President Putin [Valdai]: Of course, they promised not to extend NATO to the east, and now our partners are not denying this in person, however, they say, 'Where is the paper? There's no paper to confirm this."…We also know that even if there was a paper, it doesn't mean anything to them.

President Putin: First thing I would like to point out is that, long before these explosions [Nord Stream 2], the president of the United States publicly stated that the United States will do everything possible in order to stop the supply of energy to Europe using these pipelines. And then he smiled, and he said that, 'I'm not going to say how we're going to do this, but this will be done.' Destruction of this infrastructure is an act of international terrorism, and we're not admitted to the investigation, despite our call to be joined in. There are no results of these investigations, and most likely, there won't be any results. So answering the question of who is to blame, you always have to see who is interested. Who is an interested party. Of course, energy suppliers, energy forces in the United States, have always wanted this, and now they've achieved this.

President Putin: So there are some Ukrainian groups, terrorist groups, who are trying to aim at the gas line in Black Sea, and they are constantly trying to attack those lines using underwater drones that have been prepared with direct participation of English-speaking advisors and experts, and we hear this in the air. When they are preparing these underwater drones, we hear the English speech in the air. This is an obvious thing.

President Putin: The military action in Ukraine started in 2014, however in Japan they preferred not to notice this…the actual military action began in 2014; bombardment and using the armored vehicles in Donbas. This is where it began.

President Putin: This year, in Russia, economic growth is going to be 2.8 to 3 percent…for the economic structure that Russia currently has, this is a great result. We have overcome completely the dip of last year, and we are gaining pace.

President Putin: We saw that instigation of Ukrainian conflict, we see that the root of that was the desire to expand NATO to our western borders. The same thing is being done in Asia, and they are stepping on the same rake, as they say, in Asia, as they did in Russia. We are going to expand our cooperation with our partners to ensure security. We are not creating blocks in order to fight against anyone, but we are reacting to what's going on around our countries…We were never against, and we never expressed our disagreements to Ukraine joining EU. As for NATO, yes, we were always against it, and this position has a certain foundation, justification, behind it. Because the expansion of NATO right to our borders has got very serious security consequences. This is not just a political block, this is a military political block, and bringing the infrastructure closer to us bears great danger.

President Putin: They've got four or five billion coming in to Ukraine every month, through grants, through loans, and so on. If you just stop that, a week later, everything will stop. Same goes for defense, system of defense. If they stop supplies tomorrow, then they've got about a week to live, until the munitions are exhausted. And they even exhausted in the west as well. Ukrainians are spending about five thousand of 152 caliber per day, and they are producing about fourteen thousand in the west. ..Even these drones, UAVs, and autonomous vessels in the sea, all of that is done with western advisors.

President Putin: NATO is a tool of foreign policy of the US. They have started, they have instigated, that hot phase of the conflict in Ukraine. They have forced the satellites to apply sanctions, they agreed to all these measures, and then US have used the situation in the field of economics. They have imposed their energy, expensive energy, they have taken decisions to increase the attractiveness of their own economy and markets…I'm confident that slowly everything is going to even out. I think even the US is making a colossal strategic mistake. They are putting pressure on their allies

President Putin: US economy and EU, or Eurozone, is based on modern technology, and we see that income per capita is much greater, but what is the tendency? They are having a recession, and BRICS are demonstrating a growth. And even after the strikes in Russian economy, they were aimed at destroying country, and they were aiming at destroying the economy; not only did we overcome this situation, but we are demonstrating a surplus. We've got unemployment at three percent, debts reducing. We are significantly reducing the external debt of all of our companies…yes we have some problems, we see them; weakening of the currency, and so on. We are seeing all of that. The central bank and the government is reacting to all of that. I am sure that these steps are correct and we will have good results.

President Putin: We are relying the support of our people, which is expressed, among other things, by the fact that a lot of volunteers are joining the military force. We've got three hundred-thirty five thousand people who voluntarily came and joined, and signed contracts with Minister of Defense. And we've got another five thousand volunteers. So these people are signing contracts, short-term contracts, so overall we've got about three hundred and fifty thousand. This is the expression of trust of people to the policy of the Russian state, because people can see that we are not just dealing with short-term issues…the majority of our people can see that everything we're doing in to strengthen our state.

Jean-Pierre: Tomorrow our administration will kick off the third, 'Investing in America Tour', with [Biden], [Harris], the first lady, cabinet members, and senior administration officials, making dozens of trips across the country, to highlight how 'Bidenomics' is growing the economy from the bottom-up and middle-out, in communities across the country.

[attendance will be embarrassingly low]

Reporter: [Biden] just told me that a border wall does not work. If that's the case, why does his own Department of Homeland Security Secretary say in a public notice, "There is presently an acute an immediate need to construct physical barriers"?

Jean-Pierre: This is not new. These funds were appropriated in fiscal year 2019 under republican leadership, and DHS is required by law to use the funds for appropriated purpose…we believe there are better effective ways of moving forward to secure our border, and our border security…we have to comply by law, and that's what we are doing.

Reporter: If a border wall is ineffective, why is the Homeland Security saying it's necessary to prevent unlawful entries into the United States?

Jean-Pierre: I have not seen that full statement.

Reporter: It's in the notice put out this morning.

Jean-Pierre: I hear you, I'm just saying I have not seen his full statement on that…[Biden] has been very clear; he doesn't believe it's effective…there are smarter and more effective ways in dealing with this.

Jean-Pierre: [Experts] across the spectrum have stressed, if we abandon the people of Ukraine, and Russia is successful, it would send a terrible message and embolden dictators, and would-be aggressors around the world, who may want to invade other countries, which could draw the United States, and create much more of a problem and an issue around the world. That's why we have to continue, we believe, being behind the people of Ukraine.

Reporter: Where exactly is Commander the dog right now? Is he in Wilmington?

Jean-Pierre: I'm not going to go beyond saying that he is no longer on campus.

[dog location is some kind of top secret? kek]