00:00My press secretary is its spokesperson. Mr. Peskov showed this letter to me yesterday. We had a work in lunch
00:09with the president of Uzbekistan. My age, many other political figures still keep performing their functions. Some of them are
00:22older than myself. Age is not the most important thing.
00:27My press secretary is its spokesperson. Mr. Peskov showed this letter to me yesterday. We had a work in lunch
00:36with the president of Uzbekistan. Truly, I didn't have a chance to look in detail. Peskov has told me about
00:45this letter once again this morning. I had a glance at it. I skimmed it over. So there are several
00:53things I paid attention to.
00:56First, the author of this letter mentions my age. What can I tell? Well, everyone needs to think about their
01:05age. But I believe that at my age, many other political figures still keep performing their functions.
01:16Some of them are older than myself. Age is not the most important thing.
01:25Well, age is important, but not the most important. The most important thing is whether you are capable of functioning
01:32properly, doing your job properly.
01:34So there are my colleagues who are older and who still are very energetic, whether they are doing the right
01:45choices or not. Well, that is not for me to say. It's a political assessment.
01:49But then she said about staying in power and an elected position. This is important. No doubt about that.
01:59But, you know, you've got to participate in an election. You've got to run and be courageous enough and always
02:07stick to the Constitution.
02:08Because if you cling on to power outside the Constitutional field, this is qualified as a patient of power. And
02:16that is a criminal offense.
02:18So one should not be afraid. One should run for office. And this is something I would recommend to anyone,
02:26especially because Ukraine was saying that they were going to hold elections and then they started, they kept silent all
02:36of a sudden.
02:36And the author of this letter says that the commitments achieved in Anchorage should not be observed.
02:45Moreover, he said that the search should be carried out for true guarantors of agreements between Ukraine and Russia and
02:52they should be searched for in Europe.
02:56Well, reliable guarantors are always a welcome thing. But why would they deny the American administration this order and President
03:08Trump in particular?
03:08I don't quite understand. They do want to get weapons from the U.S. However, they do not want to
03:16see the administration of the U.S. or President Trump as a guarantor.
03:19And this raises questions. We saw Donald instructing, scolding the author of the letter here, pointed out about the way
03:36he dresses.
03:37You know, sometimes, you know, asking for blood is probably something you can do, but not everywhere. It's not always
03:45proper.
03:46Now, as for the manners, as it were, on the whole, I would like to thank Donald for this work.
03:56It's useful, but there are other things that still need to be done. This has to be continued.
04:03And now, on to the most important thing. The Ukrainian side has deemed it possible to give a public open
04:21dimension to our relations.
04:24They thought it proper to put it into the public field, which I do not think right or absolutely right.
04:32I think it's absolutely improper.
04:34But still, it gives me the right to say several things that few people are aware of or maybe no
04:40one is aware of.
04:41And this is serious. I'm not being ironic. Three weeks ago, a representative of our business circles gave me a
04:51call and he asked me a question.
04:56He said, Mr. President, I've known this person for quite some time. We're not close, but I trust him. He
05:03is an honest person.
05:04He said, Mr. President, I'm being invited to Kiev. I said, very well, go ahead. What am I to do
05:12with that?
05:13But I wanted to inform you because I think they're going to talk about things related to the relations between
05:21our two countries.
05:21I said, I can't send you as an envoy, as an official capacity because only well-trained people from the
05:28foreign ministry, from the defense ministry, from special services have to be doing that as it was the case during
05:34our talks in Istanbul.
05:36Unfortunately, I cannot give you any official capacity. He said, I just wanted to inform you.
05:42I would go there, listen, and then I can tell you what they are going to talk about. I can't,
05:48you know, prohibit you, I said.
05:51And he went to Kiev and he met there with the author of this letter, the aforementioned letter at his
05:58residence, not in Valdei.
06:05Then he got back. I met him. You know, there were many things, but the essential is as follows.
06:16Mr. Zelensky has asked for a meeting. I said, I never refused to meet.
06:23But meeting, you know, just for the sake of meeting, well, I've seen that.
06:31There is a reference to the Minsk agreements, I think.
06:34But we had been forging, hammering out those Minsk agreements throughout the night.
06:40And then the former leaders of France and Germany leaders stated that it had been nothing but an empty shell
06:49of an agreement.
06:50All the Minsk agreements were about one thing, that is saving more time for the rearmament of Ukraine.
06:58Why would we need anything like this once again?
07:01I said, I see no point in meeting.
07:06There's only point for Ukraine because they want to stop the offensive of the armed forces of Russia.
07:13What we need is agreements, arrangements, not for six months or a year, but for the long term.
07:20First, let experts work, work something out, and then we can meet to sign things.
07:28But first, we need to arrive at a solution.
07:31And that is the crux of the matter.
07:33And I think the audience will understand what I'm saying, especially people from Russia.
07:39I think it was on May the 21st.
07:42Whereas on May the 22nd, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out an atrocious terrorist attack against the college dormitory in
07:53the Lugansk People's Republic.
07:56Killing teenagers.
07:58This is an atrocious crime.
08:01There was not a single military facility there.
08:03There was not a single military vehicle stationed next.
08:07The next morning, I gave a call to the school who had traveled to Kyiv.
08:13I asked him, what does it mean?
08:16They are asking for a meeting and they carry out such atrocious, blatant attacks as the killing of children.
08:24What does it mean?
08:25He said, I've got no explanation.
08:29They're calling me once again.
08:30I'm going to talk to them and then I'll get back to you.
08:35And I'm not going to talk to them anymore.
08:37I said very well.
08:38So this letter that you mentioned, indeed, it is rude.
08:45What is this letter about?
08:47Is it a means to create an environment for a personal meeting?
08:52Or maybe is this letter meant to make sure that no personal meetings can take place at all?
08:59I think it's the second.
09:01So we shouldn't be addressing the authors of this letter.
09:09The ones to be addressed are our combatants, our soldiers at the line of contact.
09:14And I'm addressing them.
09:17And I would like to tell them, comrade soldiers and seamen and sailors, admirals, generals, officers,
09:29the country's gazes are fixed upon you.
09:33The country is proud of you and places its hopes on you.
09:37Keep working, brothers.
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