Humanitarian issues must bring together all people who act in good faith trying to alleviate the suffering of people in dire need - especially women, children and the elderly.
Attempts to settle crises by unilateral sanctions outside the framework of U.N. Security Council decisions threaten international peace and stability. Such attempts are counterproductive and contradict the norms and principles of international law.
People versed in politics need not be told that the devil is in the detail, and tough solutions implying the use of force cannot produce a lasting long-term settlement.
If you say that your national law allows you to do something, it is fine as long as you do this inside your own territory. As long as you go international, you really have to be sure that there is an international law which you respect and which you follow.
Sanctions are a sign of irritation; they are not the instrument of serious policies.
A second opinion never hurts, not only in medicine, but also in politics.
With regards to the expansion of NATO, I see it as a mistake, even a provocation in a way.
Crimea was not a non-nuclear zone in an international law sense but was part of Ukraine, a state which doesn't possess nuclear arms.
We are convinced that the only way to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue is through negotiations.
Attempts to put pressure on Russia and to compel it to abandon its values, truth and justice have no prospects whatsoever.
We have no desire to continue a sanctions war, trading blows.
We are categorically against any new military nuclear power, be it Iran, be it North Korea, be it anyone.
The international community unfortunately did take sides in Libya, and we would never allow the Security Council to authorise anything similar to what happened in Libya.
We still believe that if the Russian Federation and the United States bring their minds together, we can develop a common system which would be efficient in protecting the Euro-Atlantic region from threats coming outside this region.
I wouldn't even go into the history of the last days of the Soviet Union, the withdrawal from Europe, and what promises were given at that time, because those were oral promises, and our leaders of that time strongly believe that, like in ancient Russia, a word given is better than any treaty.
Syria is a multi-confessional state: in addition to Sunni and Shia Muslims, there are Alawites, Orthodox and other Christian confessions, Druzes, and Kurds.
Russia has been entirely proportionate in its military response to Georgia's attack on Russian citizens and peacekeepers.
There is nothing in this world which could be not described as requiring more.
We believe Russian-American relations are broader and larger than emotions and mutual grudges, including the situation with the U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden.
I don't believe in ideology in international relations.
