North korea and u. S. Russia relations. Its an hour and a half. [applause] thank you, please sit down. Good morning. , rought something with me start off with our economic performance, if i have the opportunity, im sure well have the time, youve brought me another copy, thank you. So ive got some more info with me, ill try to use your questions to share the most and ant facts with you thats a lot of relevance with hat will happen in the future. So ill try to get to your questions as soon as possible. I dont want to take too much of your precious time. Its a great opportunity for you o do your duty, to can the questions you feel are really relevant for our people. So lets start with questions. Usually the first person to ask a question is a veteran from the chronicle but this year id like to do differently, i would like to give the first question active media most 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 do you want to accomplish for russia . What is your vision of russia at the end of your term if you win . Thank you. President putin ive painted my vision of russia many times, there have been events where i spoke and i will say shared my reason during multiple interviews. It should be a forwardleaning russia. It should be a modern country. We need to have a flexible political system. Our economy should rely on hightech and Labor Productivity should increase multiple times. I dont want to talk about my election promises that i should have and will have just like many other candidates, ive almost finalized it, but its not the right time to present it. But here are the main things we need to focus our attention. And its relevant both for the government and for our people. We need to develop our infrastructure, health care, tech, on, and high increasing Labor Productivity and without doubt, our ultimate goal should be to increase income of our people. So thats in Broad Strokes but im sure well go back to these ssues over and over again. Life knews. News. While we were waiting for you announcement for you to declare, there were other people nominating themselves. But they are their rating i think is within the margin of error. Why do you think in 20 years you have been ruling we did not have an influential opposition candidate . Isnt it boring for you maybe to un without worthy opponents . There was a poster that said putin byebye. Im sorry ive got poor eyesight. Serve afraid of me. Means putin babai, it grandpa putin. I have a question about children and language. Hould i ask right now . You know that our republic and many parts of russia had this issue about language, the ministry of education made this decision about minority languages, so we would not we would like to know if you would revisit this issue in a year or two or three. Do you have any plans to consolidate different provinces . President putin number one, i dont think thats the national ssue is really relevant one. And what were doing about the languages is to ensure one goal, every child needs to have a level playing field. So you just raised the question about tapastan, i have a lot of friends there. Hey dont always they dont only live there, they live in other russian regions. Everyone should have a level playing field. I think its important to know your Mother Tongue, the Mother Tongue of your ethnic group. But should also learn russian. If you take russian, your biggest universities, you know training is done in the russian language. This dren that live republic should know the russian language well to be able to study at a russian university. Same applies to the chechen language and other languages. For different ethnic groups. Thats something that we need to cherish. Omething we need to support. Consolidation . No. We have to admit that after certain events after the collapse of the soviet union in the 1990s, you know, we have to admit that many of the regions were formed and established randomly and some of the regions economically do really poorly. Economy wise, it sometimes makes sense to consolidate regions. To take these republics with an ethnic majority, again, heres my signal, we werent going to impose anything on those regions because that would have detrimental effects on the unity of russia. Each ethnic group needs to find coexisting with the russian people that they find most appropriate. So we dont have any national, any state plans to consolidate regions. Now back to your question on no opposition candidates that would be strong enough. The simplest answer would be them for myself . Ive been thinking a lot about the fact that our political system just like our Economic System should be a competitive one and that is my goal. Id love to have a balanced political system. Ompetition is vie vital. We dont have high profile opposition figures and they dont theyre they cannot compete with those in power. Russia is a specific, very. Ecific country young people dont really remember what happened back in the 1990s and the early 2000s. They cannot compare with what we have today. We do have a lot of problems here today and we come together to talk about problems, you know. Wear any rose tinted glasses. But take our g. D. P. Our g. D. P. Has grown so fast since the year 2000, industrial roduction has grown 60 . And g. D. P. Grew 75 . Ndustrial production by 70 . Manufacturing by has been growing really fast, like 60 . Real wages slowed down due to the crisis in the last three years. But since the year 2000, real wages have grown by 3. 5 times, ension has grown by 3. 6 times, child death mortality rates cut maternity mortality decreased by four times. Weve also reversed the demographic trend. We do have some problems here but nevertheless we managed to reverse that trend so we have we had two downward slopes but we will take additional measures, i will talk about it today, im sure well be able to go back to normal, Life Expectancy was 65. 3. Right now its almost 734. 73. We were living in a state of civil war for a long period of of a ix years, 10 years civil war. When 18yearold boy, untrained, unqualified, were sent to the front lines and now fast forward to today when we have a strong army and 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 putin regime. They need to talk about efforts to improve our lives. Certainly we could have better and i admit that people have the right to say that we could have better but what about the platforms of opposition leaders . Take a look at them. I feel that theres a lot of doubt about their platforms. Thats the root of the problem. Real they need to present enda, not an agenda based on buzz or protest. Im sure we will have such an agenda. Well have an opposition figure sooner or later. Lets continue. I have to let andre, hes been covering the president of the fugs federation for 18 years. Strictly speaking 15 years, but still. Quite a lot. My question is very simple. R. Putin, you are running as who . Let me explain. You can run on your own behalf, you can run on behalf of a movement or a political party. Very briefly, whom do you belong to . And to continue this question, people say that there are some disagreements among your staff as to who will be your campaign manager. Could you please announce the person who will run youre campaign and does it even matter to you . Mr. Putin i will run on my own behalf. Definitely hope that i would be supported by some popular movements, parties, or any other groups that share my views and that endorse my views. Soy really rely on broad support from our people. As for my campaign, we talked about it yesterday, we dont have final decision. As for disagreements, we do have dispute well, do have disagreements, but we are not finalized or anything. Its a technical issue but an important one. I would want to be represented by people who enjoy the respect and who support the policies that the government has been onducting over the past years. Lets go to the right wing over there. Kalinigrad. Mr. Putin, at your annual press conference and sessions, a lot of people come to you with their problems, including personal problems. We all remember 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 their problems . Why do they think they 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 Manual Control mode . And my second very brief estion, related specifically recently you were in kalinin fwmbings rad they made a decision about building a new road there. There is another construction project there which is also highly important. The question of funds was resolved for the first road but can the federal government also help us with the second construction project as well. Uilding the road from baltese. Mr. Putin i said the governments priorities the next ears to come should be developing infrastructure. Roads, airports, ports, telecom. Any construction, particularly in a place like kalingrad, will be of a priority to us. We need to finalize what is being done, we need to have that road and additional roads, otherwise kalingrad will not get the roads that it deserves. I cant tell you right now that the decision will be taken tomorrow, we also need to look at the resources that we have at our disposal and the requirements of other regions. So as i said, we do have a list of priorities, infrastructure, health care, education, high tech. And increasingly, income of our and increasing the income of our people. But we need to find sources for t. Its no secret that for the past 12 months we have weekly meet wgs experts and with government officials trying to pinpoint income, those drivers, and many experts agree , you know, weve been you know that some of these resources that theyve been presenting will not yield any results. So when we get down to hands on discussions, really practical discussions, even experts realize that there will be no yield or very little yield so its hard to find those new drivers, new sources of income. So, but its certain that we will definitely work on those projects. Your first question was on ocalled Manual Control. Thats a myth. I think its exaggerated. If you take the russian regions, if you take moscow, central authorities, and ive been head of government for four years. In 1999 and four years just recently. You can in the imagine cannot imagine the work load of the government. Its the toughest job in the executive power. I mean, you cannot really interfere in any issue, you know. We sometimes dont have a clear idea of whats happening in russias regions. We need to have the big picture of whats happening everywhere. But thats why we hold these press conferences. Thats why we have those direct lines. People often criticize them. People often say its a formality, but thats not right. Its the channel of feedback. People get a chance to reach out to the government. And those tools of Manual Control definitely needed to make it more systemic. Following every direct line, i meet with the governor of the russian regions and i present them with a list of problems that the people have voiced. So i dont feel thats bad. Its just an addition to the overall systemic work weve been conducting. Id like to ask a question on International Affairs. Before the recent escalation cycle and tension, we still had events like the u. S. Pulled out of the Missile Defense agreement , then the i. M. F. Agreement has been under fire the i. N. F. Agreement has been under fire. Looking ahead what about the new start treaty . Will it survive . If something happens to it, the arms race, well have to in this case increase the Defense Budget and health care and education will have to suffer. We did not withdraw from the fundamental treaties that are the cornerstone of the international sector. We did not withdraw from the a. B. M. Treaty. It was the United States who did that. Ow we are hearing things about intermediate range missiles. I think this is Propaganda Campaign in preparation for the u. S. To withdraw from, actually, they have factually withdrawn from this treaty already. Theyre accusing us but what did they do . They deployed a Missile Defense system in romania. Nd the way they did it is they deployed launchers there. They moved them from sea to land. And those systems can be easily converted or replaced. Interceptor missiles could be replaced with intermediate range missiles. This process is already under way and if things continue to go this way, nothing good will come out of it. We dont plan to withdraw from any treaty ourselves. , regards the new star treaty states talking they no longer need this treaty. They do talk about this. If the United States does this again, they withdraw from this treaty unilaterally this would have a very negative effect on the international security. As regards our defense spend, we are aware of whats happening in the world. We know what the outcomes of those actions can be. We will maintain our security without starting a new arms ace. There was a second part to the question. My question was if increased defense spending may affect social spending . Its balanced. By a number of limits. First of all we have to ensure our security. And we should not undermine our economy. These are the two factors that shape our military Defense Budget. Ext year human and 1. 4or for maintenance. U. S. Roughly 46 billion 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. Thats their military spending. Mpare 46 billion and 700 billion. N we afford to have 700 billion . No. 46 billion is might be big for us. You might have heard a joke that those who dont want to feed their own army will feed someone elses army. But thats an old joke. There are new jokes. Heres a new one. Ight be known to some of you former officers, a son comes to a former officer, he asks his son, i used to have this knife, this navy knife. Have you seen this navy knife . I just intapped it for a watch. With a friend of mine. Well, ill take a look, give toyota me. Its a good watch but tomorrow you know the gangsters would come here they would kill me, they would kill your mother, they would rape your sister. And you would come out and say, ou know, moscow time is 12 30. We dont want a Development Like this. So well definitely focus on developing our navy and army. We wont get ourselves dragged into an arms race and we wont disrupt our budget. I suggest we take a combined approach. Thank you, mr. President. Terry moran with abc news. First in the United States, investigations by congress, the department of justice, an the media have uncovered a very large number of contacts between russian citizens associated with your government and high officials of the Trump Campaign. Some of those officials are now being prosecuted for lying about these contacts. All this is not normal and Many Americans are saying, where theres thatch much smoke there must be fire. How would you explain to americans the sheer number of contacts between the Trump Campaign and your government . And second, if i may, its almost been a year since donald trump han elected president. You praised donald trump during the campaign. What is your assessment of donald trump as president after ne year . Ill start with the second part. Whatnot up to me to assess trump has been doing. Its up to those who have elected him. Its up to the american people. And there have been some major achievements even in this short span of time. Look at the markets. The markets are up. Pretty strong. Investors trust the american economy. That means they have a lot of confidence in it, they trust the ecisions by trump. Certainly we have a lot of respect for the opposition in the u. S. Those who oppose donald trump. But you know thats an objective outcome. There have been some things that hes not been table execute like the health care reform, international relations. Hes been promised to improve relations with russia. Even if he wanted to do that, he is not able to due to specific restrictions. But does he still have the decision . Maybe he doesnt have it. You have to ask him. But i hope he still has that desire because its in the interest of the russian and american nations. I hope that we will overcome shared threats, terrorists, terrorism, environmental issues, i hope we can Work Together on hem. Weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Middle east. North korea. Other issues. There are other issues where we can work much better when we ork jointly. Thats pretty much it. How would you explain it to america . That has been invented by those who are in the opposition. People who oppose president delegitimize his time in office. It really seems strange to me because they dont understand it seems that they dont understand. Nationdermined their own. Of themit the powers president who has been elected. It means they dont have respect for those people, those americans who elected donald trump. Ine any Election Campaign the world. Should we stop, should we ban any contacts . That happens everywhere. That is general practice, when diplomats and even members of government meet with every candidate with their campaign to discuss some issues, when they are trying to figure out what those people will do, when and if they come to power. What is so particular about it . What is this strange about it . Why do you think why do you have risks by hysteria this spy hysteria . Russian hysteria . The ads that Russian Companies is worth like. 1 or something compared with huge numbers by american companies. You cant just compare it. Even to some, it seems that it is way too much. And take the situation with the. Ussian media, like rt, sputnik their share of the total market is really tiny compared to they haveedia, what been doing globally and in russia. What about the freedom of press . Of the u. S. Ant democracy . Well, someone some are more successful. Some are less successful. You just need to do your homewo