Putin Gives Election Victory Speech

Thank you very much. Thank you. Dear friends, it's a great pleasure this evening to be with members of my team, with people who work with me and think alike. When we use this word, teammate, what we mean is people who think alike, who have the same goals. But let's think about this word where it came from. So comrade-in-arms or teammate, comrade-in-arms. In the ancient Russia, this was a warrior. From simple citizens, from simple people, people from the villages, not just a warrior, but volunteer people. These were people who rose to defend their motherland, people who thought about their motherland today, and they thought about the future generations. They thought about us. And today, history repeats itself. It's going up, but it's coming back in circles. Everything is repeating itself and we are all comrades-in-arms. (01:47) And first of all, I would like to thank the citizens of Russia. We are all one team. I would like to thank all citizens of Russia who came to the polling stations and voted. I would like to say one more time, this is an extremely important thing. This is not a formal legal thing. The source of power in the country is the Russian people. And the vote of every citizen of Russia, the votes of all citizens of Russia express the united will of the Russian Federation. This is one of the basis for the country's development in the field of defense, in the field of science, in the field of education, in all very important areas. And of course, today within the current conditions, I would like to especially express my gratitude to the military people who are on the front line, who are ensuring the conditions for our country to exist in the future, who are risking their life and their health by fulfilling this mission of defending our country and defending historical territories of Russia and our country in general. (03:35) I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who worked in the election campaign. And this was not just formal work to gather signatures. This was work that was related to risk of life and risk of health. If you just look at how people work in these new territories, these are people who are far removed from military professions. These are people of civil professions. And we've got lots of women who are not afraid of anything, they're working, they're fulfilling their duty to their motherland. (04:28) Of course, we have a lot of things to resolve in the future, but when we are united, I think it's become clear for everyone, whoever wants to threaten us or bully us, whoever wants to suppress us, our will, our ... Us, and they were not successful in the past and they will not be successful in the future in trying to suppress us. (05:08) We, on the opposite, feel like one united family. I just spoke to the patriarch and we spoke about the fact that in a single state, which is the result of our work, but in a multi-ethnic state, in a state where there are lots of religions, irrespective of what religion people belong to, everyone feels like one single Russian family. This is extremely important. This is a very important condition for us moving forward and our grandiose plans that we have, that I voiced in my address to the government. All of these objectives will be achieved. All of this will be achieved and we'll do everything possible for it. (06:18) At the end, I would like to say what I've just formulated, this idea. Before us, there are a lot of very specific tasks. The results of the elections is just an expression of trust of people and their hope that we will do everything according to our plans. I would like to thank all of you and all citizens of Russia for this trust and this support. Thank you very much.

[foreign language 00:07:15].

Now we will speak to the heads of the election office and we'll talk about the future steps. And I would like very much for everyone who is here to feel that we are part of one single team. I don't want to lose you, and I count on our joint work together in the future. Thank you very much.

[foreign language 00:08:06].