Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in an exclusive interview with NBC that the task of strengthening Russia is the most important thing in his life. The president's conversation with NBC journalist Kir Simmons took place on June 11 in the Kremlin.

The full recording of the conversation was posted on June 14th.

“You know, I have so tied my whole fate with the fate of the country, for me there is no other, more significant task in my life than strengthening Russia,” the head of state said, answering a journalist's question.

Speaking about the future leadership of Russia, Putin expressed his readiness to do everything to support a person who demonstrates certain qualities.

“If I see that some person, even if he is critical of some areas of my activity, but I see that this is a person with constructive views, a person devoted to the country, ready to put on the altar of the Fatherland not just years, but all of his life, no matter how he treats me personally, I will do everything for such people to be supported, ”Putin said.

At the same time, the president noted that he did not think about his safety after leaving the presidency.

“I don’t even think about it, these are questions of generally tertiary importance.

The most important thing is the fate of the country and its people, ”Putin said.

At the same time, the Russian leader noted that after his departure nothing in the country "will not collapse."

Discussing this, he cited as an example the beginning of his work as president.

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“Look, if we look at the situation in which Russia was in 2000, it was balancing on the brink of preserving its sovereignty, territorial integrity, the number of citizens below the poverty line was colossal and catastrophic, the level of GDP fell below the baseboard, we had 12 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves. and there were $ 120 billion in debts, ”the president explained.

He stressed that now "there are many problems, but the situation is completely different."

“And why should all this collapse, or what?

We fought international terrorism - thank God, we strangled it in the bud.

It should be reborn again, or what?

I think no.

Another thing is that different people with different views can appear on the political scene.

Well, good, ”Putin concluded.

NATO, Cold War and Russian military exercises

Putin, in a conversation with an NBC journalist, called NATO "a vestige of the Cold War."

The President noted that the current purpose of the alliance is "not very clear."

“There was a moment when they talked about the fact that it is transforming, this organization, now they have somehow forgotten about it,” the head of the Russian state recalled.

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Speaking about the expansion of NATO, Putin recalled a verbal promise to Mikhail Gorbachev, in which he was told that the alliance did not intend to expand eastward, but in the end it did happen.

The President stressed that such agreements should have been recorded in documents.

“But why was it necessary to expand NATO eastward, bringing the infrastructure closer to our borders?

And you say that it is we who are behaving aggressively.

Why on earth?

What, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia posed some kind of threat to the United States and other European countries?

We have voluntarily withdrawn all our troops from Eastern Europe straight into an open field, ”Putin said.

The interviewer asked the president about the exercises of the Russian troops, in response to which the president stressed that the exercises are being carried out on Russian territory.

“We conducted planned exercises on our territory and not only in the south of the Russian Federation, but also in the Far East and in the north, in the Arctic, conducted exercises.

Exercises were conducted in several regions of the Russian Federation at the same time, ”the President noted.

He also said that at this time, the United States was conducting exercises in Alaska "in close proximity" to the Russian borders, also on its own territory of the United States.

“We didn’t even pay attention to this,” Putin stated.

He recalled the exercises Defender Europe, which are taking place at the Russian borders.

“40 thousand personnel, 15 thousand units of military equipment, some of them have been deployed from the American continent directly to our borders.

Have we transferred our equipment to the American borders?

Not.

What are you worried about? "

The president asked.

About relations with the USA

Putin said he was not surprised by the fact that the head of the White House, Joe Biden, offered to meet without putting forward any preconditions.

The Russian leader explained this step by the current state of Russian-American relations.

“Our bilateral relations have degraded to the lowest level in recent years, but still there are issues that require synchronization of clocks, determination of some mutual positions, so that issues of mutual interest are resolved more effectively in the interests of the United States,” so for Russia, ”the president said.

He noted that the Russian side was expecting such proposals, since earlier the domestic political agenda in the United States did not provide an opportunity to restore relations "at some acceptable level."

At the same time, Putin stressed that the most important value in international relations is stability and predictability.

At the same time, he said that there is no adherence to this principle on the part of the American partners.

“What kind of stability and predictability, if we remember the events in Libya in 2011, when the country was destroyed?

Well, what kind of stability and predictability is there?

All the time it was said that the troops would remain in Afghanistan.

Then once, suddenly - a boom, the troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan.

What is this - stability, predictability? "

- said the president.

On allegations of interference and the Foreign Agents Act

Putin expressed the opinion that Russian-American relations in recent years have been sacrificed to a bitter internal political struggle in the United States.

“We see this, we know well, we were accused of everything: interference in elections, cyber attacks, and so on.

Moreover, they never bothered to present any evidence - just unfounded accusations.

I’m surprised why we haven’t been accused of provoking the Black Lives Matter movement until now - it would also be a good line of attack.

But we didn’t do it, ”Putin said.

At the same time, he clarified that in Russia they support the struggle of African Americans for their rights, but oppose any types of extremism.

Speaking about protection from attempts to interfere in Russian internal affairs, Putin drew attention to the fact that the law on foreign agents in the Russian Federation was adopted much later than in the United States.

According to the president, the document was adopted in Russia quite recently in order to protect Russian society from outside interference.

The Russian leader also pointed out that many structures of the "so-called civil society" are financed from abroad.

“Appropriate action programs are being prepared, activists are being trained abroad, and when our official structures see this, in order to prevent such interference in our internal affairs, we make appropriate decisions and laws, and they are softer than yours,” the president said to the interviewer.

The NBC journalist expressed confidence that in the upcoming conversation with Putin, Biden will ask a question about Alexei Navalny.

The interviewer asked the Russian leader about his fear of the opposition.

The Russian leader found this assumption ridiculous.

“Who told you that the opposition scares us, or the opposition scares me?

Who told you that?

You know, it's even funny, ”the president said.

Subsequently, the NBC journalist returned to the topic of Alexei Navalny several times.

In particular, he asked the president if the blogger would leave prison alive.

Recall that in February the Moscow City Court granted the Federal Penitentiary Service's petition and sentenced Navalny to three and a half years in a general regime colony, thus replacing the suspended sentence with a real one.

Putin stressed that such issues in Russia are not in the jurisdiction of the head of state.

“In our country, such decisions are not made by the president, such decisions are made by the court - to release, not to release. As for health, the administration of one or another institution of the respective institution is responsible for all people who are in places of deprivation of liberty, ”the president said.