00:00I promise to stick to the economic questions, but being a journalist, I have to ask you this.
00:06The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote an open letter,
00:12and he's not just offered direct talks, in the same breath he's also directly threatened you,
00:17and has called this your war.
00:20I'd like to quote him, if I may.
00:22He says, our long-range drone paid a visit to your forum in St. Petersburg,
00:27covering a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers.
00:30He says, this war is your personal choice, a war without a real cause.
00:35We hear you are comfortable with a war not in those cases,
00:38when it comes to security of your residence in Volodymyr or your parade in Moscow.
00:44Your own life is valuable to you.
00:46He adds, you will have to fight much harder for your own existence, not Russia, but your own.
00:53He has proposed to set a clear date for a meeting between you and him.
00:58Your first reaction, sir.
01:05Well, as for my residence or parade, this is not my personal business.
01:10Besides, they had provided some information beforehand,
01:14and they said, we knew you wouldn't be at the residence.
01:18The question is, why they did that in the first place?
01:21My press secretary is its first person.
01:28Mr. Peskov showed this letter to me yesterday.
01:33We had a working lunch with the president of Uzbekistan.
01:37Truly, I didn't have a chance to look in detail.
01:41Peskov, I didn't have a glance at it, but there are several things I paid attention to.
01:51First, the author of this letter mentions my age.
01:55What can I tell?
01:58Well, everyone needs to think about their age, but I believe that at my age, many other political figures still
02:09keep performing their functions.
02:11Some of them are older than myself.
02:14Age is not the most important thing.
02:19Well, age is important, but not the most important.
02:23The most important thing is whether you are capable of functioning properly, doing your job properly.
02:33So, there are my colleagues who are older and who still are very energetic, whether they are doing the right
02:43choices or not.
02:44Well, that is not for me to say.
02:46It's a political assessment.
02:48But then, she said about staying in power and an elected position.
02:55This is important, no doubt about that.
02:57But, you know, you've got to participate in an election.
03:00You've got to run and be courageous enough and always stick to the constitution,
03:07because if you cling on to power outside the constitutional field, this is qualified as usurpation of power, and that
03:14is a criminal offense.
03:16So, one should not be afraid.
03:19One should run for office, and this is something I would recommend to anyone, especially because Ukraine was saying that
03:28they were going to hold elections,
03:29and then they started, they kept silent all of a sudden.
03:35The author of this letter says that the commitments achieved in Anchorage should not be observed.
03:43Moreover, he said that the search should be carried out for true guarantors of agreements between Ukraine and Russia,
03:50and they should be searched for in Europe.
03:55Well, reliable guarantors are always a welcome thing.
03:59But why would they deny the American administration?
04:04They do want to get weapons from the U.S.
04:08However, they do not want to see the administration of the U.S. or President Trump as a guarantor.
04:14And this brings us questions.
04:17We saw Donald instructing, scolding the author of the letter.
04:25He pointed out about the wicked justice.
04:31And this is, you know, sometimes, you know, asking for blood is probably something you can do, but not everywhere.
04:39It's not always proper.
04:41Now, as for the manners, as it were, on the whole, I would like to thank Donald for this work.
04:50It's useful, but there are other things that still need to be done.
04:54And this has to be continued.
04:57And now, on to the most important thing.
05:04The Ukrainian side has deemed it possible to give public open dimension to our relations.
05:19They thought it proper to put it into the public field, which I do not think right.
05:26Absolutely right.
05:27I think it's absolutely proper.
05:28But still, it gives me the right to say several things that few people are aware of, or maybe no
05:34one is aware of.
05:36And this is serious.
05:39I'm not being ironic.
05:41Three weeks ago, a representative of our business circles gave me a call.
05:48And he asked me a question.
05:50He said, Mr. President, I've known this person for quite some time.
05:54We're not close, but I trust him.
05:57He is an honest person.
05:59He said, Mr. President, I'm being invited to Kiev.
06:02I said, very well, go ahead.
06:06What am I to do with that?
06:07But I wanted to inform you, because I think they're going to talk about things related to the relations between
06:15our two countries.
06:16I said, I can't send you as an envoy, as an official capacity, because only well-trained people from the
06:23foreign ministry, from the defense ministry, from special services have to be doing that, as it was the case during
06:29our talks in Istanbul.
06:30Unfortunately, I cannot give you any official capacity.
06:34He said, I just wanted to inform you.
06:36I would go there, listen, and then I can tell you what they are going to talk about.
06:42I can't, you know, prohibit you, I said.
06:46He went to Kiev, and he met there with the author of this letter, the aforementioned letter, at his residence.
06:54Not in Valdai.
06:59Then he got back.
07:01I met him.
07:06You know, there were many things, but the central is as follows.
07:11Mr. Zelensky has asked for a meeting.
07:12I said, I never refused to meet.
07:17But meeting, just for the sake of meeting, well, I've seen that.
07:25There is a reference to the Minsk agreements, I think.
07:28But we had been forging, hammering out those Minsk agreements throughout the night.
07:34And then the former leaders of France, Germany leaders, stated that it had been nothing but an empty shell of
07:44an agreement.
07:45All the Minsk agreements were about one thing, that is saving more time for the rearmament of Ukraine.
07:53Why would we need anything like this once again?
07:55I said, I see no point in meeting as only point for Ukraine, because they want to stop the offensive
08:06of the armed forces of Russia.
08:07What we need is agreements, arrangements, not for six months or a year, but for the long term.
08:15First, let experts work, work something out, and then we can meet to sign things.
08:22But first, we need to arrive at a solution, and that is the crux of the matter.
08:28And I think the audience will understand what I'm saying, especially people from Russia.
08:33I think it was on May the 21st, whereas on May the 22nd, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out an
08:43atrocious terrorist attack against the college dormitory in the Lugansk People's Republic.
08:51Killing teenagers, this is an atrocious crime, there was not a single military facility there, there was not a single
08:58military vehicle stationed next.
09:02The next morning, I gave a call to this colleague who had traveled to Kiev, I asked him, what does
09:09it mean?
09:10They are asking for a meeting, and they carry out such atrocious, blatant attacks as the killing of children.
09:18What does it mean?
09:20He said, I've got no explanation.
09:22They are calling me once again, I'm going to talk to them, and then I'll get back to you.
09:28And I'm not going to talk to them anymore, I said very well.
09:33So this letter that you mentioned, indeed, it is rude.
09:40What is this letter about?
09:42Is it a means to create an environment for a personal meeting, or maybe is this letter meant to make
09:50sure that no personal meetings can take place at all?
09:54I think it's the second.
09:56So we shouldn't be addressing the authors of this letter, the ones to be addressed, our combatants, our soldiers at
10:08the line of contact.
10:09And I'm addressing them.
10:11And I would like to tell them, comrades, soldiers, and seamen and sailors, admirals, generals, officers, the country's gazes are
10:26fixed upon you.
10:27The country is proud of you and places its hopes on you.
10:32Keep working, brothers.
10:43So I'll take that as a no, that you are not going to meet the author of the letter.
10:55So far, I see no point.
10:57So far, I see no point.
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