国际英语新闻：Putin vows to improve people's livelihood, fight extremists

Also, many of Putin's vis-a-vis asked him about political and judicial reforms, or complained for ethnic and social tension.

Puin said Russia must take tough measures against all forms of extremism, urging for a crackdown on extremism and terrorism.

"We must suppress all manifestations of extremism, and our society, including the liberals, must understand that," Putin said.

"Our liberals must realize that there must be order. Otherwise, I'll have to shave their beards off and let them join law enforcement. The state exists for supporting the interests of majority," Putin added in his characteristic manner.

Meanwhile, he also called on Russians to give respect to people in different religions.

It was wrong to judge Caucasian people and other nationalities only on their ethnic origin, he added.

Putin was convinced that the violent riot in Moscow this week by nationalists and football fans was caused by the way the police have handled the case.

Still, he defended the work of law enforcement authorities, saying that they were playing a vital role for the state and it was wrong "to paint the law enforcement agencies all black."

LITTLE ABOUT INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

In the live show, Putin spoke very little about international affairs, just briefly praising Belarus and Ukraine for their economic integration efforts with Russia.

"If Ukraine joins these integration processes in this or that form, this will be a powerful and important incentive for preserving whole industries of the Ukrainian economy and will help improve competitiveness of a lot of our enterprises," Putin said.

With regards of Belarus, he said Russian budget loses 3 billion U.S. dollars a year, as the state-owned gas giant Gazprom sells gas to Belarus duty free.

He avoided, however, giving a direct answer about the state of Russia-Japan relations only saying that he was fond of judo.

Meanwhile, the prime minister denied the assassination plan on the "traitors" when was asked about the July's spy row with Washington.

"Russian security services do not use such methods," he said. However, he added traitors had no future and called them "swines."

AVOID SENSITIVE TOPICS

In his longest question-and-answer session, Putin also spoke tough about opposition, particularly Michail Khodorkovsky, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, accusing them of being money and power thirsty.

Putin called Khodorkovsky a thief and reiterated that the former oil tycoon must be imprisoned for tax evasion and money laundering.

Meanwhile, he avoided comment on dismissal of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, saying it is up to the president to direct the regional governors, and it is the governors' responsibility to build working relations with the president.

"This question should be directed not to me but to the president," Putin said. "The decision was made because of a conflict between the Moscow mayor and the president."

Luzhkov, Moscow's mayor for 18 years, was dismissed by an order of President Dmitry Medvedev after he refused to step down voluntarily in late August.