Russia

Kremlin spokesman

23 Mar 2025 3 3

Tatiana Stanovaya

Inserted 1 week ago

“Putin's position today rejects an unconditional ceasefire - an uncomfortable stance that risks angering Trump and hindering the otherwise promising prospects of normalizing bilateral relations. However, this rejection is not absolute; he outlines his demands. His key condition is that a ceasefire must serve as a stepping stone to substantive talks on the root causes of the conflict-Ukraine must agree to discuss an 'Istanbul Plus' framework, which Russia views as a path to Kyiv's capitulation. Putin also requires commitments from the US to halt military supplies, while Kyiv must pledge not to fortify its defense lines or use the pause for rearmament. Zelenskyy's legitimacy must also be addressed.”

Founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik

13 Mar 2025 8 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 week ago

“We agree with the proposals to stop the hostilities, but we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the original causes of this crisis. The idea itself [of a cease-fire] is correct, and we certainly support it, but there are issues that we must discuss. I think that we need to talk to our American colleagues and partners about this, maybe call President [Donald] Trump and discuss it together. But the idea itself of ending this conflict by peaceful means is supported by us.”

President of Russia

13 Mar 2025 8 3

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“Today, amid rapid changes in the world, our strategic course for strengthening and development of the armed forces remains unchanged. We will continue to increase the combat capabilities of the army and navy, their combat readiness as the most important component of Russia's security, a guarantee of its sovereign present and future and its progress.”

Tass

President of Russia

23 Feb 2025 2 2

Lucian Kim

Inserted 1 month ago

“We seem to be witnessing not a reset but a wholesale realignment of U.S.-Russian relations. In that sense, the war in Ukraine is not a call to resist Russian aggression but a roadblock to closer cooperation between Washington and Moscow.”

Senior Ukraine analyst at the International Crisis Group

21 Feb 2025 4 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“It will take time to set up a summit with Trump. But we are in such a situation that it is not enough to meet to have tea, coffee, sit and talk about the future. We need to ensure that our teams prepare issues that are extremely important for both the United States and Russia, including - but not only - on the Ukrainian track, in order to reach solutions acceptable to both sides.”

Reuters

President of Russia

19 Feb 2025 2 2

Boris Bondarev

Inserted 1 month ago

“Trump doesn't care much about long-term strategic goals. Putin is trying to play on this feeling and get him interested in very quick material gains that are immediately clear to Trump.”

Former Russian diplomat

19 Feb 2025 4 4

Sergey Lavrov

Inserted 1 month ago

“We explained today that the deployment of any troops, any armed forces from NATO countries but under other flags, either the European Union or national flags, changes nothing in this context. For us, of course, this is unacceptable.”

Tass

Russian Foreign Minister

18 Feb 2025 3 4

Pavel Luzin

Inserted 1 month ago

“Russia cannot churn out more than 60 tanks a year. We're not talking about hundreds. The biggest problem is the manufacturing of turrets and guns, while complicated electronic components, such as infrared thermal imaging and targeting systems once made of European components are replaced with less reliable Chinese ones.”

Defence analyst with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a think tank in Washington, DC

14 Feb 2025 4 3

Nikolay Mitrokhin

Inserted 1 month ago

“Armoured vehicles are being put out of use with a horrifying speed. The production of new ones and the restoration of damaged or mothballed ones is far behind the losses, and Russia's park of armoured vehicles for the offence will last mere months. Meanwhile, there are colossal problems with delivering supplies to the front line as ubiquitous Ukrainian drones destroy armoured cargo vehicles and civilian cars.”

Research Fellow at Bremen University

14 Feb 2025 4 3

Ilya Grashchenkov

Inserted 1 month ago

“The call with Mr. Trump made Mr. Putin's repeated doubling down on the Ukraine war look like a successful bet in a casino. Russia absorbed huge losses in Ukraine, gambling that, eventually, the global paradigm would change and the West would tire of supporting the country. This change has happened, and now it is unclear how this bet will play out in the future.”

Analyst of Russian politics based in Moscow

13 Feb 2025 6 3

Tatiana Stanovaya

Inserted 1 month ago

“Putin's patience has paid off. Many high-level figures within Russia's diplomatic and security circles were increasingly frustrated with the initial statements and approaches of Trump and his team on Ukraine. Trump's 'plans' appeared not just unacceptable but outright hostile…. Nevertheless, Putin chose patience, working steadily to ingratiate himself with Trump - being accommodating, showing flexibility, and projecting a willingness to compromise. Now, he has secured the first step: the launch of substantial negotiations. I'm highly skeptical about the prospects of these talks. Trump wants a cease-fire and some kind of arrangement that would sideline the Ukraine issue for a while. But his vision still differs radically from Putin's. For Putin, a real solution means a Ukraine that is 'friendly' to Russia - deprived of military capability, has a rewritten constitution, and guarantees non-membership in NATO. Make no mistake - Putin is fully prepared for these talks to fail. From the Kremlin's perspective, there is nothing the West can do that would reverse Russia's territorial gains and prevent Ukraine's collapse in the long run.”

Founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik

13 Feb 2025 8 3

Alexandra Prokopenko

Inserted 1 month ago

“Two tough guys, Putin and Trump, just talked. And the ones who should be worried are in the EU. A chance to negotiate directly with the U.S. suits Putin perfectly. From the Kremlin's perspective, the Western coalition would fail if its biggest player stepped out.”

Fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin

13 Feb 2025 7 4

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 1 month ago

“Russia has never and will never discuss the topic of exchanging its territory. Ukrainian forces holding territory inside Russia would either be destroyed or pushed out.”

Kremlin spokesman

12 Feb 2025 2 2

Boris Gryzlov

Inserted 1 month ago

“Minsk-2 became possible exclusively thanks to Russia's mediation. At the same time, Russia - it should be emphasized - has never even legally been a party to the conflict. Nevertheless, as a participant in the trilateral contact group, our country contributed with all its might to a peace settlement, for which, as it seemed at the time, both international legal and political conditions had been created. It is crucial to recognize that if the provisions of the document had been fully and effectively implemented, the Ukrainian crisis would not have escalated to the extent witnessed on the eve of the special military operation. Ukraine would have maintained its territorial integrity and sovereignty, enabling it to develop successfully. In simple terms, it would have continued to exist as a sovereign state.”

Tass

Russian ambassador to Belarus

11 Feb 2025 4 2

Grigory Mashkov

Inserted 1 month ago

“In the emerging realities, it is no longer possible to talk about strategic stability in its classical bilateral context, or else we may plunge into another illusion. There have appeared many actors on the international arena that influence the global missile lineup of forces. It is not ruled out that in the current conditions of confrontation with the West, with its policy of inflicting strategic damage on Russia, we may face the need for moving away from restrictions on nuclear and missile arsenals in favor of their quantitative and qualitative increase.”

Tass

Russian Foreign Ministry’s special ambassador

30 Jan 2025 4 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“You can negotiate with anyone, but because of his illegitimacy, he [Zelenskyy] has no right to sign anything. I would allocate people to take part in negotiations if Zelenskyy would be present instead of holding direct talks face-to-face.”

President of Russia

28 Jan 2025 5 4

Keir Giles

Inserted 1 month ago

“I think there's no reason why [North Korea] should not keep sending in battle casualty replacements and not to expand the North Korean force. Russia - if all the estimates are to be believed - still badly needs the manpower, and North Korea still plainly values what it's getting in exchange for this. So why would this force not be just the precursor to a much larger deployment? The fact that they only have three prisoners… is a good indication that measures are indeed being taken to make sure North Koreans don't get caught.”

Senior consulting fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank

27 Jan 2025 5 4

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 1 month ago

“We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president. I couldn't disagree with him [Donald Trump] that if he had been president, if they hadn't stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided.”

Pbs

President of Russia

24 Jan 2025 3 3

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 2 months ago

“We are certainly interested in starting the negotiation process [with the United States] as soon as possible for the sake of the people of our countries and the entire world. In the current situation, all nuclear capacities need to be taken into account. In particular, it's impossible to hold a conversation without taking into consideration the nuclear capacities of France and the United Kingdom. The current realities make it necessary.”

Tass

Kremlin spokesman

24 Jan 2025 5 2

Alexander Grushko

Inserted 2 months ago

“For us, this is a key element of potential agreements on the conflict in Ukraine and an element of removing the root causes of this conflict. And we will be seeking not only rock-steady legal guarantees, ruling out any Ukrainian membership in NATO, but we will also demand that the alliance itself embrace this policy. Ukraine joining NATO would rule out achieving peace in Ukraine and, more broadly, establishing any security architecture. The truth is, there exist different opinions regarding the prospects for admitting Ukraine to NATO inside the alliance.”

Tass

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

24 Jan 2025 2 4

Kaja Kallas

Inserted 2 months ago

“The European Union must boost its defence spending to prepare for the worst and be able to defend itself alone if needed against a belligerent Russia. Many of our national intelligence agencies are giving us the information that Russia could test the EU's readiness to defend itself in three to five years. Russia can, in three months, produce more weapons and ammunition than the 27-country bloc collectively can in 12 months. President Trump is right to say that we don't spend enough. Defence is a highly skilled, highly intensive industry which requires money, people and time. We have money and people, but we don't have time. Ukraine is buying us time. We do not need a European army. We need 27 European armies that are capable and can effectively work together to deter our rivals and defend Europe, preferably with our allies and partners, but alone, if needed.”

Euronews

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

22 Jan 2025 9 4

Craig Kennedy

Inserted 2 months ago

“Moscow now faces a dilemma: the longer it puts off a ceasefire, the greater the risk that credit events - such as corporate and bank bailouts - uncontrollably arise and weaken Moscow's negotiating leverage.”

Harvard University economist

20 Jan 2025 5 4

Liam Peach

Inserted 1 month ago

“Inflation is out of control and we think the bias will remain towards further monetary tightening [further rate increases] in the coming months.”

Senior emerging markets economist

15 Jan 2025 3 3

Mikhail Alexseev

Inserted 2 months ago

“When the Trump team starts engaging in these kinds of discussions, they will find that getting Putin to abandon his goal of subjugating all of Ukraine will be the hardest thing in this process. Trump will need to continue aid to Ukraine if he is serious about getting Putin to end the fighting. We will have movement toward a negotiated settlement only if Ukraine acquires greater capabilities to inflict damage inside Russia. Until that happens, Putin has very little incentive to abandon his strategy of making gradual gains on the battlefield and just waiting for the West to abandon support. Trump may seek to change Putin's calculus on Ukraine by countering the Kremlin's interests in other regions like the Arctic, Middle East, Africa or targeting his allies like Iran and North Korea. What we may see from from Trump is a broadening of the bargaining game, taking it to other areas to send more and more messages to Putin.”

Political science professor at San Diego State University who focuses on Russia and Ukraine

15 Jan 2025 6 5

Nikolai Patrushev

Inserted 2 months ago

“It can't be ruled out that Ukraine will cease to exist at all in the coming year. Kyiv collapsed long before Russia's 2022 invasion due to its alleged violent enforcement of neo-Nazi ideology and ardent Russophobia.”

Themoscowtimes

Secretary of Russia's Security Council

14 Jan 2025 3 2

Sergey Lavrov

Inserted 2 months ago

“I believe that, first and foremost, we need to hear from the Greenlandic people. This is similar to how we - as neighbours of other islands, peninsulas, and territories - listened to the residents of Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya to understand their stance on the regime that had seized power through an unlawful coup.”

Russian Foreign Minister

14 Jan 2025 7 2

Sergey Lavrov

Inserted 2 months ago

“We will be waiting for specific initiatives. President Putin has said on multiple occasions that he is ready to meet, but no proposals have been made yet. President Trump also said that Putin wanted to meet and he believed they should meet but he first needed to take office.”

Russian Foreign Minister

14 Jan 2025 4 3

Mark Rutte

Inserted 2 months ago

“On average, European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems, and we need only a small fraction of that money to make defense much stronger. The final NATO spending target might be around 3.6 or 3.7 percent of GDP unless they do a better job of joint buying of weapons and equipment, as well as innovation. Even if that happens, defense budgets will be impressively more than the 2 percent. We are safe now, but not in four or five years. If spending doesn't go up Europeans should get out their Russian language courses or go to New Zealand. I'm deeply concerned about the security situation in Europe. We are not at war, but we are not at peace either ... That means we need to invest more in defense and produce more capabilities. This cannot wait. We need to boost the resilience of our societies and critical infrastructure.”

Politico

Secretary General of NATO

14 Jan 2025 9 5

Sergey Lavrov

Inserted 2 months ago

“The US wants no rivals in any field, starting with energy, where they unabashedly approve terrorist activities aimed at destroying the foundation of EU energy security, and where they stir up their Ukrainian clients to now target the TurkStream following the Nord Stream pipelines.”

Tass

Russian Foreign Minister

14 Jan 2025 6 2

Richard Haass

Inserted 2 months ago

“As big as a Ukraine cease-fire would be it's far from everything. The sabotage is all part of a larger pattern. Russia has turned into a revolutionary actor. Russia has turned into a country seeking to undermine the international order. And the real question is: Can a Trump administration do something about that?”

Former president of the Council on Foreign Relations

13 Jan 2025 8 3

Dmitry Peskov

Inserted 2 months ago

“Of course, such decisions cannot but lead to a certain destabilization of international energy markets, oil markets. The routes for the export of Russian energy cannot be cut off by the sanctions. If something is blocked in one place, alternative options appear in another. Therefore, a search will be conducted for such work options that will minimize the consequences of sanctions. It is clear that the United States will continue to try to undermine the positions of our companies in non-competitive ways. Of course, we expect that we will be able to counteract this.”

Aa

Kremlin spokesman

13 Jan 2025 5 3

Craig Kennedy

Inserted 2 months ago

“Moscow's funding challenges only increase from here, especially if coalition countries enforce more fully the powerful energy sanction tools at their disposal. Through continued resolve and a clear understanding of Moscow's vulnerabilities, Ukraine and its allies can realise the full potential of their negotiating leverage, avoid making unnecessary concessions, and reduce the longer-term risks posed by Russian revanchism.”

Pravda

Former investment banker at Bank of America and Morgan Stanley

12 Jan 2025 3 5

Russia’s Foreign Ministry

Inserted 2 months ago

“The US Administration's decision to impose restrictive measures against Russian energy sector in general and a number of major companies, including personal sanctions against their leadership, as well as Russian Ministry of Energy officials is an attempt to inflict at least some damage on the Russian economy even at the cost of destabilizing global markets ahead of the end of the inglorious term of President Joe Biden. Of course, Washington's hostile actions will not be left without response and will be taken into consideration during the calculation of our external economic strategy. We will continue to implement the major projects on oil and gas extraction, as well as import replacement, provision of oil-related services and construction of nuclear power plants in third countries.”

Tass

Statement by the Russia's Foreign Ministry

11 Jan 2025 10 3

Russia's Defense Ministry

Inserted 2 months ago

“On January 3, an attempt was made from Ukrainian territory to launch a missile attack against the Belgorod region using US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles. These actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation.”

Statement by the Russia's Defense Ministry

04 Jan 2025 7 2

Jeffrey Schott

Inserted 2 months ago

“Moscow was able to sell too much gas and oil at too high a price. Sanctions have been applied with one arm tied behind your back. Piecemeal sanctions and the often listless enforcement of them have also made the economic noose around Russia's neck looser than it could have been.”

Senior fellow at the Peterson Institute

02 Jan 2025 4 2

Sergei Guriev

Inserted 2 months ago

“The idea that economic sanctions could bring a quick end to the war was always more a product of hope than a realistic assessment. A better measure of success is to ask whether sanctions hampered Moscow's ability to wage war effectively. And the answer to that is yes. Imagine a world where sanctions were not introduced. A world where Russia's foreign commerce was not severely limited and it had access to all of its frozen foreign reserves. It's very clear that sanctions did cause problems for Putin, did reduce the amount of resources in his pocket and, therefore, saved lives in Ukraine. Without them, he added, Russia might have even won the war by now.”

Russian economist who fled the country in 2013 and is now the dean of the London Business School

02 Jan 2025 6 4

Volodymyr Vlasiuk

Inserted 2 months ago

“The Kremlin has no way of stabilising inflation and boosting civilian production other than cutting military spending and having the sanctions lifted. The latter would be a genuine lifeline for the Russian economy. In 2025, Russia's economy will be operating with depleted financial reserves in the National Wealth Fund and lower oil prices. Printing money remains the most accessible source of funding for the government, but it is increasingly risky in an economy overheated by inflation.”

Pravda

CEO of Ukrainian Industry Expertise

31 Dec 2024 10 5

Yuliia Pavytska

Inserted 2 months ago

“The 70,000-ton crude oil tanker has changed ownership and managers within the past two years and lacks the types of insurance oil tankers usually have, all major indicators of a shadow vessel. The ship is also flagged to the Cook Islands, which is well known for its lax oversight. An inspection of the Eagle S in Ghana in September 2023 discovered 24 defects, including problems with fire safety and navigation systems, an astounding number. This is like a record. I can't recollect whether we've seen so many deficiencies identified.”

Manager of the sanctions program at the Kyiv School of Economics Institute

28 Dec 2024 6 2

Elisabeth Braw

Inserted 2 months ago

“The idea to create a shadow fleet to circumvent sanctions is not new. The scheme has long been used by global pariahs like Iran and North Korea, as well as drug cartels. Russia's innovation was one of scale. Since Russia began assembling its fleet, the number of shadow vessels traversing the oceans has grown by hundreds and now makes up 17 percent of the total global oil tanker fleet. That makes it like a tumor. When it was a small share, it could be managed, but now that it's approaching 20 percent, it's much less manageable, and obviously it's growing.”