The same applies to the chechen language and other languages of different ethnic groups. That is something we really should cherish and support. We have to admit that after certain events in the collapse of the soviet union in the 1990s, we have to admit that many of the regions were formed and established randomly and some of the regions economically if you take other republics with the ethnic majority, heres my signal. We wont impose anything on those regions because that would have detrimental effects on the unity of russia. Each nation, each ethnic group needs to find a form of coexisting with the russian people that they find most appropriate. simplest answer would be well, should i train for myself . But ive been thinking a lot about the fact the political system just like our economical system should be a competitive one. And that is my goal. I would like to have a balance that is consistent. Competition is vital. Well, we dont have a highprofile opposition figures, and they are not, they cannot compete with those in power. Russia is a specific, very specific country. Young people dont really remember what happened back in the 1990s and early 2000s. They not compare with what we have today. We do have a lot of problems today, and we just come together to talk about problems. We wont try to wear any rose tinted glasses. But take our gdp. Our gdp has grown 25 since the year 2000 and and Industrial Production has grown 60 . And gdp grew by 75 , Industrial Production by 70 . Manufacturing has been growing really fast, like 60 . Real wages slowed down due to the crisis in the past three years, but since the 22,000, real wages have grown by 3. 5 times. Pension has grown by 3. 6 times. Child death mortality rates are cut by 2. 7 . And maternity mortality decreased by four times. We have also reversed the demographic trend. We do have some problems here, but nevertheless, we managed to reverse that trend. So we had to downward slopes, but we will take additional measures. I will talk about it today. Im sure we will be able to go back to normal. The Life Expectancy was 65. 3. Right now it is almost 73. We were living in a state of a civil war for a long time, like six years. Ten years of the civil war. When 18 year old boys untrained, unqualified were sent to the front lines, and now fastforward to today. We have a strong army and our debt is down by three times, and our countrys reserves have grown by 30 times. Thats an outcome, thats an achievement. As for the opposition, they shouldnt just arrange protests in the streets and talk about the antipeople, antiputin regime. May need to talk about efforts to improve our lives. Certainly we could have better and i admit that people have our right to say that we could do better, but what about the platforms of opposition leaders . Take a look at them. I feel theres a lot of doubt about their platforms. Thats the root of the problem. They nucci present a real agenda. Not an agenda based on buzz or protest. But im sure we let such an agenda. We will have an opposition figure sooner or later. Lets continue. I have to let andre, hes been covering the president of the Russian Federation for 18 years, of strictly speaking 15 years, but still, quite a lot. My question is very simple. Mr. Putin, youre running as come let me explain, you can run on your own behalf. You could write on behalf of the movement or a political party. So very briefly, who do you belong to . And to continue this question, people say that there are some disagreements among your staff asked who will be your competing manager. Would you please announce the person who will run your campaign. Well, i will run on my behalf, and i definitely hope that i will be supported by some popular movements, parties, or any of the groups that share my views and that endorse my views. And so i really rely on broad support from our people. As for my campaign, we talked about it yesterday. We dont have final decision. Disagreements, yeah, we do have disagreements and disputes but we are not finalized anything. Its a technical issue but its an important one. I would want to be represented by people who enjoy the respect and whose support that policies that has been conducting over the past years. Lets go to right over there. Maria, leningrad. Mr. Putin, at your annual press conference event, a lot of people come to you with the problems including personal problems. We all remember that the girl, she was only admitted to the hospital after you intervened directly. Why do you think so many people think that you are the only recourse, the only solution to the problems. Why did he think that have to appeal to the president directly and how much time will be necessary for you to resolve all the problems of all the russian people in this kind of a Manual Control boat . And my second very brief question relates specifically to im sorry. Recently you in leningrad and they made a decision about building a new road there. There is another construction project which is also highly important, the question of funds was a result for the first rule but the federal government can help us with this second construction project as well . Building the road to leningrad. Thank you. When i respond to the first question, i said thats one of the government priorities, the next year is to come should developing infrastructure, roads, airports, ports, telecom. So definitely any construction particularly and area like leningrad. It will be a priority. So we need to finalize what is being done. We need to have a belt road. We when you have additional roads come otherwise leningradl not get the right road and thats what it deserves. So i cant tell you right now that the decision was taken tomorrow. We also need the resources that we have at our disposal and requirements of other regions except as i said, we do have a list of priorities, infrastructure, healthcare education, hightech. And the income for of our peop, but we need to get, we need to find some sources for it. Its no secret over the past 12 months we have weekly meetings with experts and so with government officials, trying to pin point though sources of income, those drivers. And many experts agree that, you know, we have been some of the sources that they been presenting will not yield any results. So when we get down to handson discussions, really practical discussions, even experts realize that there will be no yield or very little yield. So its really hard to find those new drivers, new sources of income. So but its certain that will definitely work on those projects. The first question was on socalled Manual Control. Thats a myth. I think it is exaggerated. If you take russias regions, if you take in moscow the essential authorities that have been head of governments for four years, in 1999, and four years just recently, you cannot imagine the workload of the government. Its the toughest job in the executive power. You cannot really interfere in any issue. We sometimes dont have clear idea of whats happening in russias regions. Thats bad. We need to have a big picture of whats happening anywhere, but thats why we hold these press conferences. Thats what we have those direct lines. People often criticize. People often say its a smelly but thats not correct. Thats not right. Its channeled feedback. People get a chance to reach out to the government, and those tools of Manual Controls definitely are needed to make it more systemic. Following every direct line, i i meet with the governors of russian regions and i present them with a list of problems at the people have voiced its i dont feel thats bad. Its just in addition to the overall systemic work that weve been conducting not just a question on International Affairs. Before the recent escalation, escalation cycle and tension, we still had some of events like the u. S. Pulled out of the Missile Defense agreement. Now the imf agreement has been under fire. Looking ahead, what about the new s. T. A. R. T. Treaty . Will it survive . What if something happens to it . We will have to, this case, increase the Defense Budget and healthcare and education will have to suffer. Well, we did not withdraw from the fundamental treaties that are the cornerstone of the International Security architecture. We did not withdraw from the treaty. It was the United States you did that. Now we are hearing things about immediate range missiles. I think this is propaganda campaign, in preparation for the u. S. To withdraw. Actually, they have actually withdrawn. Already they are accusing as but what did they do . They deployed a Missile Defense system in romania, and the way they did it is they deployed aegeus launches. They moved them from c to land. And those systems can be easily converted or replaced. Those interceptor missiles could be replaced with intermediate range missiles. So this process is already underway. And if things continue to go this way nothing good will come out of it. We dont plan to withdraw from any treat ourselves. As regard to our treaty, yes, state are talking, they no longer need to treaty. Yes, they do talk about this. So if the United States does this again, if they withdraw from this treaty unilaterally, this love a very negative effect on International Security. With regard to a defense spending, we are aware of whats happening in the world here we know what the outcomes of those actions can be. We will maintain our security without starting a new arms race. There was a second part to this question. My question was if increase defense spending affects social spending, as far as military spending. Its balanced by a number of limits. First of all, we have to ensure our security, and it should not undermine our economy. These are the two factors that shape our military Defense Budget. Next year, 1. 4 trillion for humans and 1. 4 trillion for maintenance. The 2. 8 trillion rubles. So thats 2. 8 of gdp, roughly. So have given you the 2. 8 figure, but thats roughly 46 billion u. S. Dollars, in u. S. Dollar terms, 46 billion. Take the u. S. They signed the bill already, and thats 700 billion, thats their military budget. Just compare 46 and 700. Can we afford to have 700 billion . No. But 46 might be big for us, and you mightve heard a joke that those who want to feed their own army will feed some elses army. But thats an old joke. There are new jokes. Heres a new one. It might be known to some of you, former officers, and the sun comes to a former officer and asks his son, so i used to have this night, his navy knife. Have you seen this navy knife . I just swapped it for a watch with a friend of mine. Well, ill take a look. Give it to me. Its a good watch, but tomorrow the gangsters would come here, they would kill me, they will kill your mother, they will rape your sister, and you will come out and say moscow time is 12 30. Well, we dont want a Development Like this, so we will definitely focus on developing our navy and army. We wont get ourselves dragged through an arms race and we will disrupt our budget. I suggest we a combined approach. [shouting] thank you, mr. President. First in the United States, investigations by congress, the department of justice in the media have uncovered a very large number of contacts between russian citizens associate with your government, and high officials of the Trump Campaign. Some of those officials have now been prosecuted for lying about those contacts. All this is not normal and Many Americans are saying when theres that much smoke or must be fire. How would you explain to americans the sheer number of contact between the Trump Campaign and your government . And second if i may, its almost been here since donald trump has been elected president. You praise donald trump. The campaign. What is your assessment of donald trump as president after one year . [speaking russian] translator i will start with the second part. Its not up to me to assess what trump has been doing. Its up to those who have elected him. Its up to the american people. And the ribbons a major achievements, even in a short span of time. Look at the markets. The markets are up pretty strong. That means that Investors Trust the american economy. That means they have a lot of confidence. It means they trust the decisions by trump. Suddenly we have a lot of respect for the opposition in the u. S. , those who oppose donald trump. But, you know, thats an objective of the outcome. There been some things he has not been able to execute, like a healthcare reform, for an International Relations that he promised improved relations with russia. Even if you wanted to do that, he is not able to do to situations. But does he still have the decision . Maybe he doesnt have to you have to ask him by hope he has that desire. Because its an interest of the russian and american nations. I hope that we will overcome shared threats, terrorism, environmental issues. I hope we can Work Together on that. Weapons of mass distraction, liberation, and middle east, north korea and other issues. There are other issues where we can work much better when we work jointly. Well, thats pretty much it. [inaudible] how do you explain it to americans . [speaking russian] translator thats been borne out, you know. Thats been invented by those who are in the opposition. People who oppose President Trump to delegitimize his time in office, and it really seems strange to me because they dont understand, it seems they dont understand. They undermine their own nation. They limit the powers of the president was being elected. It means that they dont have respect for those people, that those americans who elected donald trump. Take an Election Campaign in the world. Should we stop, should we ban any contacts . Our ambassador was accused of meeting someone, but that happens everywhere. Thats general practice when diplomats and even members of the government meet with every candidate with that campaign. They discussed issues. They discuss development when youre trying to figure out what those people will do when and if they come to power. Whats so particular about it . Whats so strange about it . Why do you think, why do you have this spy hysteria . Russian meddling hysteria . To take investigation on social media. The ads that Russian Companies purchased, they were worth like. 1 something compared with huge numbers by american companies. You cant just compare it. But even to some, it seems that its way too much. And take the situation with Russian Media like rt, sputnik, their share of the total market globally and here in russia. Some are more successful, some are less successful. Just need to do your homework, draw the right conclusions. We shouldnt task each other. So lets think about it and lestrade right conclusions. Lets move to the other wing. I will ask the question in english. Would russia support tougher sanctions against north korea . Do you think that cooperation on north korea could warm up u. S. Russian relations or have you lost hope in many them under mr. Trump. Thank you. Your interesting people. Really. Have you noticed that your congressman, your senators, they look so well, so nice, so hansen. They have ties and shirts and they seem to be smart people, but they put us on the same shelf with north korea and iran. And at the same time they asked the u. S. President to address the issues of north korea and the Iranian Nuclear program together with us. [applause] are you okay . It just looks weird. It doesnt make much sense. Anyway, our policy, unlike that of certain other countries, is not nearsighted. Without a look at our immediate goals, we do that work with everybody on critical Security Issues. We dont get offended. We dont act arrogant. We dont hold any grudges. Even when some people make certain decisions. As far as north korea is concerned, you know our position. We dont recognize north korea as a nuclear state. We think all the things happening there are counterproductive. I would like to repeat that. A sickly there was an agreement with north korea in 2005 that they would suspend the Nuclear Program and have made certain commitments. Everybody was happy. We all agreed and signed this agreement, and a few months later the United States decided to go beyond this agreement and they froze the assets, their Bank Accounts and they said north korea should do something in addition to this agreement, something that goes beyond that equipment. North korea then withdrew from this agreement, and relaunched its Nuclear Program. Why did they do that . This agreement was not enough, why did you sign this agreement if you thought this is not enough . You provoke north korea to withdraw from this agreement. And then there was libya and iraq. I mentioned this many times. To north korea this is the only way of selfpreservation. They have to have wmds and missiles, and now they have a missile that can reach the United States. Apparently, apparently. So what good came out of it . We think both sides should stop escalating the situation. So i think we heard from the United States that they would stop military drills. No, they have another military exercise, and north korea responded by launching another missile. You have to stop at a certain point. You have to stop this from spiraling. This is extremely dangerous. We told the United States about this, even if you suppose that the United States launched some kind of strike against north korea, even if its conventional weapons. If its High Precision missiles, where, where are you going to strike. Does the cia know specifically which targets they have commit . No, of course not. North korea is rogue country. There are may think you may know about things that you certainly dont know. And just if north korea launches its missiles, consequences will be catastrophic, yes, we know that there was an instance when the United States use Nuclear Weapons. There was one instance the u. S. Used Nuclear Weapons against japan. Even back then i think it was unwarranted, but now this will be extremely, extremely dangerous if they do this with north korea. We heard a recent statement from Rex Tillerson and this is really encouraging. I think there has been some shift with the state department, maybe the cia intelligence services, if we all proceed, if we all act like this, of course we will cooperate with the United States on all issues including north korea. Okay, there was a question here. I think ukraine is not far from russia as also lets take a question from ukraine now. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to ask the question. Well, ukraine is far away. We are acquainted with [inaudible] so you dont always reply to all of my questions, so you didnt hide the fact that you are sending some of the servicemen to donbass out and what we mean is they killed ukrainian citizens. We know what we have to do. Some were killed but some get jailed. In ukraine. Some are taken prisoners. Would you want to swap your citizens, and to stuff it difficult because ukrainians, we want to get back our 65 people. Its not just one. There are dozens of crimean 2027488201 if you win the election, perhaps in case Crimean Tatars will you continue to pursue this absurd policy of the socalled peacekeepers . Those who are there appointed by you, theyre conducting a massacre. You might remember they had been liberated by Ukrainian Army and they live a free and flourishing life. Lets take another question. What about the minsk agreements . It seems that we are all too far away from resolving situation. Can they still be used . We also have systemic regular meetings between u. S. And russian officials on ukraine. Could they become the six member of the normative four . Normandie i have a question on ukrainian politician. What is his future role in ukraine and what prospects for ukraine in general . As for the minsk agreements, indeed, it is demonstrated low efficiency due to first and foremost unconstructive position of the current key authorities. They dont have any desire to implement those agreements. They dont want to launch a real political process. And again the ultimate goal is to have special status on donbass. Again, theres been a law approved by the parliament on special status but its not been enforced due to a number of reasons. There was an agreement on that particular law. We know the provisions of the law. As for the u. S. , the u. S. Is a fullfledged member of the resolution process, regardless of whether there part of format or not. They are deeply engaged anywhere. They have a lot of information. Do we need to formally incorporate them into that format . Well, ive never opposed that decision but its not up to us to agree or not on that. Id like to reply to the voice that you raised. Well, you speak russian fluently, and so it means that immensely wise its not that far away from ukraine. Dont take the geographic principle. As for the tragedy in ukraine, thats a tragedy, i agree with you, fully agree with you. Again, what has been the reason for it was the coup detat. The unconstitutional. Some part of ukraine agreed, some opposed it ukraine said it wanted to move towards europe, but their authority started to use special services, and then they launched a fullblown army operation. There are no russian army troops there. But there are militia groups that are selfsufficient and are ready to counter a major offensive against donbass. We believe that this fully meets the issue of the people who reside on the territories. Why . Because if they dont have this opportunity, a massacre that you just raised, it will be worse than the other massacre. And that will be conducted by the socalled nationalist battalion, ukrainian nationalist battalions. Nothing will stop it. Similarly, europeans recommended me to turn to International Human rights groups, but those battalions will not be stopped by those International Human rights groups. As for the peacekeepers, mr. Poroshenko talked about the need to arm officials. I agreed with it immediately, but the osc said no. The osc said they dont have the experience. They dont have the staff, and they dont want to give weapons, they dont want to give arms to their officials because they would be the victim. They would become the targets for both sides. Then mr. Poroshenko said that the u. N. Forces should protect the security of the osc officials i agree with that, and we even submitted draft resolution saying that there would be u. N. Officials, u. N. Troops to secure osc officials. And then i had a telephone conversation with on john bercow said the osc officials move rent on donbass and it should just be u. S. Troops on the disengagement line. And she asked me to agree to the deployment of the u. N. Troops on the border of ukraine and russia. And i thought about that. I told her yes, i agreed. We adjusted our u. N. Strategic resolution. Now it turns out its not enough still, that basically they just want to keep that territory under international control. We dont have anything against that, but its up to the kiev authorities. The kiev authorities should agree with the leaders of those territories. And again no International Mediation in the rotation has been able to resolve those issues. Direct contacts are needed at the kiev authorities have been trying to avoid that. As for swaps of prisoners, exchange of prisoners, i agree that people have suffered a lot and are many innocent people. Do you really feel that that is initiative of donbass . Were just shield recently, just yesterday shelled by the Ukrainian Army. Was it not the army of the nationalist battalions . We dont know who shelled donbass yesterday. And there are not always the relations between the nationalist battalions and regular Ukrainian Army. But you know, true offices, they have the ultimate goal to protect their nation from outer threats, from external threats. They should be engaged in some domestic conflict. As for the exchange of prisoners, he is in charge of it, extracted by mr. Poroshenko. Instructed. He was invited to the monastery and he was asked to use his leverage with the leadership of the recognize republics, so that they agree to that exchange. So we have that conversation, then after the consultations with the kiev, he gave a list of 67 people on one side, and 300 plus on the other side. This was the list provided by the ukraine and we all agreed. They all agreed to it. So thats how it was good but then he said no, its a bad. We need to modify that list, and they froze everything once again. Lets do it. Just lets do it. We can take the next step later on. With christmas coming, new year is coming. Lets do this goodwill gesture. Lets make this goodwill gesture. What he has been doing is spitting in the face of the georgian nation and spitting in the face of the ukrainian nation. He was the person who was president of an independent state. Now he is running around and saying i am a ukrainian. He has been shouting he is ukrainian. The ukraine that have true authenticated ukrainians . And ukraine has been putting up with it. Its pathetic. My heart is bleeding when i look at it. How far or close we are, you might disagree because the person has his own opinion. The slavic world has gone through its ups and downs. Russia has gone through its own ups and downs, composed of like 16 or 32 slavic tribes but eventually the nation of ruth came forth and kiev was a center of that nation. And that gives a recent think that fundamentally we are one and the same nation. We are one of the same people. But as we develop, ukraine was really close to western border and developed in its own way, certainly it has a lot of identity, language and culture, and russia love that. They feel that its part of its own culture. Take the 19th century where a lot of people said that ukraine needs to be dependent, needs of its own path. Do they have the drive to say so . Yes. That was part of the empire where, you know, there was some policy to introduce the russian language of the russian culture to impose on the craniums. Well, back then we didnt have such line in the past but as nationalist. Ukrainians were no different, no different whatsoever. And whatsoever. From russians. Ukraine join the russian by 1645. There were three regions, so three regions. They have been a part of the russian empire for a long time, and thanks to being part of the russian empire got many new lands. We had the russianturkish war. We had world war i, world war ii, but then the bolsheviks decided that all territories around ukraine should belong to the newly established republic of ukraine. Following world war ii, western regions were incorporated into it. In 1954, crimea was and corporate into it in violation of the legislation that was in place back then. So it was an illegal decision. What followed was a referendum by the ukrainian people. Im sure we will leave those times behind. Some people say that ukraine should rather develop an independent state. Thats fine, if people think so, fine. You need to support it. Its counterproductive to go against the will of the people. But take the trends of the world. We had seen a reverse trend. People of different identities, people of different cultures and different languages are coming together. The same is happening in the u. S. The same is happening in north america. The same is happening in europe, in asia. Everywhere. So we need to come to an understanding, that white is good for both of us and what is can a productive for both of us. Someone has towards apart but we need to come together. Russia and china, hello, mr. Putin. I represent Chinese International radio and china russian in march 2018, russia will have the president ial election. Do you think the outcome, what kind of, how will the outcomef this election impact russiachina relations, or do you think our Strategic Partnership is above shortterm medical situations . Lets take another question your. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. I represent the news agency. As we know, russia and china decided to align the initiatives of one belt, one road and the union. Would you please comment on the results of this work after the last few years . How would you assess the results and the prospects of developing relations between russia and china . , second question, the communist party of china has a goal of new International Relations. But on future based on equality and mutually beneficial relations. What do you think about that . Is russia radio cooperation with china to achieve this goal . First of all, on the decisions taken by the communist party just recently, my assessment is very positive. And that fully corresponds or is very similar to what we offer as a Development Platform for russias role in the world. So first of all, the economic cooperation, chinese economy has been growing really fast, and thats been thanks to the decisions that have been made over the past ten years. By the current president , by the current leader and his predecessors. China wants to be a stable country, and they want to ensure development. They want to see the incomes of their people grow. China is a Strategic Partner for russia. Over 63 billion. Its been down due to the situation the economy globally. But im sure that we will have even a better result very soon. As for the alignment of the one belt, one road initiative, its fully compatible. So we have, would like to take part in the broader cooperation in asia. There have been some progress made even today. Earlier i responded to a question on the arctic. China has been really interested in the northern area. Our ultimate goal is to provide movement from asia to europe, and from europe to asia. If we do that this will be economically more efficient, and we would like to make sure that china makes use of those in effects. China is now part of the Major Projects in the arctic which has launched the first line of the first stretch of the lng project. So it will be 16. 5 million tons, and thats an annual output. And china is one of the major investors. And this no the reason for it is, chinese interested economically and we will also cooperate on other products. Pipeline, gas supplies. We have another great project, some highspeed transit. Thats what, we do support it. The high transit link from china to western europe via russia. It will increase the speed of transit of goods and services of the times. We also have joint projects in aviation, in space, exploration. Im sure we are moving the right way. We are fully determined to go that way. As for the election that will take place next year, i have full confidence that cooperation with china is beyond any political agenda. We will remain Strategic Partners for a long period of time. Mr. Putin, our people talk a lot about your future time in office. What kind of team will you have the next six years . I do what has about this. So with the existing government survive . With all of those ministers still be in the place . And what would be the new agenda . What would be the new blueprint . As regards the current cabinet, on the whole there doing a good job, even though there are certain issues like i just mentioned, the utility sector, for example. This is one example that need speed result but there are many other issues as well that require attention. But on the whole i would say the government has been performing quite well, and i would describe the results of its work as satisfactory. By the way, the fact that our economy is steadily growing is also a good indicator. It indicates the government is doing a good job, macroeconomic indicators are positive in this lays foundation for future. Otherwise, there would be no Foreign Direct Investment because all this comes as a result of growing trust, i trust in the policies pursued by the russian government as regards to future, i hope you will not be offended, but its premature to talk about this. We should discuss this after the election, even though of course i had some preliminary ideas. Wait a second. Just a second, please. Just a second. There was a question next to ukraine, a question from poland lets take the question from poland. Polish tv. Last year i asked to you about the remains of the polish paragraph. From that crash, when will the remains of the aircraft be returned to poland . Poland, my second question, poland expects a new report on the investigation into that crash. There been some reports that the were some explosions and such on board the airplane. And the defense minister says theres been some evidence and he has got his own commission. He says some of your operatives provoked that crash. Listen, we are tired of this bluff. Its just nonsense. It doesnt make any sense whatsoever. Okay, let me remind you. I was the Prime Minister at the time and i had nothing to do with the foreignpolicy, security agencies and all that. Please, remember about that. Then if there was an explosion on board, where did they take off . And moscow . Know, in warsaw. Was it some russian agents agey planted the bomb went you should look among your own people then. Number three, there has been no explosion on board and both russian and polish expert have looked into this. They have studied carefully everything that is happened inside the cabin. When there was somebody who went into the cockpit and the pilot said there is no way we can land there, and the guy said no, i will tell them that we cant land. Go ahead and land. It is a disaster and we were mourning together with you, and now you are trying to speculate about this incident, this tragedy. And the situation with the debris of the crash is the same. If theres a problem, if theres a tragedy we should treat it as a tragedy. We shouldnt speculate about this. We shouldnt politicize the issue. Why are you doing that . Do you want to complicate relations between russia and poland further . Why . What for . Just to score some political points for some Political Forces inside poland . I think russia poland relations are more important than shortterm politics, different Political Forces fighting in poland, using russia as a policy issue. You should close this chapter. Open a new chapter and look at the interests of the polish nation and the people of poland. Holding onto these problems and undermining russiapoland relations wont serve your interests. Look at how many jobs you lost and how much money you lost because of those sanctions. We dont need anything from poland. We just want to develop our relations with poland, and hope that this same approach will prevail in poland as well. Russias news agency interfax. Mr. Putin, from interfax. I the question on syria. I will try to be short. There have been multiple contacts on the city a crisis that you had in the past days. What are the main barriers, wt are the pitfalls on the path to reconciliation . Who should be charged, or who can take the burden of restoring the infrastructure . You said that isis and syria has been defeated. Why do we need russian bases there . Do you have a concern that our western counterparts could interpret this move as, solely as a tool to support assad in power . He went to syria. How was it . How did it happen . Did the syrian army provide security or perhaps the russian air support . And when will you finalize the withdrawal of Russian Troops from syria . [speaking russian] translator 1999 you gain and you defeated, countered the incursion of interest, international terrorists. Translator the us has not been giving us the right examples. Perhaps well have another terrorist group in the future. Translator i have and not as popular. I work on International Affairs in education and i came over from the airbase in what is your name. Im from [inaudible]. The teachers newspaper. From the first russian who came to the airbase from foot. I went from [inaudible] to [inaudible] its a dangerous route, where did you come from . I was born in the chechen republic and only they can travel on foot and so i came and went to the refugee camp, 70 orphans and that i went to a simple and you barefoot syrian children running around begging for money so back to those refugee camps do you have syrians there and no Education Programs and i was witness to it. We do get aid but we dont know what happens to those children in ten or 15 years. Following your announcement to the defeat of isis of syria should we think perhaps about humanitarian matters and assistance. Just like your press secretary i graduated from the institute of asian and oriental studies and if you instruct me to give you the mandates are ready to go there and cheer that. [speaking russian] translator we have a man doing work there and he helps evacuate children from their but you were right that this is no joke. You are totally right this is a problem. It is turkey that suffers the most because the bulk of refugees go to turkey has the biggest refugee camps but not just turkey, jordan, as well. We are aware of the problems in europe that they are facing today and we certainly need to draft this problem but i dont think syria can resolve this issue on its own. All good people around the world should realize that unless we join our forces in addressing this issue this problem will end up on their door and porch as well unless these children are properly educated and get proper upbringing where terrorists recruit their new members poorly educated people and poor people in general. There unfair treatment is the biggest source of new recruits for terrorists and we certainly need to do something about that but syria cannot resolve this problem on its own in russia cannot resolve this problem on its own so we are ready to contribute but we can only be part of the International Effort and thank you for your question and this is no joke. I dont rule this out. You might do some work there just like for example, our mps from northern caucuses put their our military Police Officers which was my initiative and i suggested that we send people from more than caucuses to syr syria, military police, because most of them are sunnis and local population and local administrations trust them because these are russian personnel and sunnis and it is quite good that they are disciplined, very good guys they are disciplined and they are aware of this responsibility and they did their job well to represent russias interests there. But this part is also very important, very important for our specialist like yourself to be involved there. As far as my trip to the arab base concerned it was obvious to me that i have to go there and the only question was whether the conditions were right for such treatment. We had to finish fighting those terrorist groups and now finally we have the situation which allowed for such a trip and most of those terrorist groups have been defeated, Security Issues were taken care of by our troops on the ground and the specialist no that the most dangerous part of such trips is when you land and when you take off. That is where they can chew with but i saw those pilots they were below our plane when we landed and put those military aircraft and the temperature on their nozzles were much higher than basically protected are playing from missiles and they shielded us from any potential attacks and i am grateful to them for doing this even though this may have been unnecessary but still they protected us in such a way they did this. They flew lower than we did before landing. To resolve this issue entirely in syria and fighting terrorists in general you need to increase the welfare of people need to address historical injustices in throughout the world generally speaking and in syria and other places it is important for all the parties involved for the Global Players to have no desire or temptation to take advantage of some quasi terrorist and radical is premised groups to achieve their shortterm political goals. For example when they created al qaeda to fight the soviet union and eventually al qaeda attacked new york on 911 and now we can see our Fighter Pilots in drones can tell that those terrorists are escaping to iraq to the territories controlled by our us partners and they dont hit them wife because they want to use them later to fight and this is a very easy way but extremely dangerous including those who do this. [speaking russian] translator i represent the russia today. Initially i wanted to ask about your personal contacts with general trumpet youve mentioned the subject twice. I would like to clarify something briefly. If they had similar and plural form of english language would you be using singular use would you be on the first name basis with trump by now and my second question is about sanctions and counter sanctions. How far are you ready to go and how does this affect the situation with media in russia and one more question very briefly. Today there was a trial where a farmer who has many children was tried for putting an gps tractor on his cow and his name is [inaudible] and hes watching this press conference and even though this is still in court as far as i know last year over 200 people were sentenced to prison. He ordered gps tracker in china and put it on his car to track the cows sweet doesnt get lost. Is that band . [speaking russian] translator yes, there is a article in the criminal code the. Translator i will look into the testimony of those people. This is the first time ive heard that they put the gps tractors to and i didnt understand what the problem was about. Did you have to pay for it and she didnt pay . I need to look into it. [speaking russian] translator back to the first part of your question. We are on good terms with mr. Trump and we call each other by the name. I think we would use what you referred to as singular forum we need to maintain business contacts and we need to have two telephone conversations we are interested by our people to leave the country so i hope that gradually they would have more and more opportunities to improve ties with russia and i hope that he will definitely fill his election promises and that was one of his promises. [speaking russian] translator i have a very short question. Would you please comment would you say a few words about the credit stand and relations with russia and how russia plans to develop relations with iraqi. [speaking russian] translator you know what happens. You iran a referendum and then the leader said that the implementation of this has to be delayed and it was not our but your decision and then you will step down and the freeze on this decision is still in place so what is our response and what is our stance . We believe that there should be no drastic moves and everything has to be in line with existing legislation and you need to respect the position of iraq. Our Companies Operate in iraq and operate in curtis stand to. We hope that is for the benefit of iraq and the russian economy. Overall we had very good trustworthy relations with the kurds and i do understand the complexity of the issue and understand that its a complex problem but we believe that there are no barriers for that prevent us from improving and maintaining good ties. [speaking in native tongue] translator im in the oilrich area and i will change my question. You talked about uniting the nation with an idea and let me give you an example in the 1960s people from different nationalities move there and brought together by one idea to produce oil for the this goal United People and maybe you should look into this experience and of course we cannot replace history but you could come up with a project that would bring everybody together. This is what our people need today. We need to consolidate the nation and to continue with the subject. [speaking russian] to be so that was your question about oil . Everyone has their tricks and some ask about [inaudible] but the district will turn 90 years old soon and people who live there are real heroes. The produce oil for the whole country so how about this. How about rewarding people giving them the title declaring this area hero area and my very last question to you. Veteran oil work wanted you to sign an autograph for them in and a few words 523 think there are some papers and heres how we do it. Youll ask [inaudible] to do it and then you need to get in touch with him okay . I will reply to your question. Lets have a followup question on oil. And then afghanistan. Translator im not going to cheat. My name is [inaudible]. Thank you for giving benefits to even though Many Companies asked for the same not just for more and on other oilfields for their benefit as well you are very selective. We all know this is [inaudible] because he is currently in a dispute with the system and i just dont want to take too much of the time so this selective approach we see everywhere in the most influential person yet gets everything and all the other companies can do nothing and its a very selective and it depends on the person. Do you agree that we have this problem and that there is a benefit on reservoirs. You are the only person that feels everyone thanks that. The minister of energy and his decisions are taken not out of the vote. They are taking based on major confrontations of discussion and analysis and the potential of risk of that oil field and i just signed those decisions but its the ministry of energy that is drafting those decisions. They take a look at those water floods oilfields. Translator perhaps you are right but again we need to ask the ministry for their rationale and we do have some economic specialist at my executive office. But it does mean that it doesnt mean you get everything. We need to take a broader look and they feel this was a fair decision. Again, its up to the industry to discuss this and we would be ready to support a decision. The question on afghanistan as promised. [speaking in native tongue] translator you and donald trump recently had a telephone conversation in which you discuss the situation in afghanistan including the growth of increasing the drug threat. My question is what you think about the prospects of working together with the United States in addressing these issues in afghanistan . [speaking russian] translator its one of the areas where the kurds unite our assets with the us and in case that happens are assets would be much more efficient and we do see growing threats in afghanistan coming from international terrorism, radical armed groups they are taking more and more territories in the northern part of afghanistan to his pakistan and it does raise a lot of concern with us as you know we have a military base and you have an airbase in [inaudible]. Are closely monitoring the developments on the ground and we see the government in kabul Needs International assistance and ready to provide just as we did previously including in training the army in specialist and in providing military hardware without economic support afghanistan would be struggling to fight the remaining issues with direct production and drug trafficking. They are one of the major producers of drugs including heavy drugs and some of it is then found here in russia together with other countries including the us. We are ready to Work Together to overcome those issues. Tonight she spent looks back at celebrity activism from 2017. This little boy was stagnant. To say the children coordinator came in and she brought something for this child along with a bag of books and out log for the mother she was filling out in the log she in this little boy had never seen a ball. Imagine your own children, imagine your sons with his first fall. This kid looked at that ball and he looked at his mom and his mom was just putting up with it frankly and to save the children ordinator said go back that ball to your son. She did. She rolled it to him and he looked at it and couldnt believe what was happening and he rolled it back in the mother sat there and the coordinator said he is playing with you, do it again, do it again. She rolled it to him again. Soon is that my time . This is like the oscars. You guys are so scary. [laughter] [applause] can i tell you what happened with the mom and child . The mother, this baby made a noise. The baby made a noise and the coordinator said hes talking to you and she said hes not talking to me and the coordinator said yes this is speech a connection and it is happening. Say the same thing back to him. The mother did embarrassed and the child said it back in the next thing you know they were babbling back and forth and im telling you i saw a light switch go on for that little boy on the day. I know that because we visited that mother a week later that light switch was turned on just long enough for us to catch her a week later and a week after that in a week after that and there was a connection made there and the mother knew she could play with her child, knew she could speak to her child and expect a response, knew she was encouraged to out to her child and that kid had a chance to go to get regarded ready to learn. You can see the rest of this and other decent coverage of celebrity activism from this year tonight 8 00 p. M. Eastern on our continued network cspan. Among the celebrities and issues Ashton Kutcher testifying at a Senate Hearing on modern slavery. Jennifer garner on poverty and Early Childhood education. Michael phelps on doping in sports. And after robert on his support for donald trump. All this week on the tv is on prime time on the two. Tonight at 9 40 eastern former secretary Condoleezza Rice on her book democracy, looking at democracy around the world. Friday night at 11 45 eastern, Gretchen Carlson talks about her book the fierce, stop harassment and take your power back. This week watched the tv in prime time on cspan2. The council on competitiveness held its annual Competitiveness Forum in washington dc recently with discussions on how to boost american productivity and innovation. First to hear from a group of Corporate Executives and the Later University president s. [applause] good