Quotes about Vladimir Putin

40 Sourced Quotes

As Prime Minister, I will pursue three early priorities. Firstly, I will get Britain working again. [...] Secondly, I will deal hands-on with the energy crisis caused by Putin's war. [...] Thirdly, I will make sure that people can get doctors' appointments and the NHS services they need. We will put our health service on a firm footing.

Putin rejected the diplomatic path and chose the path of war. We will take full responsibility for defending the sovereignty of our allies.

Emmanuel Macron

The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It is our duty to do our best to support Ukraine in defending itself against Putin's invading army.

Putin is in an absolute, extreme isolation and that is why, every day, his reputation as the Russian president declines and his political beliefs, including nuclear inclinations, are devaluing fast.

Viktor Yushchenko

It was Putin who chose this war [2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine], not the Russian people, so we must see clearly that this is Putin's war.

Sunday was the normal day for the political awareness session at sea. Ordinarily Putin would have officiated, reading some Pravada editorials, followed by selected quotations from the works of Lenin and a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the readings. It is very much like a church service.

Of Vladimir Putin:

I think that I would probably get along with him very well. And I don't think you'd be having the kind of problems that you're having right now.

Putin said I was a genius. I do say this: Wouldn't it be wonderful if we actually could get along with Russia and China and some other countries that we don't get along with, and then we go out and knock the hell out of ISIS? Wouldn't it be nice if we cleaned that mess up? Wouldn't it be smart?

Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn't work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don't know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing.

Putin is slouching…looking like that bored schoolboy in the back of the classroom.

Because I'm on the phone, Mom!" "Fooling around with your friends again! Who is that?" "Ahmadinejad." "Oh, my goodness! What is he saying?" "That he wants to see Jeezy at the Beacon tonight. Putin's going too. He scalped a ticket from Kim Jong Il. All tha gangstas are going." "Don't be so fresh, young man!" "Gotta go," he says to me. "Enemy forces have dropped a Momshell." "Fall back, solider. Over and out.

Jennifer Donnelly

They keep calling me a dwarf, but I'm taller than Sarkozy and Putin.

Silvio Berlusconi

Putin must be stopped. And sometimes only guns can stop guns.

Timothy Garton Ash

This man [Putin] thinks it's illegal to stand up for the right of the gay and lesbian community.

After nearly fifteen years of systematic destruction of public space, engineered by Putin, the normal ways by which regular people absorb information about the state of their country are gone. Only a person who had lost his livelihood or half his savings would have been able to report that the economy was failing.

This man [Putin] think that you can't criticize your government.

Russia is no longer a military threat. But I do think we have a responsibility to try to enhance stability and democracy. And only a democratic country can be stable … It's reasonable to allow time for the development of democracy … But Putin's Russia is moving in the wrong direction … many seem to think that one should tolerate some 'failures' since 'stability' has gained ground. I believe this kind of realpolitik is dangerous. Stability can only result from a genuine democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights.

This man [Putin] thinks that if you sing and dance in an inappropriate way you get two years in prison!

How does the rest of the world perceive America under Obama? We're the nation that stood by and didn't lift a finger when the Iranian public was protesting their government. We voiced no support and did not try to help in any significant way, and the protest was soon quelled. We're the nation that drew red lines in Syria and watched them being crossed without a whimper. We're the nation that only uttered a few lukewarm words as Putin invaded the Crimea and the Ukraine. We're the nation that traded five of the world's most dangerous terrorists for one American deserter. We're the nation that gave away the store to insure that Iran can finance its terrorist attacks and be assured of having a nuclear device in a few years.

Charlie Daniels

Of Vladimir Putin:

I admire his cool head because there's a Cold War being waged against him by the EU at the behest of the United States, which is defending its own interests. I admire that he's managed to restore pride and contentment to a great nation that's been humiliated and persecuted for 70 years.

Look at a map again. Iran is a powerful state in the middle of the same Eurasia where Putin is building his union. An alliance of some sort with Iran isn't strictly required, but it's certainly helpful. At the very least, Putin wants good relations with the Iranians. And he wants America and American-friendly regimes away from his underbelly for the same reason he wants them off his western flank in Europe, where he fears the West and its economic and military alliances might encroach.

Russia is justifying its invasion of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by saying the ethnic Russians who live there are threatened by a nascent fascist regime in Kiev. The habits of Soviet propagandists die hard. What's really going on here is simple. Vladimir Putin, like most Russian leaders before him, feels he must shove his weight around the near abroad to maximize his power and influence in the thin buffer between him and the West. Now that he's without his vassal—mini-Putin, Viktor Yanukovych, is on the run—Moscow has to do the grunt work itself.

But I also made it clear to (Vladimir Putin) that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe.

Contrary to popular belief—and propaganda out of the Kremlin—neither the Assad regime nor Vladimir Putin's Russia are fighting ISIS. Their only concern is keeping the Arab Socialist Baath Party propped up in its rump state in Damascus and along the Mediterranean. ISIS still has a free hand to do whatever it wants out in the desert.

The president, comparing him to a kid in the back of a classroom, I think, is very indicative of the president's lack of appreciation of who Vladimir Putin is. He's an old KGB colonel that has no illusions about our relationship, does not care about a relationship with the United States, continues to oppress his people, continues to act in an autocratic fashion.

Evgeny Lebedev of Russia says, 'An alliance of Western leaders, Muslim nations and Vladimir Putin is the only way to defeat ISIS'. A-MEN. Lebedev is a thousand percent right. You have Muslim nations trying to stop ISIS. They're called Jordan and Egypt. And guess who's not helping them? Your Muslim in the White House. 'Cause he's not the kind of Muslim they are. He's anti them. He's on the side of the, let us say, the ISIS sympathizers. Otherwise he would have stopped them already, with the US military. Alright?

I do not know how Vladimir Putin will be esteemed by the future history, but I have no doubt that among his successes and advantages for Russia historians shall absolutely note the fact of his not altering the constitution, for he created a precedent. And afterwards, no matter who might become president, it shall be extremely difficult to alter the constitution exactly on that point. Extremely difficult.

Vladimir Posner

Bullies drunk on power do reckless and unpredictable things sometimes, though, so the possibility of an all-out invasion—even if the odds are against it—can't be ruled out. So now what? The US and NATO are not going to declare war on Russia over Crimea or even Kiev, but that doesn't mean Putin can just barge in wherever he wants. It goes without saying that the invasion of a European Union or NATO country is over the line and would be resisted with force. Putin surely knows that already. Everybody in Russia knows that. What Putin does not necessarily know is whether or not the red line is closer to Moscow.

In the West, people demonize Putin. They do not understand that there is a collective Putin, consisting of some millions of people who do not want to be humiliated by the West. There is a little piece of Putin in everyone.

Svetlana Alexievich

President Putin is a dangerous psychopath - reason is not going to work with him. <…> If history teaches us anything, it is that treating unstable psychopaths as if they are normal, reasonable people doesn't work. <…> Europe didn't pick this fight, but we should be in no doubt that Russia under Putin is an unpredictable rogue state.