wonderful session. we would like to invite our guests to join us for a lunch reception being served now in the reception area. we will reconvene today's session at 12:30. so please enjoy your lunch and you can start make being your way to the reception area now. thank you. >> this day long forum on korea at csis taking a lunch break. we're expecting this conversation to continue at about 12:30 eastern. we'll hear from victor cha a information bush administration official who handled north korea policy. you can see that live again starting at 12:30 eastern here on c-span 3. right now russian president putin put's annual call in program from moscow. he answers a series of questions from the public via phone,

social media and a live studio audience. >> translator: welcome, mr. putin. welcome. over there, please. hello, mr. putin. [ applause ]

a million and a half questions is how many we've had this morning we reached that mark. the most popular way of contacting us here is a phone call. every phone call is recorded by an operator. almost 400,000 texts and messages. but 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's very simple. press record. the only limit is you only have one limit and then you press send. your message will be processed here. we will receive it, certainly. of course, there's an advantage

to a video call. you can actually show what kind of problem you have, like a road or maybe a landfill or maybe a leaking roof. so the most topical and interesting questions we'll be answering 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 after we finish we'll continue working with these calls and messages. hello, mr. putin. shall we begin? >> translator: good morning, sure. >> translator: in the last few days we had several reports of how you've been preparing for the direct line. you've been sitting with heaps

of paper and looking at your laptop. what kind of your again questions do we have now? >> translator: i need to be aware of what's happening. and i know one of the most pressing issues for people in any case but so when we get prepared for the direct line, as we know it's just one of the most prominent and pronounced issues. right now it's no secret that our living standards, income, health care and what i just heard landfills, garbage, recycling. >> translator: yes. we've had a lot of questions concerning these topics. but here's another thing. as far as i understand there are national projects aimed at

resolving these issues. officials always talk about them. but judging by the questions people don't really understand what these national projects are about. are they going to help? >> translator: yeah, sure. they are supposed to help and thank you for this queue. this is what we focus 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 into national projects. and the ultimate goal is to transform our economy, to make it a hi-tech one to boost labor productivity and then based on this improve our living standards and provide security for russia, for the long term. this is why we split all of our activities but not just by the level of importance, just in

terms of subject matter, in terms of how resources are distributed. we work hard to do that and we -- first we needed to identify sources of financing for the activities. one of the sources of financing by the government and one of the ways was to increase the vat tax from 18% to 20% to zero. we need to build infrastructure. who is going build railroads or bridges or highways? that's the job of the government. access to electricity, access to the power grids. you can't 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 central bank have proved right, but inflation was up for six months. it means that the central bank had to hike up the, keep policy rates, industrial production was a little bit down but now we see effects has faded and inflation is down, just got the data the day before yesterday. it's below 5%. industrial output is on the rise. and income is on the rise. so for the time being, the way we planned it, it actually

works. >> translator: mr. putin, so let's continue. the income is falling, we've all witnessed it. we have so many questions about it, and i'm just going to ask you a few from different regions. when is life going to improve? we only have 10,000 rubblels. towns are dying. young people are leaving. i know before we begun we had a video call. please call center, the floor is yours. well people are struggling. they have no money to buy basic needs and necessities, food, clothes, and people struggle technology most are teachers and

doctors. a good specialist from ural said she's getting a salary of 10,000 rubles and teachers in other regions are getting 15,000 or 20. here's a video call from a fireworker. hello, mr. putin. please tell me when is our salary going up? right now what we get monthly is from 12 to 13,000 rubles. i'm the head of my division so i'm getting 16,000 rubles. well, it's impossible to live getting this money, and we have to work two, three jobs and our families are falling apart.

we only have two, three people on duty and you can see what's happening in our country. country houses are burning, forests. so when is it going to change? >> translator: referring to your questioning on 10,000 rubles, we need to look into it. for the first time in history we took a decision to bring the minimum wage to 11,000 rubles, actually 11,280 rubles. so it's actually not possible to pay a person less. well 10,000 that's the basic salary and the rest is bonuses. >> translator: some people say regional authorities made those decisions. >> translator: we need someone to look into it. people that monitor the situation. to look into it.

maybe work halftime, flexitime. now inseed the situation is not the best one. you have officer -- i mean, are you and officer? you are supposed to get 43,000 rubles and those that are not officers will get 16,000 or 13,000. but in the past month we've been talking about it with the minister of emergencies. we have decided to earmark 4.3 billion rubles to raise pay for workers of the emergency ministry to 24,000 rubles. also adjust their pay next year.

we've added 8 billion rubles, and the pay should grow to 32 rubles. >> translator: let's go back to the economy, many believe that the sanctions are to blame and today the eu is extending the sanctions and people are urging us to make up. so let's assume that russia agrees to this. will it help? >> translator: well, we do not have any disputes with anyone. and will it yield anything or are we missing out on something? according to experts, these sanction sanctions cost russia about 50 billion u.s. dollars.

but the european union lost about $240 billion. the u.s. lost $17 billion. japan lost $27 billion. again that affects jobs in those countries, they are losing our markets. that's hit them hard. again these are preliminary figures. okay. we agree with that. but we had some advantages. there was a virtualsilver linin. we had to switch on our brings in. what we do in the hi-tech part of the economy. import substitution program was launched. that's worth 667 billion rubles. that forced us to develop certain areas where we never had any skills, take russia as part of the soviet union and modern russia. we never had any domestic ship

engines. we used to buy them from abroad. but we realized it's not just enou enough. these engines are a particular area where we're not qualified and we're able to fill in the demand and we now have special ship engines which are, have the same quality of foreign engines. take energy machinery. take other areas. imagine ten years ago and imagine they would tell you that we would export agricultural products worth 25.7 billion u.s. dollars. we would laugh that person in the face.

shake his hand and say thank you for your fantasies but this is not possible, not feasible. but that's what we have today. 25.7 billion. by 2024 we want to go to $45 billion. can we reach that? that's a question. we believe that's quite realistic and we need go for that figure. and that helps us to mobilize resources. we got our act together. we can surrender. we can give up. we can give away our national interests. but will there be any change? we might have some signals but there won't be any drastic change. take china. china has nothing to do with crimea or the conflict in southeast ukraine. we're accused that we are

occupied. that's complete nonsense. that's a lie. what about china? has nothing to do with it. the u.s. slapped tariffs on their goods. you can call it sanctions, tariffs, sanction, same way. what about the attack against huawei. the hi-tech giant. what do they want to do? they want to curb the development, the rise of china. that is 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 be stronger particularly in the economy. >> translator: but still many are saying it's time to end this. >> translator: well no one likes sanctions. we launched $50 billion and the eu lost $240 billion. and that has an impact on many

sectors of the economy in europe. definitely, as i said, there's been certain advantages and my personal opinion is that it's better to leave under normal economic conditions and to have common rules, feasible rules. >> translator: so a if you questio -- few questions, mr. putin all ukrainians can get easy citizenship. will we restore relationships with ukraine. will you come to ukraine. we have a live video call from kiev, a journalist. good afternoon. mr. putin, good afternoon. what are the prospects for negotiations in minsk program

platform? mr. medvedev said that he will conduct negotiations directly regardless of the position of the new power in kiev. so as for prisoners and their release, what do you have to say about that? >> translator: well, we always keep track of these issues. again, these are humanitarian issues. people have found themselves in a very difficult situation. they end up in jails or in similar institutions that are no better than jails. you've dealt with it. it all started actually with the instruction by mr. polyshenko. you take it to heart and just

recently raised tissue of releasing ukrainian naval workers, ukrainian seamen that were captured near the straits and some other ukrainians that are serving time here in russia. these issues have to be resolved in a comprehensive way. we need to think of the, of the fate of the people who we really care about and these are russians who have ended up in the same situation in the ukraine. i'm sorry for interrupting you. i saw one question on the screen. when will we bridge over. the government has to resolve this issue with the governments.

ate costly project and, again, where does this road lead to? there's nowhere to lead that road further on. it's like a dead end. this is why the payback period will never happen. but sooner or later this issue will have to be resolved so it could develop further. now here's another question. what about the ethnic group. just assimilated, i guess. undergone acie m assimilation. we used to have groups that lived in russia. we still have some ethnic groups that have kept the land, some have disappeared but they are all part of our cultural dna.

>> translator: gloe >> translator: let's go back to our question. i want to know about the economy. are we going to further into a market economy, going to be administered by a demand economy or going continue the way we are going now which is stagnation? >> translator: so economists say there's not going be any break through. we don't have any economists from 1990s. mr. kudron, maybe. maybe partially related to the 1990s. but he's transformed himself. he's drifting towards the economic stance that was promoted. wants to use our oil reserves and that's so that we have more

oil revenues spent, but there's opponents who say that would trigger inflation. okay, let the debate go on. we don't have actually any economists from 1990s. there's some monetary policy ideas maybe from the 1990s but we don't have an economic system from the 1990s. judge? we don't that have galloping inflation of 30%. we don't have the debt that we had back then. we do depend on the imf. so we've gone higher than 500 billion u.s. dollars. we don't have debt. we do have incidents when payments are not made to the population. but we don't have situations that we saw in the 1990s.

the military didn't get their pay for six months and only pension payments were the only one, only way to allow it to go and sometimes people didn't get their retirement benefits. well actually a different story. you can't have a pure market economy or a pure command system, but a blended economy, that's what we see around the world. once you start -- once you see any disruptions, any issues in the economy, then the role of the state goes up. one's household get wealthier and things calm down, the state gets away from the economy. that's what happened across the world, that's what we saw during crises. take a blended economic models.

take china. they are developing faster than the world average. possibly india. china is seeing slower pace of economic growth than india, but still is one of the drivers behind the word. take western dem ok sichltsy /*sy. they push for strategic planning in certain industry. they zroent anything against that. so we need to be aware of that. we need to use that fully. we discussed that earlier with economic development ministry. the most important thing is motivation. regardless of where you are, a command economy, you need to have the right motivation. this is the only way to resolve the issues that the country is facing. >> moving on. thank you. we are currently at the technical center of our program

here. the technical heart of the direct line q&a session is beating. it's very noisy here. people have a lot of work. these people are processing all the calls and messages from the social media. you can see how many people are waiting for their 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 might be nervous. and so what screen is this? this is from st. petersburg. this is from magadan. let's go to magadan. go magadan. it's live. mr. putin, good afternoon. my name is -- and my question is in the media russian people are

often told that some corrupt official has been caught. they have had truck loelloads o money. so could he have acquired all this money without outside help? you are told about sources of financing. where do these billions of rubles come from, millions of dollars come from? who is responsible for raging corruption in our country? do you feel personally responsible for the outrage that's happening? >> first of all, i do feel personally responsible. it's a responsibility for it. if i didn't feel responsibility, you wouldn't see any media reports. just like it happened in other countries. just like what happened here in russia. there is always an alternative, and i am told, okay, can we

hush-hush it? can we cover it up because there will be questions like yours. and i have just one reply to that. no. if there is a cry, if there is corruption, if someone wants it to get -- the expense of other people, we have to take a criminal investigation to the end. we need to do it in a transparent way. where do they take the money? again, these are corruption schemes. they get money from the business community. and usually both sides are responsible. some people steal and some take. they have people who pay bribes and there are people who take bribes. where will this money go? the government will take care of the money. public officials and law enforcement officers are always sayi seeing a sudden position, a

special position, and their special responsibility. >> when you found out about those billions, how did you respond? what did you say? >> sometimes, you know, you'd 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. but, again, we need to fight this evil. we are aware of the issue. you can see similar incidents in other countries. take the u.s. there are corrupt officials who get 100, 150 years in jail. it doesn't make sense, but that's tough and that's done in a public way. we'll do the same here in russia. >> by the way, they are talking about punishment, life sentences. >> well, if it's a person who is

60 plus, well, you can give them a life sentence, but the difference -- there is a little difference. >> there is a feeling that the authorities are ramping up the fight against corruption, but -- >> it's not just about the size of -- or the amount, but it's just that it should be inevitable. punishment should be inevitable. >> you seem to be ramping up the fight against corruption. seems like corruption is on the rise? >> no. you say it seems. it only seems to you. the number of corruption crimes is going down. it's going down thanks to our consistent uncompromising approach. we will continue to do that further. >> another blogger has joined us. well known in the russian blogosphere as goblin. so you have the floor. so your question is, if i understood it correctly, is about the fake news. good afternoon, mr. putin.

my name is dmitrory push could have. the growth of the international media has destroyed many of the barriers that prevent the spread of fake news, but now anyone can just spout some nonsense and it is spread in a moment. we always face some fake news, and our people is rather naive and believes. young people on the internet believe things they are told and say on the internet. of i know for sure. i have read it online. and on the west, on the other hand, there is actual criminal responsibility, criminal liability for spreading fake news. for example, in iceland. so maybe we should do the same and introduce tighter responsibility for spreading

fake news. >> we have never had any responsibility, actually. we just introduced the ministry of responsibility. but it is a nation. it's becoming increasingly acute. you mentioned the incident. there are other incidents while we were preparing for the event, and we were sitting in my office. even the heads of our main channels, channel 1 and channel 2, they are getting calls about bombs planted. but it's not just about our media. it's not just calls. we are getting other kinds of information. this information is spread, is received by shopping malls, by companies that operate buses or trains, and that inflicts serious material damage, and that might cause concern for these communities in general.

they say there is radiation levels that are going up. there have been fake news about that. it's not just about spreading information. it's a deliberate dissemination of intentionally false information. that's the goal of the law. let's look at enforcement. let's look how it will be implemented and then we will make conclusions whether that's enough or whether we need to change something. and add more stringent measures. >> thank you. there are more and more attacks on our service, but we are still hanging on. more calls. starting on the first of november, the law of sovereign internet will be put into practice. and now we will give the floor

to one of the bloggers. you have the floor. >> good afternoon. can you hear me? >> yes, we can. >> yes. >> one of the main topics discussed online today is the sovereign internet law. from outside it looks like we are trying to put another iron curtain and bloggers into internet users are -- it's a loss. why is this happening? why are we doing this? and before you answer, in moscow i have the best ever, you can ever try. >> that's a great opportunity totito advertise yourself and promote your goods and services. okay. way to go. what was the question? sovereign internet, as we call it. no. listen, it's not about

restrictions online. earlier we recalled huawei, the chinese tech giant. the u.s. decided to impros restrictions on its operations. the services are located abroad. i hope they won't take it as far as that. but if the service are switched off, turned off, or there is any impact on the service, then in any case we'll have to provide reliable operation of the russian segments of the internet. this is the purpose of the bill. this is the ultimate goal. there won't be any online restrictions. on the contrary. the law is supposed to provide the sovereignty of our internet. everyone should be able to work there, individuals, bloggers, and government institutions.

and thank you for the invitation, by the way. >> recently you signed a decree. the people have been waiting for it. it's using the procedure for getting citizenship of russia. there are people from all around russia. now we go to our correspondent. >> this is tatarstan. we are with a large family here. we have, they have russian, ukrainian, and belarusian roots. before we start, i would like to show you this small room in their rented flat which the head of the family has made into his personal workroom.

you can see some materials here, some instruments. vladimir is producing guitars. he is making guitars by hand. and this is one of the nine children of the family. they all had to flee from don bass and seek refuge here. i know that you have been going to the musical school here, but you stopped, sir. well, we didn't have money, and so -- so welcome this family. svlitana. we just met ylisi. could you introduce the other kids? katia, nastia.

this is a grandchild, marina, vladic dasha. richard, joanie, and james. so these are the names that the father probably gave to the children after the famous guitarists. so this family came from -- this is now torestk. dorinsk, we all remember the news coming from this area. can you show us this is the shell that fell over our school. and this is the most telling example of why, the reason behind why the family left that place. so you have been in russia for some time, but you are still just refugees. well, our family is big.

and my wife had to become a refugee and it all comes down to taxes. he has five kids. there are difficulties finding jobs. she basically is in a vicious circle. she cannot do anything to change her situation. and so it's been a part of the donsk republic for four months and now it's controlled by the ukrainian troops. so currently it's not part of the donnet republic. you are not the only ones who came here. so this is the family of our

relatives. and so you have similar conditions here. yes, we have similar problems and sometimes it's even worse. myself and my brother had permits, temporary permits f and at one point we had to find. and so we stayed at the center for foreigners before we received the status of refugees. and so you receive letters, yes. we all receive official letters saying, from the officials saying who we are, where did we come from. and so they are trying to take us into the army. so, basically, they make us contributes. we know the reason why they are trying to do that. so your children are going to schools, but you don't have any social guarantees.

so we don't have the choice, the opportunity to ask the question to mr. putin. mr. putin, on the 22nd of march, you signed this law making the process of achieving -- for getting russian citizenship more easily, but our family is not -- does not fall under this law. could you help us? this is our, basically our last hope. could you explain to us what can we expect in the future? >> as i said earlier, on the 29th of april i signed a law that simplifies citizenship procedure for ukraine citizens. but there are other regulations that allow ukrainian citizens to get russian citizenship for ukrainians who are on russian

territory. a look at enforcement reports, i know that the authorities demand certain papers that you can only get in ukraine a. so it's a catch-22 situation. i'll look into it. i will figure out what adjustments need to be made to the legal framework so that we can make life easier for you. so that there will be no red tape and illegal issues. we have the gentleman with us. he is listening. we will think of what we can do it help you. regarding your relatives, the

decision will be fast and generally speaking we will find out what amendments are needed to make this process as liberal as possible. as said earlier, again we have ukrainians on the territory of russia and ukrainians back in ukraine. i studied this information. there have been many questions from the ukrainians that are no in russia, but are elsewhere, including in ukraine. to get russian citizenship, you need to come to russia. i cannot imagine how you can just go to the russian consulate and get russian citizenship under the conditions that we have. but we'll try to make it as liberal as possible. so tha /* /- so that it's really available to all

ukrainians. >> a question from the social media. you are not talking to zelenskiy. please understand him. he is young. he is inexperienced. why don't you make the first step? >> while we were watching the media report about refugees, well, what i thought, yes, he is a talented man. i remember how he performed at the contest of the most inventive, as it's known. that's a tv show earlier. but that was funny. that was talented. what's happening today, it's not comedy. it's a tragedy. but since he's been elected, he needs to address these issues. and throughout the campaign he mentioned that several times. it was one of the priorities of his campaign, what's happening now. he went to paris, and he said

that he will not talk to separatists, the representatives of these republics. but how do you resolve this issue? modern history doesn't have a single example when conflicts could have been resolved without direct dialogue between the parties. and you still have the number on the rise, the iranian army against the -- ukrainian army from the citizens. they said the shunning would symptom. blockade is still there. mr. zbrelinski used to say that they needed to restore economic ties with these regions, but nothing is being done. the blockade has been tightened. so, in terms of steps forward,

that's the easiest thing. but we need the political will from kiev. >> some 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, yevgeny crof check. his person is aboquestion is abe person, the person who put the sanctions on us, meaning donald trump. so your question is, thank you, mr. putin. i have been personally sanctioned for several years already and i'm very interested in the international agenda and national diplomacy, too. and in recent times u.s. president donald trump has been playing these strange diplomatic

games called twitter diplomacy. my question is, is written in his twitter repeatedly 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 positive progress to our country? and can he, as a president, somehow affect these relations in a good way, improve our relations? >> 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 in the same extent as our american partners are ready. we know what's happening in domestic politics in 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. and the current president will always now look back at the presidential race that he's in right now. some of the american establishment speculates on the russian l russian/u.s. relationship, trying to find something in the muddy waters, inventing fakes that are not proven. but they could actually used 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 quite a busy agenda in national affairs. the new start treaty is about to expire, and there are other treaties we'd like to discuss,

and we need to mentize in every area, included gt economy. u.s. companies that don't leave the russian market even under trump, it was up over five billion under president obama. it fell to just 20 billion. but under trump, there was an increase. as for sanctions, that's a grave 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 cyberattacks. "the new york times" said that american intelligence services are trying to interfere into russian energy services and energy grids. some are interested, can the u.s. switch power off throughout russia? do they have this lever?

>> the world is intertwined and interrelated. i saw the response by the president. i saw that piece of news. i don't know how we should interpret that update. have they revealed some real information, or was it the information that was planted? that's fake information? but we have to respond. first, we proposed to our american partners to start dy g 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 didn't have the time to do anything.

we shared the same ideas with the current administration. they showed positive response, but there has been no follow-up. as for our critical infrastructure and energy in particular, definitely we need to make sure that this system is safe and sound. we need to protect it from any attacks. and we are not just thinking about it. that's what we're doing. >> let's go into our call center. over the past years russia has made a great breakthrough in our arms. we have had the ar mat a system, laser weapons, many new kinds of weapons and missile systems. we are proud and impressed by these new systems, but it's getting worrisome and we have a call from moscow. alexander, you are live. >> good afternoon, vladimir putin. i have a question to you.

why are they showing so much, so many new weapons systems on tv? are you preparing us for some new war? >> well, in the old times people used to say if you want peace, get ready for war. and there is another saying. if you don't want to feed your army, you are going to feed someone else's army. first, russia is not the leader in terms of arms spending, military spending. the u.s. vastly outspends us. they spend about 720 or they have asked for 750 billion u.s. dollars than china. 117 billion. fan su that. saudi arabia.

the u.k. 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. we had 3.4% of gdp. that's not a small amount. in 2014, we had three point something. and in 2019 it's 2.9. less than 3%. and then we are going to have 2.87. and in 2021, we will have 2.8. so there is a continuous trend to cut our military spending.

no other major country in the world is doing that. but what's of particular importance to us, and what we need to pride ourselves on, is that despite these modest spending, we have established military and nuclear power. 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 that we need to pride ourselves on. we need to respect people who work in the defense sector. people who build those missiles,

and we need to thank them for that. we must be appreciative of their hard work. but there is another message that i saw on the screen. they say, and they are right, that the mute of tight of the c in the world is defined not by the weapons, but by the economic growth. economic power. exactly. that's what we're doing as part of our national project. >> i have another message related to the military. i am 13. she is writing from the city of ivanov. i would like to serve my homeland as a marine officer, but they don't accept girls for academy. >> i am sorry to interrupt you. the academy will change their

rules. women will be allowed, and there is a new platform. new facilities out there. i might be wrong, but when i mentioned this, the defense ministry will respond to this. >> so we hope it turns out well. the highest military academy, where they train pilot. s. >> good afternoon. th this is the high military academy for 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 and girls come later, but here we have all the girls already dreaming of becoming pilots. and they would like to ask questions. their questions, sir, to the commander in chief of russia. these girls have already linked their lives to service to their country. so good afternoon. i am a student at this academy. 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 types of aviation, maybe for fighter pilots and for other types of aircraft? i think we will be as good as men there. so, i don't see how you could be prevented in any way in serving in aviation and wherever you want, whether you want to become fighter pilots. there are no biological or physiological differences that would prevent you from doing that. so i would like you to maybe think about other types of aircraft. assault aircraft, which is very tense, it's very intensive. the pressure is very high. it could be very difficult for you. and i know that it requires a lot of professional training. but still girls can make great

pilots. but as for assault aircraft, when they see, when you see, when you look at what's happening on the battlefield, it's -- the pressure is just intense. i have no idea how these boys who are piloting these planes are able to monitor all of this. their fingers are moving and that's it, but they are able to monitor everything and make decisions. so i think before we turn to that, he let's train for all ki of other aircraft and then maybe we will go to assault aircraft. maybe we have to need a conversation with a specialist with medical professionals and others. but there is nothing unacceptable for women there. >> you have another question? >> good afternoon, mr. putin.

i'm a cadet of the military academy. you fly often. how much hours do you travel? what's your distance? and whether there is a chance with female pilots to fly your plane, the presidential plane? >> well, there is a chance, but i use the russia planes. it's a special team, and they are not part of the military. they are not part of the civil service. so how do i travel? well, since 2012, it's hard to say. if you count how much tombime i spend in the air, i think it's 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.? >> what do you mean a deal? a deal is something commercial. we are not a commercial enterprise. no, we are not talking about a bargain. we don't deal in our interests, in our principles, in our allies. it's non-negotiable. you can agree with our partners. on resolving certain pressing issues, one of the key issues that we need to resolve together with some of the colleagues with which we achieve a lot of progress, turkey and iran and other stakeholders. foremoste foremost it's the u.s. that has

to be around the table. we need to ensure political settlement in syria. the political committee needs to be set up the. the constitutional committee needs to be set u whether we can do it or not? well, yes we can, given the positive will of all the stakeholders. there are many more countries, israel, egypt, jordan, some of the european countries, too, because they have been suffering from the flow of migrants. and they are interested in resolving this process. so 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. well s there going to be a war? and what is russia going do? >> indeed. i don't know why they are asking me. perhaps you don't have a direct line with your colleagues from iran?

well, the u.s. says that it's on the table. i would 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. but those who would initiate such an option, that could also lead to negative consequences. it's 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 an extreme. but we don't know what that extreme will be. we don't really want the event to take that turn. we don't want to see that scenario materializing. iran has been in full compliance with the iaea. no violations have been observed. so no sanctions should have been applied against it. it's not justified. >> another question. you know you like jokes. do you know any jokes about yourself? tell us. >> yeah, i have a colleague, a counterpart who can do it much better than myself. >> officials tell you what they

believe you need to know. so they undermine your popularity. >> part of russian president vladimir putin's call-in program. you can watch that online at c-span.org. search putin. we take you back to the all-day forum on u.s./south korea relations hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. they are getting back underway. live coverage here on c-span3. >> thank you for all the jobs that you have done over the past decade now. probably seems like it's going quickly. but for us journalists, i am a reporter at "the washington post." victor and the korea chair have been a valuable, valuable resource both, obviously, in the past few years, but before that. i was bugging victor and others in the program quite often. maybe many times you didn't necessarily want to be bugged. but for terrifi