Vladimir Putin Quotes

People were really interested in what was going on because of the international context of the Cold War.

… this whole Near East problem is not just an Arab-Israeli dispute but a problem of the influence of the West as opposed to that of the Soviet. We want no wars, but we do not want a Sovietized world.

During the Cold War, America took sides not only in disputes between Arab countries, but also in debates within them.

So you're quite right that when... as the Cold War grew and expanded out of Europe, we ourselves had to take refuge behind the shield of the Monroe Doctrine.

The Cold War didn't end. It was won.

Russia is an important power upon which the U.S.A. imposed a Cold War.

I believe that detente was having almost the opposite effect of what was intended. What was intended was to sort of end the contest for power and to stop Soviet expansion, especially by military means and the military build-up, the military contest.

During the Cold War, we were interested because we were scared that Russia and the United States were going to go to war. We were scared that Russia was going to take over the world. Every country became a battleground.

The politicians always told us that the Cold War stand-off could only change by way of nuclear war. None of them believed that such systemic change was possible.

The international order established at the end of World War II could certainly have been worse. However, this order did contain certain factors which bore within them the seeds of instability.

The only thing that kept the Cold War cold was the mutual deterrence afforded by nuclear weapons.

The Cold War was over long before it was officially declared dead.

Force-backed humanitarianism, which relies on rational influence over events in other countries, may have been a more feasible project in the bipolar era of the Cold War, with its relatively defined and stable web of alliances and proxies.

Let us not be deceived we are today in the midst of a cold war.

Now we are in a period which I can characterize as a cold peace.

The Cold War is Over

The trouble with the First World War, for example, is that people think war was inevitable, but I don't agree. If you look at the Cold War, you could argue that a war was bound to happen between the Soviet Union and its allies and the United States and its allies, but it didn't.

For the Kremlin, it is more feasible to preserve its great-power status in cooperation with the United States than in confrontation.

I think the Cold War works as a great analogy or simile for different kinds of conflict. It's funny, when you look back at it, it's one of the last times that the boundaries were clear. Now, as we see on 'Homeland,' there are no clear boundaries and enemies.

We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.

There's a tendency on the part of Americans, all of us, to say, 'Hey, the Cold War is over, the Soviet Union is gone, we don't have to worry about these guys again.' We always have to be worried about them, we always have to be concerned about them, and we have to be well-informed.

The United States and Russia probably do not have common aims and dreams, but they have common worries: Both Washington and Moscow are concerned about the rise of China and are threatened by the rise of radical Islam.

Since the end of the Cold War, hegemonism has become increasingly unpopular.

The Cold War is over but Cold War thinking survives.

Other than being crazy enough to press a button, there is nothing that Putin can do militarily to fundamentally alter American interests.