Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin held a meeting with heads of international news agencies (St Petersburg, June 4, 2026)
Key points:
• In recent years, especially since the start of the special military operation, people have increasingly been saying: “Russia has pivoted towards Asia. It has changed its policy”. Russia has changed nothing and made no pivots. The Treaty underpinning #RussiaChina cooperation was signed in 2001. We are natural allies and partners.
• Russia and India have a great deal of joint work ahead. We are confident that in the coming years we will reach $100 billion in trade turnover. At present, it stands at around $60 billion – or rather $58 billion. But we have every prerequisite to work more actively and pursue more ambitious goals.
• The US is trying to pressure India on certain issues, including some aspects of cooperation with Russia. But it should be clear to everyone by now: pressuring Prime Minister Modi, who leads a country of 1.5 billion people, is a futile exercise.
• We are certainly ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine by peaceful means, and on the basis we discussed at the meeting with President Trump in Anchorage. At that time, Russia was presented with a number of issues so that we could agree to certain compromises. Russia is prepared to accept the compromises we discussed in Anchorage, 👉 the Ukrainian side must now also agree to them.
• What kind of mediator can the EU or individual EU countries be in the Ukrainian settlement when they are directly assisting the country with which we are in an armed conflict, effectively becoming involved in hostilities? What kind of mediators are they? Mediation requires neutrality.
• If someone in the EU believes it is worthwhile to revive dialogue with Russia – go ahead, by all means. But who would be the negotiator on Europe’s side? I do not know; we are not imposing anything. Naturally, we want to understand who that could be. And I repeat once again: they should be people who can be trusted. This is a working matter that can be discussed quietly and calmly, say, at the level of foreign ministries or intelligence services. Contacts between intelligence services, incidentally, are ongoing.
• The EU could play a positive role – not by supplying weapons, but by trying to persuade the Kiev authorities to accept the compromises we discussed in Anchorage. That is all.
• We can sign agreements with Ukraine only with people who are unquestionably, in the full sense of the word, legitimate for signing documents of this kind. There are many possible options: the speaker of parliament, perhaps Zelensky himself. We need to see what kind of documents these are and what legal consequences they will have.
• Against the backdrop of developments around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the tragedy of Palestine has been forgotten – but it has not gone away. I want to stress this once again: in Russia's view, there can be only one fundamental way to resolve this issue – the creation of a fully-fledged Palestinian State.
• In 2015, Russia played a positive role in resolving the situation around Iran. At the time, we transported enriched uranium from the country to Russian territory, and this formed the basis of the #JCPOA, meaning that the crisis was resolved. The proposals are on the table; we are ready to do this again, just as we did in 2015. If not, then we will hope that the parties involved in this conflict find another solution.
Read in full
Key points:
• In recent years, especially since the start of the special military operation, people have increasingly been saying: “Russia has pivoted towards Asia. It has changed its policy”. Russia has changed nothing and made no pivots. The Treaty underpinning #RussiaChina cooperation was signed in 2001. We are natural allies and partners.
• Russia and India have a great deal of joint work ahead. We are confident that in the coming years we will reach $100 billion in trade turnover. At present, it stands at around $60 billion – or rather $58 billion. But we have every prerequisite to work more actively and pursue more ambitious goals.
• The US is trying to pressure India on certain issues, including some aspects of cooperation with Russia. But it should be clear to everyone by now: pressuring Prime Minister Modi, who leads a country of 1.5 billion people, is a futile exercise.
• We are certainly ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine by peaceful means, and on the basis we discussed at the meeting with President Trump in Anchorage. At that time, Russia was presented with a number of issues so that we could agree to certain compromises. Russia is prepared to accept the compromises we discussed in Anchorage, 👉 the Ukrainian side must now also agree to them.
• What kind of mediator can the EU or individual EU countries be in the Ukrainian settlement when they are directly assisting the country with which we are in an armed conflict, effectively becoming involved in hostilities? What kind of mediators are they? Mediation requires neutrality.
• If someone in the EU believes it is worthwhile to revive dialogue with Russia – go ahead, by all means. But who would be the negotiator on Europe’s side? I do not know; we are not imposing anything. Naturally, we want to understand who that could be. And I repeat once again: they should be people who can be trusted. This is a working matter that can be discussed quietly and calmly, say, at the level of foreign ministries or intelligence services. Contacts between intelligence services, incidentally, are ongoing.
• The EU could play a positive role – not by supplying weapons, but by trying to persuade the Kiev authorities to accept the compromises we discussed in Anchorage. That is all.
• We can sign agreements with Ukraine only with people who are unquestionably, in the full sense of the word, legitimate for signing documents of this kind. There are many possible options: the speaker of parliament, perhaps Zelensky himself. We need to see what kind of documents these are and what legal consequences they will have.
• Against the backdrop of developments around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the tragedy of Palestine has been forgotten – but it has not gone away. I want to stress this once again: in Russia's view, there can be only one fundamental way to resolve this issue – the creation of a fully-fledged Palestinian State.
• In 2015, Russia played a positive role in resolving the situation around Iran. At the time, we transported enriched uranium from the country to Russian territory, and this formed the basis of the #JCPOA, meaning that the crisis was resolved. The proposals are on the table; we are ready to do this again, just as we did in 2015. If not, then we will hope that the parties involved in this conflict find another solution.
Read in full
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