“I believe there are a lot of questions today that require expert analysis by various agencies: political agencies, foreign ministries, economic agencies and security agencies. We need to assess everything and understand what we can agree on and what the implications will be both for Japan and for Russia so that both the Russian people and the Japanese people come to the conclusion that these compromise solutions are acceptable and are in our countries' interests.”
![“The Prime Minister [Shindzo Abe] and I will negotiate proceeding from our national interests: the interests of Russia and the interests of Japan. We should find a compromise.” quote by Vladimir Putin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b00/vladimir-putin-261_abe_the-prime-minister-shindzo-abe-and-i-wil_3145443.jpg)
![“However, personally, I see this as not having the right to abuse this trust [among the citizens of Russia and Japan], and any decision we reach should correspond to the national interests of the Russian Federation.” quote by Vladimir Putin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/804/vladimir-putin-261_abuse_however-personally-i-see-this-as-not-hav_258317.jpg)
![“Notably, it was only possible [ negotiating on the Tarabarov Island], and this is very important, due to the high level of trust Russia and China reached in their relations by that time. If we reach the same level of trust with Japan, we might be able to reach certain compromises.” quote by Vladimir Putin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3a8/vladimir-putin-261_able_notably-it-was-only-possible-negotiating_621170.jpg)
![“Their [the U.S.’s] defense budget in absolute figures is almost 25 times bigger than Russia’s. This is what in defense is referred to as ‘their home — their fortress.’ And good for them, I say. Well done!” quote by Vladimir Putin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ec3/vladimir-putin-261_absolutes_their-the-u-s-s-defense-budget-in-absolu_10791.jpg)
![“They [leaders in Western Europe] do not misuse financial instruments, financial injections, but, first of all, seek structural change. This is urgent for our economy as well, maybe even more urgent bearing in mind the problem that we cannot yet deal with, namely the prevalence of the oil and gas…” quote by Vladimir Putin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fab/vladimir-putin-261_change_they-leaders-in-western-europe-do-not-mi_43180.jpg)
![“In any case, open-seat presidential elections like 2008 just are different in character from incumbent reelects, and I think that's the most important thing about this election - is that once there's an incumbent running for reelection, most of the debate is about, "Has he [Barack Obama] done a…” quote by William Kristol](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0b0/william-kristol-9091_acceptable_in-any-case-open-seat-presidential-elect_36353.jpg)