Georgia

“It’s a provocation, specifically to coerce the Russian delegation to slam the door and pull out of PACE.”

“Russia’s military budget has been decreasing, not increasing, year after year. You’d have thought NATO intelligence would have spotted that. Now compare Moscow’s military spending to NATO’s, which is almost a trillion dollars a year. It literally accounts for half the world’s military spending. I mean, there’s no competition here.”

“We love and are proud of President Vladimir Putin, because he is a friend of Palestine and not only Palestine, but all the people who are seeking freedom. President Putin succeeded in restoring Russia’s authority in the international arena and forced all to respect Russia.”

“It [the 2008 Russian-Georgian War] was an operation for the enforcement of peace.”

“All the time we are accustomed to believe that the international audience does not love us, that they particularly don’t love Putin and all of us who are close to him or live in his country. I’m always arguing with my acquaintances and friends …who love to repeat the phrase – ‘the whole world is against us’… I always want to point out to my friends: ‘And what, China isn’t the world, India isn’t the world, the Arab world, almost all of which is completely on our side -- well a significant part of it -- isn’t the world? Latin America isn’t the world? They don’t respect other nations, because for those people, the world is the Western world, and not just people from the so-called Western world, but the Western establishment…”

“…behind the walls of the Lugar Laboratory, biologists of the U.S. military-medical group in Georgia and private contractors under federal contract with the … Defense Threat Reduction Agency indeed could have performed secret experiments on residents of Georgia.”

“This demonstration of power potential is taking place in close proximity to Russian borders and has a clear anti-Russian orientation. Northern Europe and the Baltic region, previously calm militarily, are turning into a training ground for simulating large-scale military operations, setting up public opinion for the possibility of their transformation into a real theater of war.”

”On July 4, 2016, the Polish side temporarily suspended the Agreement on Local Border Traffic under the pretext of holding the NATO Summit in Warsaw and the World Youth Day in Krakow... The events that triggered the above actions by Warsaw have long passed. But the Polish side is not eager to end the impasse, which is very surprising…As of today, Poland does not show interest in resuming the LBT. As a result, people's interests on both sides of the border are affected.”

“Russia fully complies with the Treaty on Open Skies. The US accusations are completely groundless.”

“It would be wrong to hide the fact that the material and technical equipment of the Russian army in that war left much to be desired. Especially in comparison with the Georgian units, which Western countries had armed with modern "high-tech" and trained to fight according to NATO standards for years.”

“Russia is ready to host the World Cup. The stadiums are open. The cops are polyglots. That is a quick recap of many years of work.We're not going to lose face in front of the planet. It’s not for nothing we terrified [the planet] with a missile. In general, all is well. But there is only one “but”: Our team, frankly, is sh-t.”

“Because during the Cold War there were channels of communication. And there was no obsession with Russophobia, which resembles genocide through sanctions."