“Right now, if Ukraine truly wants to go for a peace settlement, they’re capable of doing that. They can organize this process whatever way they want, but we can sign an agreement only with someone who is legitimate,” Putin emphasized, hinting that with Zelensky’s cancelation of presidential elections earlier this year, representatives of Ukraine’s Rada parliament “are the only legitimate people” today in Moscow’s eyes.

“These are terrorist acts perpetrated by the current regime in Kiev, and that means our law enforcement agencies as well as our special services are failing to stop these attacks. What can I say? We need to improve our work and make sure that such things never happen again,” Putin said.

"They must avoid any form of wrongdoing," the Russian leader emphasized, underscoring that the Big Tech giant should not be misused as a tool of foreign policy against other governments or for political propaganda.

“As for world leaders who have passed away, I had contacts…for quite a long time with Helmut Kohl, the former German chancellor,” President Putin said at his annual presser, answering a question about which now deceased world leaders he would like to sit down and have tea with.

“After my very first meeting with him back in 1993, and for a long period of time after he no longer was chancellor, he sometimes, not quite frequently, but regularly came to visit me, and it was my distinct pleasure to talk to him,” Putin said, adding that he has “warm memories of many of our conversations. They were useful for me, and it is no exaggeration.”

"I think that those who are doing that will face a boomerang effect," Putin noted.

“The US not only does not have a hypersonic offensive system - it doesn't even have a defensive system that has any hope of stopping Oreshnik and the new class of missiles that are coming out,” the veteran analyst maintained.

“I think in order to lessen the threshold of war […] and this would be a good start and, at least, beginning with the United States and Russia. And the other countries can follow suit,” said Maloof, adding:

“It's something that the world needs to really focus in on, recognize, and deal with constructively.”

"They are ethnic Jews, but has anyone seen them in a Synagogue? I don't think so. They are not Orthodox either, because they are never present at a Church, and for sure they don't follow Islam, because we don't see them at a Mosque," Putin noted.

"Russia is extending its hands and saying, 'if you have changed and you want to rule the country, I have no problem in dealing with you'," Magnier said.

"This is something that the new leaders of Syria would have to take into consideration to their advantage whenever the other countries like the West, in particular Europe and the US, refuse to collaborate with Syria or to support the reconstruction of Syria."

“I have many friends in Asia. I have mentioned friendly relations with China and India… warm relations with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Vladimir Putin, when asked with whom does he maintain contact.
He added that family members and friends from his childhood days were dearest to him.

"Without sovereignty, Russia cannot exist as an independent state," Putin stressed.

"Now, a word to the BBC, they vow to attack us. Well, they did so [before] without reason. That's what they are paid for," the Russian President said.

"These actions of the Kiev regime, supported by Western curators, will not go unanswered," the statement read.

“[Orban] said ‘what would you cost you if you declared a Christmas ceasefire for at least a day or two? The enemy won’t be able to accomplish anything in those 2-3 days,’” Putin recalled at his year-end presser.

The Ukrainian side refused the holiday ceasefire idea, and a potential new prisoner exchange, Putin said.