MOSCOW () – Following are some of the key quotes from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual phone-in and press conference.

ON HIS 25 YEARS IN POWER

Yes, I think that I did more than just safeguard (Russia). I think that we have moved back from the edge of the abyss, because everything that happened to Russia before and after was leading us to a complete and total loss of our sovereignty. And without sovereignty, Russia cannot exist as an independent state…

I have done everything to ensure that Russia is an independent and sovereign power that is able to make decisions in its own interests, and not in the interests of those countries that were dragging it towards themselves, patting it on the shoulder, in order to use it for their own purposes.

ON SYRIA

We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there, with all the countries in the region. The overwhelming majority of them tell us that they would be interested in our military bases remaining in Syria…

You want to portray everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia. I assure you, it is not…

Whoever would like to portray Russia as weakened, you know – I would like to recall a famous person and writer who once said ‘Rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated’…

The main beneficiary of the events taking place in Syria is, in my opinion, Israel… We hope that Israel will at some point leave Syrian territory. But now it is bringing in additional troops there. I think there are already several thousand there. And I have the impression that not only are they not going to leave, but they are going to reinforce there.

ON TRUMP

Well, first of all, I don’t know when we will meet because he doesn’t say anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all for more than four years. And I am ready for this, of course, at any time. And I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it…

And if a meeting takes place at some point with the newly elected president, Mr Trump, I am sure we will have plenty to talk about.

ON BIDEN PARDONING HIS SON

It is always important – are you more of a politician or more of a human being? It turned out that Biden is more of a human being. I would not blame him for that.

ON HOW PUTIN HAS CHANGED SINCE THE WAR STARTED

These three years … of course they were a serious test for all of us, for the whole country and for me… I began to joke less, and almost stopped laughing.

ON WILLINGNESS TO NEGOTIATE WITH UKRAINE

We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises, it’s just that the other side, both literally and figuratively, refused to negotiate…

Soon, those Ukrainians who want to fight will run out, in my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises…

We do not need a truce, we need peace, long-term, secured by guarantees for the Russian Federation and its citizens.

ON ENDING OF DEAL WITH UKRAINE ON TRANSIT OF RUSSIAN GAS

Ukraine refused to extend the transit contract, but it was not us who refused, it was Ukraine who refused, although it was receiving somewhere between $700-800 million per year… This contract will not exist, everything is clear now. Well okay, we will survive. Gazprom (MCX:) will survive this.

ON RUSSIA’S NEW ORESHNIK HYPERSONIC MISSILE

There is no chance of shooting down these missiles…

Let Western experts propose to us, and let them propose to those in the West and the U.S. who pay them for their analysis, to conduct some kind of technological experiment, say, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them determine some target for destruction, say in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?

ON THE WAR IN UKRAINE

I must say that the situation (at the front) is changing dramatically… There is movement along the entire front line. Every day…

And we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation…

Everyone is fighting, literally heroically. And they are fighting right now. Let us wish them all, both those who are fighting in the Kursk region (of Russia) and those who are fighting along the entire front line, good luck, victory and to return home.

ON THE ECONOMY

In Russia, the situation is normal, stable, we are developing despite everything, despite external threats and attempts to influence us…

Of course, inflation is … an alarming signal…

There are some issues here, namely inflation, a certain overheating of the economy, and the government and the central bank are already tasked with bringing the tempo down…

There are subjective (reasons for rising prices), and there are shortcomings on our part. For example, some experts believe that the central bank could have started using certain tools that are not related to raising the key rate more effectively and earlier. Yes, the central bank started doing all this somewhere in the summer, but, I repeat, these experts believe that this could and should have been done earlier…

This is an unpleasant and bad thing, in fact, the rise in prices. But I hope that in general, while maintaining macroeconomic indicators, we will cope with this too.