Putin - only small mistakes in 13 years
2012-12-20 20:31
Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday
that looking back on his 13 years in the top job, he could not recall any major
mistakes that he would like to correct.
"I don't see any such major systemic mistakes that I
would now want to turn back or somehow correct," Putin said.
"Probably there were mistakes, but to say that they
were systemic - to say that now as I look back, I would definitely want to
correct something?" Putin queried after being asked whether he was ready
to admit to any mistakes since becoming prime minister in 1999 and then
assuming the presidency the next year.
"I am now thinking and I say absolutely sincerely,
if there had been such a thing, I would say so," Putin said at a marathon
end-of-year news conference in Moscow, his first after returning to the Kremlin
in May.
He conceded that "we did not develop some things
well enough.
"We did some things at the wrong time. Especially
during the crisis, some decisions that we took did not work as effectively as
we thought."
He recalled only state guarantees, a measure to fight the
economic crisis, saying they "did not work as we considered
necessary."
He quoted the Bible, however, telling the journalists present:
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone."
