Russia does not want to be a superpower because “it’s expensive and useless”.

That was said by the Head of the state Vladimir Putin in an interview with the German newspaper “Bild”, the second part of which will be published on Tuesday, January 12, on the Kremlin website.

At the same time the president did not agree with the opinion of his American counterpart Barack Obama, who considers Russia as a regional power, and asked him to decide what the region was in question.

“Everyone, especially the president of the United States, can have his own opinion about anyone,”Putin said. He added that he also knows about another view of Obama – the view of the exclusiveness of the American nation.

“I do not agree with neither first, nor the second,” the Russian leader said.

Speaking about the status of a regional power, Putin offered to look at a world map. “Where? What kind of area is in question?” he asked.

In March 2014, US President Barack Obama called Russia a regional power, which “threatens its neighbors not because of strength but of weakness”. At the same time, he said the United States “has a significant impact on their neighbors” without demonstration of its military might.