Economy

“If we take the period from 1999 to 2008, the average annual growth rate for this decade was 6.9%. This is a normal rate for doubling GDP in 10 years, and we were growing at this rate. But, over the past six years, our GDP has grown by only 3% -- that is, less than 1% per year. That was affected by sanctions, and oil prices fell.”

“Russia has no intention of becoming similar [to some other countries] imposing their stance by using illegitimate sanctions.”

“I want to remind you of the words of President Putin, that indeed the number of people whose incomes have decreased has slightly increased due to external economic conditions and in connection with a variety of economic processes that are taking place in our economy. At the same time, one cannot talk about the growth of poverty in this case.”

“Probably, the level of integration in the CIS format is not the same as in the Eurasian Union... But this is a common story. These are, as we say, variable-speed tracks of integration.”

“Russia has gained control over the Ukrainian economy, an expert said.”

“Look, they cheated, and the damage for us both economically and financially, and indeed reputational, is very serious.”

“We need to remember that our Chinese partners did not join the sanctions themselves, the so-called sanctions, but it’s more correct to speak of restrictions -- which, moreover, are illegal from the point of view of international law.”

“In terms of public debt, its value, we are just different from the whole world with [our] low debt. Russia's debt will be much more expensive than that of other countries, so we need to be more careful than other countries, and not to compare ourselves in terms of [debt] size. We definitely need to have less (debt)."

“Well, everything seems normal with gasoline, only a 0.16 percent increase (in prices).”

“In 2005, our mortality rate was 16.1 per 100,000 people. We managed to reduce it by 23%... We have reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 37%, from road accidents – by 54.5%, from tuberculosis – by four times.”

“The demonization of Russia is the engine that drives, if nothing else, our weapons industry. Using a complicit media, the arms industry makes billions and billions of dollars simply convincing us, and other countries all over the world, that they need protection from Russia… Whether Russia really poses a threat or not doesn’t really matter. That’s the real story here, that’s the real takeaway from the Mueller report.”

"Why do they [women] get less [than men] for the same work?”