Russia Quotes - Page 29

• Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen can say of themselves: "I am the state." I cannot say that. In Russia only the people in the Kremlin can say that. All other citizens are nothing more than human material with which they can do all kinds of things.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  People, Citizens, Kind

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• What right does the West have to constantly criticize Russia? There are a few things about the West that I don't like either. But I am not constantly pointing my finger and criticizing things that are a country's internal affairs.

  Vladimir Yakunin

  Country, Doe, West

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The day General Soleimani flew back from Moscow to Iran was the day we believed that Russia used cyber warfare against the joint chiefs. We need a new commander in chief that will stand up to our enemies.

  Ted Cruz

  Iran, Enemy, Warfare

  Ted Cruz at GOP primary debate in Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, www.washingtonpost.com. August 6, 2015.

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• Orthodox churches, autocracy and national traditions are supposed to form a new national ideology in Russia. This would mean that Russia would be overtaken by its past, and our past would be our future.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Mean, Past, Church

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• When I turn on the TV in Russia I see a general calmly claiming that our missiles are ahead of the latest American models by three five-year plans. It's a nightmare. We are creating a concept of the enemy, just as they did in the Soviet era. This is a giant step backward.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Creating, Years, Enemy

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The bureaucracy has grown such powerful roots in Russia, and corruption is so widespread, that people from opposition have no interest in changing anything.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Powerful, Roots, People

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Everyone in Russia must awaken the citizen within himself.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Citizens

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• I ask myself whether Russia is moving in the direction of democracy. I don't believe it is! Bit by bit, Russia is slipping back into an authoritarian empire.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Believe, Moving, Democracy

  "Russia Is Slipping Back into an Authoritarian Empire". Interview with Martin Doerry and Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. February 2, 2007.

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• The worst thing that can happen to Russia is indifference in the West - that is, if it were interested in nothing but oil and gas.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Oil, West, Indifference

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• I am always surprised when I watch the weather report on German television. First they show the map of Europe and then the camera moves to the right. Then comes Kiev, then Moscow and then everything stops. This seems to be the West's view of us - of a wild Russia that begins past Moscow, a place one prefers not to see. This is a big mistake. The West must pay closer attention.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Mistake, Moving, Past

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• The Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov once said: In a Democracy, portraits of a nation's leader should never exceed the size of a postage stamp. That won't happen so quickly in Russia.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Leader, Democracy, Size

  "Russia Is Slipping Back into an Authoritarian Empire". Interview with Martin Doerry and Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. February 2, 2007.

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• Nothing has changed in Russia since Ivan the Terrible when it comes to the divide between the people and the state. The state demands a sacred willingness to make sacrifices from the people.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Sacrifice, People, Demand

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• In Russia there are special people who are permitted to do anything. They are the sacrificial priests of power. Anyone who is not a member of this group has no clout with the state.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Special People, Groups, States

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• In Russia one can be as pure as can be and still lose everything in a flash and end up in prison.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Prison, Ends, Flash

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• In Russia only those who are loyal to the people in power can become wealthy.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  People, Loyal, Wealthy

  "SPIEGEL Interview with Author Vladimir Sorokin". www.spiegel.de. February 02, 2007.

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• In Russia whenever you encounter a minor official, he lets you know that he is above you and that you depend on him. It is reflected in the superpower mentality that nourishes the Kremlin. An empire always demands sacrifices from its people.

  Vladimir Sorokin

  Sacrifice, People, Encounters

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• The Americans have gone through 150 years of ups and downs, to pull themselves up out of the mud. After only 15 years, Russia is already in the process of liberating itself from the same thing.

  Anatoly Chubais

  Years, Gone, Mud

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.

  Tom Stoppard

  Drama, Writing, Talking

  Source: news.postimees.ee

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• If anything qualifies as an irony of history it would be this: that Marx and Engels throughout the nineteenth century wrote about America the United States as the great country of the future, of freedom and equality and a good life for the working man, and a country of revolution and emancipation, and of Russia as the great country of despotism, backwardness, savagery and superstition.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Country, Good Life, Men

  Source: www.heavenonearthdocumentary.com

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• Clearly, Russia has lied to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. They have clearly violated the cease-fire agreements.

  Leon Panetta

  Fire, Ukraine, Agreement

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Every woman with a career has to make sacrifices when it comes to her children. It's no different with me, as a political activist, than with businesswomen, of which there are thankfully more and more in Russia. Or a female cabinet minister.

  Nadezhda Tolokonnikova

  Children, Sacrifice, Careers

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• It will be difficult, even painful, but democracy will prevail in Russia. There will be no dictatorship, although relapses into authoritarianism are possible.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Democracy, Painful, Relapse

  "'They Were Truly Idiots'". Interview with Matthias Schepp and Christian Neef, www.spiegel.de. August 16, 2011.

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• In Russia, there are those who make their money in criminal ways, but I earn everything myself.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Criminals, Way

  "'They Were Truly Idiots'". Interview with Matthias Schepp and Christian Neef, www.spiegel.de. August 16, 2011.

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• If somewhere is a deficiency the normal American answer would have been well then, let's spend some more money, build some more weapons and deploy them. That's the normal way of thinking of the military, in America not only but also all over the place, but America or Russia or other countries.

  Helmut Schmidt

  Country, Military, Thinking

  WGBH-TV Interview, lsopenvault01.wgbh.org. November 12, 1987.

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• But how can you speed up the transformation of society in a country as large as Russia? Those sounding the moral outcry are the ones who are trying to dictate their standards from the outside. Of course, that isn't the right way to go either. One cannot impose democracy from the other side of national borders, which is something we ourselves experienced during the communist era. The West's policies toward Eastern Europe, the Helsinki process - none of that really helped us.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Country, Europe, Democracy

  "'The Past Is the Past'". Interview with Christian Neef and Jan Puhl, Renata Hanusova, www.spiegel.de. March 13, 2006.

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