Vladislav Quotes & Sayings

Soviet-era nostalgia has strong support among the people. But not among the elite and, in my opinion, not with the president. We are not interested in keeping remnants of the communist era alive. — Vladislav Surkov

I saw houses burned by the Mujahadeen, as well as disfigured bodies of prisoners they'd taken. But I saw other things too: villages destroyed by our shelling and bodies of women, killed by mistake. When you shoot at every rustling in the bushes, there's no time to think about who's there. But for an Afghan, it didn't matter if his wife had been killed intentionally or accidentally. He went into the mountains to see revenge. — Vladislav Tamarov

I am asked if I think the war was a just war ... how can I answer? I was a boy born and raised in beautiful Leningrad, a boy who loved his parents and went obediently to school. A boy who was yanked out of that life and dumped in a strange land where life followed different rules. — Vladislav Tamarov

The West doesn't have to love us. In fact, we should ask ourselves more often why people are so suspicious of us. After all, the West isn't a charity organization. How have we been perceived for centuries? As a huge, warlike realm ruled by despots - first by the czars and then Bolsheviks. Why should anyone have loved us? If we want to be accepted, we have to do something in return. And it's an art that we have yet to master. — Vladislav Surkov

Parties can't be artificially assembled at the Kremlin. — Vladislav Surkov

There's nothing I can do to erase the shadow of misery and despair from the eyes looking back at me from the photos [that I took in Afghanistan]. — Vladislav Tamarov

He was holding his right leg, but the blood soaked through his fingers and flowed over his hand onto his sleeve. Intuition had served me again this time: my kick had knocked his automatic out of his grasp a fraction of a second before he could press the trigger. The second kick was to his face. It sent him flying about six feet. I set my sights on his head, but something stopped me, one of our guys let out a yelp behind me. Another bullet whistled by right next to me. Apparently, this Mujahadeen was not the only one here. Again, I aimed at his head, but something again stopped me. I saw how his hands were trembling. I noticed the horror in his eyes. 'He is only a boy!' I thought and pressed the trigger. — Vladislav Tamarov

There is no position in sport as noble as goaltending. — Vladislav Tretiak

When you live next to death ... you don't think about it anymore, you just try to encounter it as seldom as possible. — Vladislav Tamarov

Ovechkin does not play like a Russian. He plays like an NHL player. — Vladislav Tretiak

As someone who grew up there, I say: The Chechen Republic must remain part of Russia. Everything else is negotiable. — Vladislav Surkov

I walk in bliss through flowerbeds
of broken urns, and glorify
thy flight, O Saturn, over us
along the empty starry sky. — Vladislav Khodasevich

The main problem is that many support the United Russia Party without even agreeing with its ideology - or even having an ideology of their own. — Vladislav Surkov

Back in Romania, always I was struggling to compete with Vladislav Rastorotsky, the great Russian coach of Lyudmila Turishcheva. He was a powerful coach, internationally. I took him like the major challenge of my life, and pretty soon I'm beating him and we are pushing each other so hard, so fierce. But out of the arena, we are friends. — Bela Karolyi

By 1989, the total number of Vietnam veterans who had died in violent accidents or by suicide after the war exceeded the total number of American soldiers who died during the war. — Vladislav Tamarov

Once, back home, I decided to count how many days out of my twenty months in Afghanistan I'd been on combat missions. 217 days. And I'm still paying the price for every one of those days. — Vladislav Tamarov

When the Soviet Union was dissolved, most of us didn't even have the feeling that the country was falling apart. We thought we would continue with our lives as in the past, but as good neighbors. — Vladislav Surkov

I believe that renunciation of the Soviet Union was an expression of the free will of the Russian people. — Vladislav Surkov

We didn't believe in tomorrow. We we couldn't forget what had happened yesterday. — Vladislav Tamarov

The photos I took in Afghanistan are lying in front of me. I peer into the faces of those who were with me there and who are so far away from me now, into the faces of those who were dying right next to me and those who were hiding behind my back. I can make these photos larger or smaller, darker or lighter. But what I can't do is bring back those who are gone forever. — Vladislav Tamarov

When I came home, I was asked to put my pictures in a photo exhibit at the Cinematography College ... my pictures won first prize. I began to ask myself what I was doing, and why. A few months after the exhibit, I dropped out of college, left my wife and began to write this book. — Vladislav Tamarov

They embraced in parting. There were tears in the merchant's eyes:
"I do not like parting."
"Life consists of partings," said Arseny. "But you can rejoice more fully in companionship when you remember that."
"But I would (the merchant Vladislav blew his nose) gather up all the good people I've met and never let them go."
"I think then they would quickly become mean," smiled Ambrogio. (p. 238) — Evgenij Vodolazkin

Talent alone is not enough. I believe that a really good gymnast is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. — Vladislav Rastorotsky

I was on Khodorkovsky's payroll myself for ten years. I'm biased because I respect him. — Vladislav Surkov