deputy-prime-ministers-of-russia

"In contemporary Russia, unlike the old USSR or present-day North Korea, the stage is constantly changing: the country is a dictatorship in the morning, a democracy at lunch, an oligarchy by suppertime, while, backstage, oil companies are expropriated, journalists killed, billions siphoned away. Surkov is at the centre of the show, sponsoring nationalist skinheads one moment, backing human rights groups the next. It's a strategy of power based on keeping any opposition there may be constantly confused, a ceaseless shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it's indefinable."

"In the tightly controlled and airproof “vertical of power” that is Vladimir Putin’s Russia, even a handful of dissenting voices in legislative institutions—especially when they are loud and persistent—can present a serious threat to the system. Such was the voice of the late Boris Nemtsov."

"People in power remind me of people who find themselves in a room with windows and doors, where a huge number of microbes are flying. Sooner or later, the people in power deteriorate, simply because immunity is lost over time, and at some point you get infected with something. Elections and independent press are nothing more than opening those windows and airing the "corridors of power.""

"I actually expect to live in Russia, so I care about what happens here."

"We have few truly patriotic and smart candidates, and those few are busy figuring things out with each other. During the last elections various coalitions were possible, though none of them came to be - everybody was on their own. It is ridiculous."

"Had I held a high position within the government, I'd gather big russian bussiness and give them a strict order: to buy up Sevastopol property under government guarantees. Then the talks surrounding the Black Sea fleet would take on a very different form: it's difficult to ignore investors. Interestingly enough I've received a large amount of offers from Sevastopol enterprises wishing to be bought by Russian capital. I am confident that that is a much more reliable path than shaking the air by statements like "we will never give up an inch of Russian land". Historical justice must be restored by capitalist methods."

"First things first, for many years I've steadily supported the unification of the opposition, but right now I have to say that Jews are more likely to find an agreement with Arabs than for us with Yavlinsky — it's an assessment based on the results of our discussion. It's sad, but true."

"The Magnitsky Act is the most pro-Russian law ever passed by a foreign legislature."

"When we in Russia establish law and order, when the country has an established independent judiciary, I will be the first to go to Brussels and Strasbourg and lobby for the law to be repealed, because we will deal with our scoundrels ourselves, and we won’t need any Magnitsky Law."

"[I]n Europe, faced with the choice between human rights and gas, many politicians pick gas."

"The system always breaks down in Russia when irreconcilable contradictions develop within the ruling clan."

"This isn't your war... It’s Putin’s war for power and money."

"I know what needs to be done... We need to write a report "Putin. War", publish it in huge numbers and hand it out on the streets. We will tell how Putin unleashed this war. That's the only way to defeat propaganda."

"[T]he truth is that Putin is war and crisis."

"Nemtsov sacrificed a lot for politics, for a freer Russia — and I’m not just talking about his life, his mortal life."

"Vladimir Putin would have voted for Yanukovych. He's fucking crazy, Vladimir Putin, just so you understand."

"Mr. Rogozin is a charismatic orator with a rascally sense of humor, and he at times has succeeded in charming his rivals in Brussels even as he was upbraiding them. More than once in the interview, he ended long discourses in Russian about his views on relations with the West by uttering a single English word that captured how he likes to be viewed: “Troublemaker!”"

"If they were real men, following the tradition they would commit a hara-kiri and calm down at last. All they're doing is making noise"

"After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest that the USA bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline."

"Crimea is ours. Basta."

"If these are "peaceful protests" then Ashton is a ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre."

"Every former w. who has aged wants to give lectures about morals, especially during tours and gigs abroad…"

"The whole criminal world is in Parliament!"

"There is stud "Khrenovskoy" in my former constituency and that stud is older than all of the United States, older than America. Naturally, that's why we have archaic views."

"…They are countries that were formerly part of either the Soviet Union or Warsaw Pact. We call them NATO's Komsomol."

"Tremble, bourgeoisie! You're screwed. :)"

"Upon US request, Romania has closed its airspace for my plane. Ukraine doesn't allow me to pass through again. Next time I'll fly on board TU-160."

"The answer to Maidan comes from the South-East (Novorossiya) in the form of anti-fascist resistance and struggle for national liberation."

"Before his illness, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin loved being photographed with pygmies."

"Monkeys should be called monkeys."

"This time we must burn out all this Ukrainianism at the root. Together with their bastard literature, delusional history, cannibalisation of the “ancient Ukrainians”, fascist “aesthetics” and servility to the West. Burn them to death. No truce. Any ceasefire, and even more so an armistice, is certain death for our children and grandchildren."

"…Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitri O. Rogozin, who is known as irascible and an outspoken nationalist and who once hung a poster of Stalin in his office in Brussels, was appointed a deputy prime minister overseeing the military-industrial complex."

"This has never happened before, and now it's happaning again."

"We wanted the best, but it turned out like always."

"Whatever organisation we try to create, it always ends up looking like the Communist Party."