People From Moscow

"There were no policemen who supported our side at that time. The only law-enforcement subdivision that has joined our ranks back then was the Berkut. The rest of the law-enforcement agencies remained under control of Ukrainian Ministry of Internal, and kept carrying out the MIA’s orders. Yes, sometimes they were sabotaging these orders, but all in all they were under Ukrainian control. I haven’t seen any support from official governmental representatives in Simferopol. Our troops had to force the deputies into the Oblast Council hall so that these representatives would vote in favor of our initiatives. I know this because I have been at the time commandeering one of such militant teams and I’ve seen it all from the inside. We had absolutely no support from the people, not to mention the army. The Ukrainian army units remained loyal to Kyiv as they were. Furthermore, most of the army remained that way. The only thing that made what we have accomplished in Crimea possible was the presence of Russian army."

"I was the one who pulled the trigger of this war."

"Western media are in a state that can be called obsession bordering on complete madness: For three years they talked about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet used to welcome the Russian president in the USA."

"Any Danish move to restrict the freedom of navigation of Russian ships in the Baltic straits will be seen as a hostile act and draw retaliation."

"Even cookery books, they were also banned. Why? Because it was impossible to share borscht. Well, you can't. It should only belong to one person. To some one people, one nationality ... And so that it is common? And so that in every city and in every region every housewife could cook it in her own way? No. They don't want to compromise. So this is what we are talking about: xenophobia, Nazism, extremism in all forms..."

"The Crimean Bridge is once again in the crosshairs."

"The European Parliament has passed a resolution recognising Russia as a "sponsor of terrorism". I propose that the European Parliament be recognised as a sponsor of idiocy."

"The Ukraine that you and I had known, within the borders that used to be, no longer exists, and will never exist again. This is evident."

"This is no longer Russophobia, it's a perversion on a level I can't even name."

"Here’s Maria Zakharova, who, in essence, has a strong aversion towards Jews and openly opposes Israel, without any attempt to conceal it. Another woman who drinks heavily, yet she serves as a spokesperson for our Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"We are not responsible for the lives of our citizens who have opted to take part in illegal armed activities in Ukraine. Any armed activities against Russian forces will be immediately stopped and armed groups of foreign mercenaries will be eliminated."

"It is well known to everyone that the Russian armed forces do not bomb cities."

"Let me speak or you will really hear what Russian missiles sound like!"

"I have no detailed information about what soldiers you are talking about."

"These terrible, criminal fake (images) were published in order to justify another pre-arranged sanctions package, including a large-scale expulsion of diplomats from different countries."

"Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and NATO."

"We noticed the unprecedented campaign launched in Greece to defame Russia’s policy. Senior officials in Athens allow themselves to make crude accusations against our country and its leadership, they are literally competing with their like-minded people. They hypocritically speak of an “unprovoked attack” against Ukraine, for the first time since World War II, a “mass invasion” and so on."

"To justify their aggressive aspirations, representatives of the North Atlantic bloc are deliberately fueling hysteria around an imaginary Russian ‘threat’, including actively spreading insinuations about Russia’s plans to attack the organization’s member states."

"We have no laws to stop this."

"YouTube has signed its own warrant."

"I would like to warn Washington and Brussels that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to fail, but will also be met with a devastating revenge strike."

"The Russian Armed Forces are carrying out precision strikes against military targets and are going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties."

"We have issued all our warnings both publicly and through bilateral channels. They [Sweden and Finland] know about it, they will have nothing to be surprised about, they were informed about everything, what will it lead to."

"Ukraine has become the global centre of Nazism, and this issue goes far beyond Eastern Europe. All reasonable anti-fascist and anti-Nazi forces must work together to ensure that the broader society learns the truth."

"I find it hard to think about my future in chess. Nuclear war could break out. I could miss the end of the world while analyzing the Italian opening."

"There are many people who criticize Putin and are still free. I don't really see myself in trouble. I don't insult my country. I just think we made a very big mistake. If that gets me in trouble, so be it."

"It can't get any worse for Russia. We can't make up for it. What’s going on is a disaster. The consequences will be long and unpleasant, no matter where the conflict will go. I hope it will end as soon as possible."

"You probably think that Russia is a bad country and we are bad people. But there is a large number of people who share the same values as you do in Europe. When the military actions started, it felt crazy, it was hard to believe. We were just shocked."

"The only way to change anything in Russia is a revolution."

"From the very beginning of these special operations, Russian military had a very strict order from the chief commander not to aim at civilian targets. And they are not doing that. They are not shelling houses. They are not shelling apartments. They are not shelling civil objects. They are only shelling and they're aiming of military infrastructure, in the context of one of the main goals of the operation, demilitarization of Ukraine. Then who is ruining the infrastructure, the civil infrastructure of Mariupol, for example? Those Nazi battalions inside Mariupol, they're simply killing those who would like to escape from the city. And these Nazi battalions, they are using the apartments as a shelter for their guns, for their armaments, for their tanks, for their snipers. That is causing the reciprocal fire. So, it is not Russian military who are doing that."

"We do not accept the jurisdiction of ICC [International criminal court of justice]. We did not — we did not acknowledge it before, and we do not accept it right now. And we are not going to accept it further."

"The West is an oasis for criminals from Russia."

"Dmitri Peskov has served as Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson since 2008. In this capacity, he has played a key role in propaganda and disinformation campaigns to cover up the Kremlin’s links to the 2006 polonium poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, the 2018 Novichok poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia, and the 2020 Novichok poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In all these cases, official and independent sources have debunked the Kremlin’s disinformation and established the Kremlin’s direct responsibility. Serving Putin has been lucrative for Peskov, and despite being a civil servant for his entire career, he and his family are now multimillionaires."

"Also to ensure that Ukraine acknowledges the fact that Crimea is also an untakable part of Russia, and that People's Republic of Luhansk and Donetsk are independent states. Ukraine has lost them after the coup that happened in 2014."

"Before Putin launched his unprovoked and brutal war of choice against Ukraine, Peskov repeatedly denied Russia had any intentions to invade its neighbor. He falsely asserted that Russia did not pose a threat to Ukraine, that Russia had never attacked any other nation, and that Russia would be the “last country in Europe” to think about starting a war. Attempting to discredit Western media reports that exposed the Kremlin’s invasion preparations, Peskov called them “provocations,” an “unfounded fomenting of tension,” “Western hysteria,” “irresponsible fakes,” and “maniacal information insanity.” Russia’s war in Ukraine validated the media reports and undermined Peskov’s credibility."

"Our presidential election is not really democracy, it is costly bureaucracy... Mr. Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90% of the vote."

"The strategic goal is to clear up the Mariupol from nationalistic regiments who are there in a heavily-covered environment, and so, by the way they're simply not letting people out from this thing, from the town. And this is a problem, because now we're receiving lots of refugees coming from there, and they simply tell us that they were used like a shield. They were used under heavy bombardment, and then those nationalists, they were, they were killing people who would want to leave the city. And now the main goal is to get rid of those bad guys there."

"The tragedy is that these lies aren't meant to be believed. What they're meant to do is they're meant to convince Russians that there is no such thing as the truth and that everybody's as bad as the other."

"Peskov has been one of the key implementers of the Kremlin’s standard disinformation playbook of denial, lies, and obfuscation."

"There are currently no grounds for an agreement. We will continue the operation for the foreseeable future."

"Russia does not strike at civilian infrastructure."

"We just want to control all the land we have now written into our constitution as ours."

"Russian soldiers are not shooting at civilians. They’re not attacking them but helping them."

"Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us."

"Although elections are a requirement of democracy and Putin himself has decided to hold them, theoretically it’s possible not to hold them, Because it’s already obvious that Putin will be elected."

"If a Russian spokesman (e.g. Dmitri Peskov) must be cited, it must be mentioned that this specific figure has lied about every aspect of this war since it began. This is context. Readers picking up the story in the middle need to know such background."

"We are in fact now living in the conditions of a perfect storm and the moment of truth, that very storm and moment of truth that will ensure and protect our interests, and make it so that your lives are better, more comfortable, more stable, and more secure."

"We have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us."

"Our president knows where he is leading our country."

"We categorically deny any accusations."