Vladimir Putin at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, follow-up questions and remarks on Diplomacy and External Affairs.


CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN HORST TELTSCHIK: Thank you very much for your important speech. We heard new themes, including the issue of global security architecture - one was not in the foreground over the last few years - disarmament, arms control, the issue of the NATO-Russian relations, and cooperation in the field of technology. There are still a whole number of questions and Mr President is ready to answer.

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: First of all I would like to thank you for your questions. Very interesting. It is a shame that we have little time left because I would be pleased to have a separate discussion with all of you. I very much enjoy this; I like it.

Unipolar World

QUESTION: You talked about the danger of a unipolar world in which one sovereign makes a decision without consulting anyone else. In many people's opinion, in Russia we are seeing an increasingly unipolar government where competing centres of influence are forced to tow the party line, whether it be in the State Duma, the regional leadership, the media, business communities or non-governmental organisations. Would a unipolar government be such a reliable partner when the issue of energy security is at stake?

PUTIN: Today the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the United Russia Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and other political forces as well sit in the Russian parliament. And their basic positions differ significantly. If you aren't aware of this then just have a talk with the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and then with the leader of our liberal democrats, Mr Zhirinovsky. You will see the difference at once. If you cannot see it now, then have a talk with them. There is no problem here, simply go to Moscow and talk to them.

About our future plans. We would like to have a mature political system, a multi-party system with responsible politicians who can anticipate the country's development and not only work responsibly before elections and immediately after, but in a long-term future as well. That is what we aspire to. And this system will certainly be a multi-party one. All our actions within Russia, including changing the State Duma election regime, the election regime in the Russian parliament, are designed to strengthen a multi-party system in Russia.

There is a convoy of 280 gleaming white trucks moving through Russia toward Ukraine loaded with humanitarian aid for the populations of Donetsk and Lugansk. This isn't much, considering that well over a million people have been cut off from food, water, electricity and (soon) heat because of indiscriminate artillery bombardment by the Ukrainian military. But it's a start. But it seems like a rocky start; first, NATO's mouthpiece Rasmussen tries to characterize this humanitarian mission as a clandestine invasion. Then the Ukrainians start imposing various conditions. Let's consider these separately.

When was the last time Russia, or, for that matter, USSR, mount a clandestine invasion? If you said "Crimea," then you need to understand that

1. Russian troops have been in Crimea continuously for the past 231 years;
2. they were there under an international treaty; and
3. their troop levels never exceeded the levels this treaty stipulates.

A slip of the tongue by a former Mossad agent about the London bombings. Watch the video below:


Slip of the tongue: Time starts at 2:05

A Dutch government employee who said the ISIS terrorist group was a Zionists conspiracy has been suspended pending further disciplinary steps.

Dutch Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten announced the decision about Yasmina Haifi, a former project manager for the ministry's Cyber Security Center, on Friday, the news agencies ANP and Novum reported.

On Wednesday, Haifi wrote on Twitter: "ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It's part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam's name."

She later removed the statement, citing work-related "sensitivity." Two rightist lawmakers for the VNL faction said they would query the justice ministry as to whether employing Haifi posed a security threat.

Commenting on Haifi's statement, Vice Premier Lodewijk Asscher said: "When I heard it it made me sick to my stomach." Asscher is a member of Dutch Labor, or PvdA, which is also Haifi's party, according to her personal profile on the social network LinkedIn.

The former employee at US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Snowden said intelligence services of three countries created a terrorist organisation that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called "the hornet's nest".

NSA documents refer to recent implementation of the hornet's nest to protect the Zionist entity by creating religious and Islamic slogans.

According to documents released by Snowden, "The only solution for the protection of the Jewish state "is to create an enemy near its borders".

Leaks revealed that ISIS leader and cleric Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech.

Since US media are reporting the latest Israeli massacre in Gaza as though it is a defensive action, I thought I would set the record straight. Israeli forces shelled and invaded Gaza BEFORE the rockets began. Rockets were fired only after numerous Palestinians, including many children, had been killed.

According to a pro-Israel website, the Jewish Virtual Library, Gaza rocket fire against Israel began in 2001. Four rockets were launched in the entire year.

The Israeli military website agrees with this chronology, saying that the first rocket was launched from Gaza on April 16, 2001.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced early Monday that he would deploy the Missouri National Guard to this St. Louis suburb as part of a fresh attempt by the authorities to quell the unrest that has paralyzed the town since an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer.

Mr. Nixon said in a statement that he chose to activate the National Guard because of "deliberate, coordinated and intensifying violent acts."

"Tonight, a day of hope, prayers and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk," Mr. Nixon said.

The governor's decision came after the worst night of violence since the unrest began.

Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are meeting in Berlin for the first time in weeks for talks aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where there was heavy fighting over the weekend for control of the city of Luhansk.
The meeting between Pavlo Klimkin of Ukraine and Russia's Sergey Lavrov is being attended by their German counterpart Frank-Walter-Steinmeier and France's Laurent Fabius. Steinmeier said in a statement before the talks:


"It is all about finding a roadmap towards a sustainable ceasefire and a framework for effective border controls. Only in this way can eastern Ukraine calm down and Kiev continue a national dialogue that appropriately involves the people in the east."


Steinmeier warned that "a simple recipe does not exist". He added: "That is why it is so important in my view that we all sit down at a table at this time."

Russian humanitarian aid trucks will cross the Ukrainian border in small batches of several dozen vehicles and only after a thorough examination by border guards, Kiev says, following an official acknowledgment of 280 trucks carrying crisis-relief cargo.

"The cargo, in agreement with the mission of the Red Cross, will be delivered to the international crossing point of Izvarino-Donetsk in batches of up to 30 vehicles," the head of the Ukrainian State Fiscal Service Anatoliy Makarenko was quoted as saying by LB.ua.

After clearing customs, the aid trucks will be transferred "only to official representatives of the Red Cross," Makarenko added.

The Red Cross is expected to arrive at the border crossing on Monday to perform the necessary procedures.

Currently, only 16 trucks from the humanitarian convoy are at the "Donetsk" border checkpoint on the Russian side, awaiting inspection, while the rest are still parked at a local depot in order to avoid jamming the border crossing.

China's state-run media have declared Australia a threat to its national security, after Australia finalized a 25-year military pact with the United States.

The United States currently has 1,200 troops from the Marine Corps and Air Force training with Australian troops for humanitarian and disaster relief. The defense agreement will increase the number of U.S. troops at Darwin in northern Australia to 2,500.

The Chinese regime is none too pleased about the agreement, however.

Li Jie, rear admiral of China's People's Liberation Army Navy, told Want China Times that Australia could pressure China's supply lines in the Strait of Malacca in a conflict over the South China Sea.