MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin always responds politely and comprehensively to questions posed by his counterparts during international phone calls, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told the Zvezda TV channel.

In a comment to Izvestia he noted that Russia did not expect Europe to react with outrage to Tuesday’s conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, believing that it had been coordinated with the "European trio."

TASS has compiled the official’s key statements.

Trilateral talks

Moscow believes that the trilateral format of talks between Russia, the US, and Ukraine is sufficient and considers Washington’s mediation in this matter to be helpful: "Russia favors continuing the negotiations in the same format as before, with representatives from Russia, Ukraine, and the US. American mediation is helpful in this regard."

Contacts with Europe

Not everyone in Europe is happy about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s telephone conversation with Finnish leader Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store: "There is division. Even Finland’s and Norway’s neighbors are expressing outrage over this."

Russia did not expect Europe to be so upset over the conversation between Putin, Stubb and Store, believing that it had been coordinated with the "European trio": "We certainly did not expect this on our part, because we believed that the conversation had been coordinated, at least with the leading European trio."

Russia is not planning new contacts with European leaders after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone talk with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store but Moscow does not reject such talks: "There are no further plans so far, but we do not reject contacts."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store is right to demand the removal of fabricated information from a Financial Times article on his conversation with Putin: "He did the right thing. This is some kind of fabricated information. Or rather, it’s not information, but disinformation. That wasn’t discussed at all."

Putin’s readiness to pick up the phone

Putin has agreed during the recent phone conversation with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Finnish President Alexander Stubb to always answer their future calls: "An agreement was reached that if the leaders wish to call Putin, he will always pick up the phone."

Putin always responds politely and comprehensively to questions posed by his counterparts during international phone calls: "Whenever time and opportunity permit, Putin always picks up the phone to provide a polite and detailed response to any questions asked."

Russia-Africa summit

Many Western countries opposed the Russia-Africa summit: "There were many opponents of this summit among Western countries."

Western countries tried to persuade some African leaders not to attend the Russia-Africa summit. "They [in the West] tried to persuade some leaders not to come."

"Nevertheless, as you can see, there is strong representation, and everything is going very well. Most importantly, the discussions are very substantive and useful, and everyone is interested in further developing Russian-African cooperation across all areas."