It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.

I joined the city government, and we start to operate as the bureaucrats on the local level, so we were the only ones in the whole Russian team who were experienced in practical bureaucratic management in the complicated condition of 1990.

I'm communicating with the directors of the Soviet companies, and I see that it is wrong, but when I go to the official discussions, they discuss we should change the color of the walls.

During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them.

Each university should have a Young Scholars' Committee. I became the chairman of this Committee, and immediately it was permitted to have this plan officially adopted.

These guys were the real owners of the country, and for them to discuss with this young guy who becomes a member of the government was absolutely unacceptable.

It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.

The red directors were one of the main political forces. Another force was the former Soviet ministers who lost everything because of the transformation of the Soviet Union to Russia.

There was the scientific and technical progress which couldn't be predicted by the state.

For the producers, there was no reason to produce. You get money, but you couldn't use this money. For consumers, you could have money, but you have no way to use it because you go to the shop and see nothing.

You're never able to please everybody, especially when you're transforming a country like Russia.

I am joining the government not from the academic position but from St. Petersburg city council.

The diversification of the people's demand could not be followed by the state apparatus.

There are no two countries with the same style of economic mechanism, with the same capitalism.

In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government.

For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good.

There was no doubt that sooner or later we will fight. But we will fight not in the way of the dissidents' protests. We understood that we needed to be as professional as possible.

Russia should support globalization. The Internet can develop in Russia in a very speedy way.

Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That's the Russian interest in this process.

I went to government for making these changes. I remember a number of guys among these important figures.

Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution.

The kind of capitalism I hate most is crony capitalism, the friends who decide. These are things which should be killed in Russia.

Killing the private property-that was the center of the Marxist economy and Marxist ideology. That was the center of the Lenin ideology.

There is a state that is able to understand the demand in the economy. That state should use prices as an instrument for implementation of this understanding.

I don't think Russia will follow the United States's way. I don't think Russia will follow the French way. I'm sure Russia will find its own way.

The Bolsheviks started not just on the killing of private property; they were trying to abolish money itself.

You need to find somebody who will speak the same language. We understand that we couldn't have any kind of discussion without permission, without a legal framework behind it.

The directors thought, They understand nothing in the real economy, in real life. They read some stupid books, and they came from the moon to the earth, and maybe in one month they will disappear.

If I just produce the transparent ideal accepted by the Western experts, a process of privatization which will be very good but never happen, that means nothing.

Money is the kind of instrument which is very speedily produced.

You're not always able to choose.

We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.

Yet, so far from laboring to know the forbidden tree of worldly pleasures and its various fruits, man gives himself up to a careless and thoughtless state of life, and yields to the lust of the flesh, not considering that this lust is really the forbidden tree.

It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.

As a first step there must be an offer to achieve equality of rights in disarmament by abolishing the weapons forbidden to the Central Powers by the Peace Treaties.

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

Do not share the knowledge with which you have been blessed with everyone in general, as you do with some people in particular; and know that there are some men in whom Allah, may He he glorified, has placed hidden secrets, which they are forbidden to reveal.

Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is.

The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

Check bags are fun. I just make sure there won't be anything illegal in my check bag which is forbidden at a cabin of a plane. Just leaving things like scissors and such out of my carry-on things in order to avoid troubles with some certain airline, y'know.

For us, holding on to religious rules, and following them, and refraining from what's forbidden, and being diligent with our duties, what do we call that? That's what we call freedom.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it.

I'm just like you. I enjoy the forbidden fruits in life, too.

I'm forbidden fruit. Once you go to certain households, mommy doesn't want you to see that dirty man who sticks his tongue out and spits out blood and all that stuff.

I certainly don't know if you could claim that every theft is wrong, but I'll prove to you that every theft is forbidden, by simply locking you up.

Repudiating the virtues of your world, criminals hopelessly agree to organize a forbidden universe. They agree to live in it. The air there is nauseating: they can breathe it.

Sleeping is forbidden at the age of 22. It's all work and no play.

All these buildings are like mountains I would like to climb, but I am forbidden.