Welcome, over there please. Hello mister putin. [applause] a million and a half questions is how many we have had this morning we reach that mark. The most popular way of contacting us here is a phone call. Byry phone call is recorded an operator. Lmost 400,000 texts this year, russians are using a very special app to ask their questions. You can even record a video call, send a text message, it is very simple. Press record. , you only haveis one limit, and then you press send. Your message will be processed here. We will receive it, certainly. Of course, there is an advantage to a video call. You can actually show what kind of problem you have, like a road or a landfill or maybe a leaking roof. The most topical and interesting answeringwill be today, another way to contact us is to use our live platform. You might even go live. Every call, every message, is not left unattended. We process everything and we record data. After we finish, we will continue working with these messages. Good morning. In the last few days we have had several reports of how you have been preparing for the direct line with heaps of papers and looking at laptops. What kind of version questions do we have now . I need to be aware of what is happening. One of the most pressing case, for people in any when we get prepared for the direct line, we see what are the most prominent, pronounced issues. Right now, it is no secret. It is our Living Standards. Income, health care, and what i just said. Landfills. Garbage, recycling. Yes, we have had a lot of questions concerning these topics. Here is another thing. Understand, there are National Projects aimed at resolving these issues. Officials always talk about them. But judging by the questions, people do not understand what these projects are about. Are they going to help . Pres. Putin they are supposed to help, and thank you for this cue. This is what we focused on. Definitely our biggest focus is our people, but in order to improve our economy, in order to help our people, we decided to channel our activities interNational Projects. The ultimate goal is to transform our economy to make a and improve our Living Standards and provide security for russia for the long term. Split oury we by level of importance. Of subject matter, how resources are distributed, we were prompted to do that. First, we needed to identify sources of financing for the activities. What are the sources of financing by the government and one of the ways was to increase the tax from 18 to 20 . We need to build infrastructure. We need to build railroads or bridges. Or highways that is the job of the government. Electricity. Access to the power grids. You cannot do that without the government. Then we did other calculations. We wanted to give a boost to Certain Industries and we wanted to boost the incomes of our people. This is why we had to do that. We had to rely had to resort to these not very popular measures. Overall, the government and the inflation was up for six months. The central bank had to hike the rate. Industrial production is down. We see the effect has faded and inflation is down. We just got the data the day before yesterday. Incomes are on the rise. Being, the way we planned it, it actually works. Mr. Putin, lets continue. The income is falling. People have some any questions about it. Few from to ask you a different places. When is life going to improve . We only have 10,000 rubles of income. Young people are leaving. So many questions. Began, wet before we had a video call. People are struggling. They have no money to buy basic necessities. Food, clothes. People struggling the most are teachers and doctors. I highly a good specialist from one city said she gets a salary of 10,000 rubles and teachers in other regions are getting 15,000 or 20,000. Here is a video call from a fire worker. Hello mr. Pruden. I am mr. Putin. I am stanislav. Please tell me, when is our salary going up . Right now what we get monthly is from 12,000 to 13,000 rubles. Division. Of my it is impossible to live getting this money. 2, 3 jobs, and our families are falling apart. E only have 2, 3 people you can see what is happening in our country. When is it going to change . Referring to your question on 10,000 rubles, for the first time in history, we made the decision to bring the to 11,000 rubles, actually 11,280 rubles. Possible to pay a person less. 10,000 is the basic salary and the rest are bonuses. Some people say regional authorities made those decisions. We need someone to look into it. People monitor the situation. Regulators need to look into it. Now, indeed, the situation is not the best one. Are you aners officer . You are supposed to get 43,000 rubles. Those who are not officers would get 16,000 or 13,000, but in the past month weve been talking about it with the minister of emergencies. We have decided to earmark 4. 3 billion rubles to raise pay for the workers of the Emergency Ministry to about 24,000 rubles. Next year we have added 8 billion rubles. Pay is supposed to grow to 32 rubles. Let us go back to the economy. Many believe that the sanctions are to blame and today the eu is expanding the sanctions and people are urging us to makeup. So let us assume russia agrees to this. What help . We did not have disputes with anyone. And will it yield anything . According to experts, these russia about 50 billion u. S. Dollars. The European Union lost about 240 billion u. S. Dollars. The u. S. Lost 17 billion, japan lost 17 billion. Jobs in those countries, they are losing our market. That hit them hard. These are preliminary figures. We agree with that. But we had some advantages. There was a silver lining. We had to switch on our brains with what we are doing with high tech sectors of the economy. If a Substitution Program was lost was launched, that is worth 667 billion rubles and that forced us to develop certain areas where we never had any skills. Take russia as part of the soviet union. Domesticever had any ship engines. We used to buy them from abroad. But we realized, it is not just enough. These engines are a particular area where we are not qualified and we are able to fill in the demand and we now have special ship engines which have the same quality of foreign engines. Take energy machinery. Take other areas. Magine 10 years ago imagine they would tell you that we would export agriculture 25. 7 billion. Laugh at that person in the face. You would shake his hand and say, thank you for your fantasies, but this is not possible. Not feasible. But thats what we have today. 25. 7 billion u. S. Dollars. By 2024 we want to go to 45 billion. Can we reach that . Well, that is a question, but we believe that is quite realistic. We need to go with that figure. That has helped us to mobilize resources. Together. Act we can surrender, we cannot give up, we can give way on national interests, but will there be any change . Signals, but some there will not be drastic change. Take china. China has nothing to do with crimea or the conflict in southeast of ukraine. We are accused that we are, but that is complete nonsense. That is a lie. What about china . Slapped tariffs. What about the attack against who way the attack against huawei . They want to curb the developments, the rise of china. A competitor of the u. S. The same is happening in the case of russia and it will continue to happen. So if we are to have a certain place in this world, we just need to be stronger, particularly in the economy. Many are saying it is time to end this. Pres. Putin no one likes sanctions. We lost 60 billion u. S. Dollars. The eu lost 240 billion u. S. Dollars. Sectors acted on many of the economy in europe. There are advantages. Opinion it is better to and you have common rules, feasible rules. Questions. On april 27, you said all ukrainians will be able to go through an easy procedure to get citizenship. Will he good relations with ukraine . Asking whether you will come to ukraine. We have a live video call. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. What are the prospects for programions in this platform . He said he will conduct with the new power in kiev. As for prisoners and their relief, what do you have to say about that . Pres. Putin we always keep track of these issues. These are humanitarian issues. In veryound themselves difficult situations. They end up in jails or similar institutions. It. Ealt with anall started with instruction issued. You raised the issue of releasing Ukrainian Naval workers excuse me, ukrainian , andn that were captured some other ukrainians that served time in russia. This issue has to be solved in a comprehensive way. We need to think of the fate of the people who we really care about. If russians ended up in the same situation in ukraine. I saw one question on the screen. The question from yakutia, one the government has to resolve this issue with the governance of yakutia. Where does this road lead to . Is nowhere to lead that road further on. Its like a dead end. This is why the payback period will never happen. But sooner or later the issues have to be resolved. Now, here is a question. What about the ethnic group . . It was just assimilated i guess. Has undergone a similar assimilation. We have a lot of ethnic groups, indigenous populations and call it that used to live here in russia. You still have some ethnic groups that have kept the land. Some have disappeared. The assimilation we have a lot of ethnic groups, indigenous populations and call it that used to live here in russia. You still have some ethnic groups that have kept the land. Some have disappeared. All parts of the cultural dna. Lets go back to our question. The question is about the economy. Id like to know about the further plan for the development of our economy. Are we going to further into the beconomy, administered in command economy or are we going to continue with the way we are going now, which is bnation . They are not going to be any breakthroughs. Partially related to the 1990s but hes transformed himself. He is drifting toward the economic stance thats been promoted by mr. Glossy. He wants to use oil reserves. So that we have more oil revenues spent but there has there are opponents who say that will trigger inflation. Okay, let the debate go on. We dont have actually any economies from the 1990s. There are Monetary Policy ideas, maybe, from the 1990s, but we dont have economic systems of the 1990s. Why . We dont have the galloping inflation of 30 . We dont have it. We dont have the debt we had back then. We dont depend on the imf. Weve gone higher than 500 billion u. S. Dollars. We dont have debt. We do have incidents when payments are not made to the population but we dont have situations we saw in the 1990s. The military and households didnt get their pay for six months. And only pension payments were the only 1 and sometimes, people didnt get their retirement benefits. Its actually a different story. You cant have a pure market economy or. Command system but a blended economy. Thats what we see around the world. Once you see disruptions and issues in the economy than the then the role of the state goes up. Once households are getting wealthier and as things calm down, the state gets away from the economy. Thats what happened across the world. Thats what we saw during crises. Take blended economic models. Take china. They are developing faster than the world average. Partially india. China is seeing slower pace of Economic Growth and india, but still fears one of the Drivers BehindEconomic Growth around the world, democracy. To push planning in Certain Industries. They dont have anything against that so we need to be aware of that. We need to use that. We discussed that earlier with the Economic Development industry. The most important thing is motivation, regardless of where you are, you need to have the right motivation. This is the only way to resolve the issue. Moving on. Thank you. We are currently at the Technical Center of our program here, the technical part of the direct line, q a, its very noisy here, people here have a lot of work. These people are getting codes and messages from social media. You can see how many people are waiting for the opportunity to ask a question to the president and here you can see the governors waiting, some of them may have to answer to the president today. They must be nervous. So what screen is this . So this is st. Petersburg and this is magadan. Go ahead, magadan. Mr. Putin, good afternoon. My question is, in the media russian people are often set told about corrupt official hadbeen caught who have truckloads of money. Could he have acquired this money without outside help . You are told about sources of financing. Where did these billions of rubles come from . Millions of dollars come from . Who is responsible for raising corruption in the country. Do you feel personally responsible for the outrage that is happening . Mr. Putin first of all, i do feel personal responsibility for it. If i didnt feel responsibility, you wouldnt see any media reports. Just like it happens in other countries. Just like it has happened here in russia. There is always an alternative. Hush it . Ok, can we can we cover it up . Because there will be questions like yours. I have just one reply to that. No. If theres crime, if theres corruption, if someone wants to get richer at the expense of other people, we have to take criminal investigations to the end. We need to do it in a transparent way. Where did they take the money . Again, these are corruption schemes. They took money from the business community. Usually both sides are responsible. Some people steal and some take and they have people who pay bribes and people who take bribes. Where will the money go . The go . The government will take care of the money. Public officials, Law Enforcement officers are always in a certain position or special position with a special responsibility. When you find out about the billions, how did you respond . What did you say . Sometimes, youd rather not use those words in public. When you get the news of billions, you are speechless. At least, no proper words for it. No words without obscenities. To fight thisneed evil. We are aware of the issue and you can see similar incidents in other countries. Take the u. S. There are corrupt officials who get 150 years in jail. It doesnt make sense but thats tough and its done in the public way. We will do the same here in russia. By the way, they are talking about incidents, punishments, life sentences. Lets say a person who is 60 plus, you can give them life sentence but there is little difference. Theres a feeling the authorities are ramping up the fight against corruption but its not just about the size of or the amount, but its just that it should be inevitable, punishment should be inevitable. You seem to be ramping up the fight against corruption, but it seems like corruption is on the rise. Mr. Putin you say seems, but only seems to you. The number of corruption plans going down, its going down when youre consistent uncompromising approach. We will continue to do that further. Another blogger has joined us. This is dmitri, wellknown in the russians fear of government. You have the floor so your question is about the fake news. Good afternoon mr. Putin, my dmitry puchkov. The growth of social media has destroyed many of the barriers that prevented the spread of fake news but now anyone can spout nonsense and it spreads in a moment. Our young people on the internet believe on the internet, i know for sure i read it online. On the other hand, there is actual criminal responsibility for spreading fake news. For example, in iceland. Ande we should do the same introduce, responsibility for spreading fake news. Mr. Putin please never had any responsibility, actually. We just introduced the responsibility but the nation has become increasingly acute you mentioned one incident. While we are preparing for the events, we were sitting in my office. Even the heads of main channels, channel 1 and channel 2. They are getting calls about bombs planted. Its not just about our media. They are getting other kind of information. This information is spread and received by shopping malls. By companies that operate buses or trains. That inflicts serious material damage and that might cause concern for these communities in general. The radiation levels going up. Theres been fake news about that. Its not just about spreading information. Its deliberate dissemination of intentionally false information. Thats in the goal of the law. Lets look at enforcement, lets look at how it is implemented and then we will make conclusions on whether its enough or whether we need to change something. And add more stringent measures. Thank you. There are more and more attacks on our servers but we are still hanging on. We are still accepting calls. Starting on the first of november, the law of sovereign internet will be put into practice. Now we go to one of the bloggers. You have the floor. Good afternoon. Can you hear me . Yes. One of the main topics online today is the sovereign internet law. From the outside, it looks like we are trying to put another iron curtain and bloggers and Internet Users are at a loss. Why is this happening . Why are you doing this . Before you answer, in moscow i you could ever try. If you want to promote your goods and services, there you go. What was the question . Sovereign internet as we call it. Number talking about restrictions online. Earlier the u. S. Decided further interest restrictions but most of the operations going to the servers located abroad, i hope they wont take it as far as that. But if the servers are switched or anyturned off him impasse, then in any case we will have to provide reliable authorization of the russian sanctions of the internet. This is the purpose of the goal. Will there be any online restrictions . On the contrary. The law is supposed to provide sovereignty of the russians to the internet. Everyone should be able to work there from bloggers to government institutions. We simply signed a decree that the people have been waiting for using the procedure for getting citizenship of russia. Donbass all around russia. Now we go to our correspondent. We are with a large family and here we have they have russian, ukrainian, and belarusian roots but before we start, i would like to show you the small room in their rented flat. Which the head of the family has made into his personal work room. You can see some materials here. Some instruments. Vladimir is producing guitars. Hes making guitars by hand. And this is one of the nine children of the family. They all had to flee from donbass and seek refuge here. I know that you have been going to the Musical School here but you stopped. We didnt have money. Welcome. Met her. We just could you please introduce all the other kids. Names]ucing these are the names the father gave to the children after the famous guitarist. The family came from bthis is came from we all remember the news coming from the area. This is the show that fell over our school. This is the most telling example of why the reason why behind the family left that place. So you have been in russia for some time, but you are still just refugees . Our family is big. And my wife had to become a refugee and it all comes down to taxes. She has five kids. There are difficulties with finding jobs. She basically is in a vicious cycle. She cannot do anything to change her situation. So she has been part of the republic for probably four months now and now, its controlled by the ukrainian troops. Currently not the republic. There are 11 of you and you are not the only ones who came here from minsk. This is the family of our relatives so you have the similar conditions here. Yes, we have similar problems and sometimes, its worse. My self and my brother had permits and at one point, we had theind so we stayed at center for foreigners before we received the status of refugees. So you received letters . Yes, we all received official letters saying from officials, saying who we are, where did we come from. So they are trying to take us into the army to basically make us conscripts. We know the reason they are trying to do that. Your children are going to school but you dont have social guarantees . So you dont have the opportunity to ask the questions mr. Putin. Mr. Putin, on the second of march you signed this law making the process of getting russian citizenship more easily but our family does not fall under this law. Could you help us . This is basically our last hope. Could you explain it to us what can we expect in the future . As i said earlier, on the 29th of april, i signed a law that simplifies the citizenship procedures for citizens, but there are other regulations that allow russian citizenship to ukrainians on russian territory. Looking at enforcement reports, i know that the authorities demand certain papers that you can only get in ukraine and you cant get to ukraine so its a catch22 situation. I will look into it. Well figure out what adjustments need to be made for the legal framework. So that we can make life easier for you, so that there would be no red tape and legal issues. We have live with us. He is listening. We will think of what we can do to help you. And regarding you and your relatives, the decision will be fast and generally speaking, well find out what amendments are needed to make the process as liberal as possible. As i said earlier, we have ukrainians back in ukraine. I studied this information. There have been many questions from ukrainians that are not in russia but are elsewhere including ukraine. To get russian citizenship, you need to come to russia. I can only imagine how you can just go to the russian consulate and get russian citizenship. Under the conditions we have, but we will try to make it as liberal as possible. So that its really available to all ukrainians. Question from the social media. You are not talking to wilensky, please understand him. He is young, he is inexperienced. Why dont you make the first step . While we were watching the video report about refugees, what i thought, yes he is a talented man. I remember how he performed at the contest of the most inventive tv show earlier. But that was funny. That was talented, but whats happening today is not comedy. Its tragedy. But since hes been elected, he needs to address these issues. He mentioned it several times, it was one of the priorities of his campaign. What happening now . He went to paris and said that he would not talk to separatists. To the representatives of those recognized republics, but how would we resolve this issue in modern history . A single example when conflict has been resolved without the record dialogue between the parties. And you still have shelling and now there are numbers on the rise, shelling from the Ukrainian Army against civilians. During the campaign, he said the shelling would stop. The blockade is still there. The economic blockade is still there while mr. Zelinski said they need to restore economic ties with those regions. But nothing is being done. The blockade is being tightened. In terms of steps forward, thats the easiest thing but we need to political will the political will from here. International issues. Today, we already talked about sanctions and today we have a person with us who is under sanctions. This is the winner of the management competition. His question is about a person about the head of state who put the sanctions on us, meaning donald trump. The question is thank you, mr. Putin. I have been personally years. Ned for several im interested in National Diplomacy and in recent times, u. S. President donald trump has been playing these strange diplomatic games called twitter diplomacy. Onquestion is, hes written his twitter repeatedly that he would like to meet you. Do you want to meet him . And if you do, do you believe this meeting would lead to some country progress to our and can he as a president somehow affect these relations in a good way to improve relations . Mr. Putin dialogue is always a good thing. Everyone needs dialogue. If the u. S. Shows interest, as i said several times, we are ready for dialogue to the same extent as our American Partners are ready. We know whats happening in domestic politics of the u. S. Even if the president wants to make a step forward, there are a lot of restrains that are placed on him by other institutions. A lot of checks. The current president will always now look back at the president ial race that hes in right now. Some of the american establishment speculates on the russianu. S. Relationship, trying to find something that is muddy waters. Inventing fakes that are not proven, but they could actually use their efforts elsewhere but they continue to pursue the same approach. But once the partners in the u. S. Are ready, we would respond in kind and we have a quite busy agenda in national affairs. The treaty is about to expire and there are other treaties would like to discuss and we have other areas including the economy. U. S. Companies that dont lead the russian markets. Trade was up 5 billion. Under president obama, it fell to just 20 billion. But for trump, there was an increase. As for sanctions, it was a great mistake on the part of the u. S. I hope someday they will realize that and they will mend the wrong. Today, we are experiencing Cyber Attacks and the New York Times said the American Intelligence Services are trying to interfere in Russian Energy services and energy grids. Is the u. S. Erested, can the u. S. Switch power off throughout russia . Do they have the lever . The world is intertwined and interrelated. I saw the response by the president. I saw that piece of news. I dont know how we should interpret that update. Have we indeed revealed real information or was it the information that was planted, that fake information . But we have to respond. First, we proposed to our American Partners to start dialogue on establishing certain rules in cyberspace, including that would have an impact on Critical Infrastructure including in the media but so far, we have not received any sensible response. President obama seemed to have agreed but he didnt have the time to do anything. We shared the same ideas with the current administration. They showed positive response, but theres been no followup. As for our Critical Infrastructure and energy in particular, definitely we need to make sure that the system is safe and sound. We need to protect it from any attacks and we are not just thinking about it. Thats what we are doing. Lets go back to our call centers. Has the past years, russia made a Great Lengths in our arms. We have the have the armada system, the laser weapons, many kind of weapons amidst our systems. We are very proud of these systems but its getting worrisome and we have a call from moscow and alexander you are live. Good afternoon, vladimir putin. I have a question to you. Why are they showing so much, so many Weapons Systems on tv . Are tv . Are you preparing us for some new war . Mr. Putin well, in the old times, people used to say if you want peace, get ready for work. Another saying, if you dont want to feed your army you can feed someone elses army. First, russia is not the leader in terms of arms spendings or military spending. The u. S. Fastly outspend us. 720 asked for 750 billion u. S. Dollars then china 117 billion u. S. Dollars. Fancy that. Saudi arabia, the uk, france, japan, and we come in seventh place. In military spending. 48 billion in u. S. Dollar terms. But we are the only great military power and we are one, that is cutting military spending. Take 2017 at 3. 4 of gdp. Thats not a small amount. In 2014, we had three point something and in 2019, 2. 5 , 2. 5 , less than three percent. Then we have to have 2. 87 and in 2021 we will have 2. 8. There is a continuous trend to cut on military spending. No other major country in the world is doing that. But whats of particular importance to us and what we need to pride ourselves on is that despite this modest spending, we have established military and Nuclear Power and we are several steps ahead of our competitors. No other country in the world has such high tech weapons. What i mean is our hypersonic missiles. This is what we need to look at. This is something we need to pride ourselves on. We need to respect people who work in the defense sector. Missileso build those and we need to thank them. We must be appreciative of their hard work, but theres another message i saw on the screen. They say, and they are right, that the might of the power the might of the countries in the world is not defined by weapons, but by the Economic Growth. Economic power. Thats what we are doing as part of our national project. I have another message related to the military. I am 13. I would like to serve my butland as a marine officer they dont accept girls in the academy. Im sorry to interrupt you, the academy will change their rules. Women will be allowed and theres a new platform in st. Petersburg with new facilities out there. I might be wrong, but when i mentioned this, the Defense Ministry will respond to this. We hope it turns out well. Lets go to the highest military academy, where they train pilots. This is thernoon, for military academy military pilots. They train military pilots here and this is the 130 simulation this is what future pilots use to train. We all remember the song that says first come the planes, girls come later but here we have all the girls already dreaming of becoming pilots and they would like to ask questions, the questions to the commanderinchief of russia. These girls have already linked their lives to service to their country. Good afternoon. I am a student at this academy and first of all, allow me to express my gratitude to you on behalf of all the women of our academy for providing us this opportunity to train here and become military pilots. Could you tell us if we would be able to maybe train for some other type of aviation, may be Fighter Pilot and other types of i think we would be as good as aviation . Ypes of maybe Fighter Pilots. I think we would be as good as men there. Mr. Putin i dont see anyway how you could be prevented in any way from serving in aviation and wherever you want, whether you want to become Fighter Pilots. There are no biological or physiological differences which would prevent you from doing that. I would like you to maybe think about other types of aircraft. Assault aircraft, which is very tense, its very intensive and the pressure is very high to be very difficult for you, and i know that it requires a lot of professional training but still, can make great pilots. As for assault aircraft, when you look at whats happening on the battlefield, the pressure is just intense. I have no idea how the boys piloting these planes are able to monitor all these. Their fingers are moving and that is it, but they are able to monitor everything and make decisions. I think before we turn to that, lets just train for other aircraft and then we will maybe go to assault aircraft. Maybe we have to lead the conversation with the specialist which is a medical professional and others but there is nothing unacceptable for women. You have another question. Good afternoon mr. Putin. Im a cadet of the military academy. You fly often. . What isdo you travel your distance . And whether there is a chance of female pilots to fly your plane, the president ial plane . There is a chance. I use the russia planes and a special team, and they are not part of the military. They are not part of the civil service. How often do i travel . , its hard to say. If you count how much time i spend in the air, i think it several months. Just spending so much time in midair. Thank you. Continuing the subject of the armed forces, the situation in syria seems to have calmed down. Is there going to be a deal with the u. S. . Mr. Putin what do you mean a deal . A deal is something commercial. We are not commercial enterprise. We are not thinking about a bargain. We dont deal in the principles and allies and its nonnegotiable. You cant agree with the partners on resolving certain pressing issues. One of the key issues we need to resolve together with some of the colleagues with which we have the progress, turkey and iran and other stakeholders and foremost its the u. S. That has to be around the table. We need a political settlement in syria. The Political Committee needs to be set up. Whether we can do it or not, yes we can, given the positive with the stakeholders but there are many more countries around. Israel, egypt, jordan, some of the European Countries too because theyve been suffering from the flow of migrants. They are interested in resolving this process. We need to work together. And another question on Foreign Policy from the social network. The u. S. Blamed iran for the oil tanker attack in the oman gulf. Is there going to be a war . What is russia going to do . Mr. Putin indeed, i dont know why they are asking me. Perhaps they dont have a direct line with colleagues from iran. Well, the u. S. Says that the options are on the table. Id like to say straightaway, that would be a disaster, at least for the region. The outcome would be an outburst of violence. The number of refugees would increase. Those who would initiate such an option, that could also lead to negative consequences. Its really hard to calculate what the backlash, what the ramifications would be. Iran is a shiite country. Take the islamic world. They are capable to extreme measures if they need to protect themselves, if they need to protect their country. They can take it to the extreme, but we dont know what that extreme will be. We dont really want the events to take that turn. We dont want to see that scenario materializing, but iran has been fully compliant with. No violations have been observed so no sanctions should have been applied against it. Its not justified. Another question. I know you like jokes. Do you know jokes about yourself . Tell us . I have a friend i have a colleague am a aunterpart colleague, counterpart who can do it much better than myself. Officials tell you what they believe you need to know so they undermine your popularity when popularity. When are you going to call them to justice . Mr. Putin thats a little bit of a stretch. I wouldnt say all the officials always report false information but thats a bit of it and by exaggeration. Its not quite true. It might happen. To be honest, ive never seen that someone would intentionally try to mislead me. I dont remember such a story. Perhaps they are misled or confused and then report some facts to me and they are not objective or their proposals are and not the best one. That might happen. That happens often. What do you do . You get opinions from multiple sources and then you get the big picture. You piece the pieces together into one puzzle. Next question, whats the main problem in russia these days . Mr. Putin whats at the very beginning and somewhere in the middle of the discussion, here is what i said. There are different tools to prevent the national project. The key thing is to boost productivity and that would be foundational to improving standards. So one of the key issues is labor productivity. We will definitely have to improve that. A very popular question. When will elected officials be replaced by robots. Someone would have to program them. There are still the living people, though. Us ofne accuses everything, but you call everyone partners. Why are you so polite . Mr. Putin i wouldnt call myself overly polite. I used to grow up in st. Petersburg. The setting is so nice. It creates a kind of harmony in your soul. Is so beautiful that it instills you with a sense of harmony. You have the hermitage, you have so many museums. Political culture is part of our general culture. If someones missing out of that its their problem. I represent russia. Russia is welleducated nation. We have a high level of culture. I cannot forget about that. Also, when relations between countries get tense or get destroyed, one of the ways to restore it is to use personal relationship and should never shut the door in this area. This is in the interest of all people. Thats what i should always remember. Alexander is asking, arent you tired of being president . No. Otherwise i wouldnt have run for reelection. When are we going to have railroads along the kurt street bridge. By the end of the year, the Railroad Part of the kerensky bridge should be in completion. Be honest, are you an alien . Mr. Putin no, i have got proof. I have my relatives, i have my family, my children finally. Mr. Putin, are you ashamed sometimes and for what . Mr. Putin thats a serious question. Im not talking to a multimillion audience. Its not that easy. Sure, yes, just like any normal person. I mentioned it previously. Its really hard to say this but again, that was in the early 2000s. I traveled a lot. The country was struggling. We came over to one region. It was the end of the day, twilight time. Muddy and i was running to my car and the woman came out, an elderly woman. She said something i didnt catch and then she dropped to her knees, suddenly, and gave me a note. A piece of paper. I said i will look, definitely. I took that piece of paper. I gave it to my assistants and they lost it. I will never forget that. Im still ashamed. So whatever i get into my hands, i try to work on it. To the full. Take it to the end. Sometimes, you cant resolve an issue straightaway. I pretty much know what was there. Perhaps helping her son who is in jail or Something Like that, but i lost it. Thats the point. Thats what made me ashamed. Thank you. Should we wrap up, mr. Putin . Should you cover more issues . I would like to thank you for this experience. Thank you. Cspans washington journal, live with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, we will talk with member of the house judiciary and intelligence committees, Florida Democratic congresswoman val demings about the motor report and the latest with iran. The Georgia Republican congressman buddy carter tocusses the epas decision roll back Obama AdministrationClimate Policy rules for powerplant emissions. Be sure to join washington journal sunday when we honor the anniversary of the stonewall riots. We will take your calls and questions at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on washington journal. The house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. Arent around the country so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. The pentagon issued a statement outlining the u. S. Allegations that iran shot down a u. S. Surveillance drone near the persian gulf. Here is the statement. Rq4 was flying over the gulf of oman in International Airspace in the vicinity of recent maritime attacks when it was shot down by a surfacetoair missile fired from a location in the vicinity of iran. This was an unprovoked attack on a u. S. Surveillance asset that had not violated iranian airspace at any time during its mission. This attack is an attempt to disrupt our ability to monitor the area following recent threats to International Shipping and the free flow of commerce. Iranian reports that this aircraft was shot down over and rain are categorically false iran are false. The aircraft was over the hormuz and fell over international waters. It was operating at High Altitude approximately 34 kilometers from the nearest point of land on the iranian coast. This dangerous and escalate tory attack was responsible and occurred in established air corridors between dubai, uae, endangeringssibly innocent civilians. President trump answered several questions on escalating tensions with iran during a white house meeting with canadian Prime Minister justin trudeau. The Prime Minister said he is concerned about irans behavior and said he would be speaking with u. S. And canadian allies. This is about 15 minutes