MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Russians are not perfect, but they have never thought of ‘canceling’ the works of prominent foreign authors and they will not live their lives without the works of world classics, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students of Moscow State University on Wednesday.

"We have all been lectured and lectured from abroad. Yes, we are not perfect. Maybe, there is something to argue about with us, but we have never dreamt of canceling Beethoven or Bach, or O. Henry, but there (in the West - TASS) they have gone as far as to cancel Tchaikovsky," the president said.

"Well, let them live without Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, but we will not be living our lives without world classics," Putin emphasized.

The Russian president believes that unity and multinationalism in the country has been "imbibed with mother’s milk."

"[Our cultural code] reflects diversity, as Russia was born as a single centralized state, as a multinational and multi-faith state, which has actually been ingrained in us from the cradle and imbibed with mother’s milk," Putin said.