MOSCOW - Russia's president is apparently as stone faced in his sleep as he is when awake.

"I, as a rule, usually do no not dream," Vladimir Putin told a youth forum outside Moscow today, according to RIA Novosti. His comments were reportedly made seriously in response to a question from an audience member about his dreams at night.

Putin also addressed the country's recent political protests, saying he respects the right to protest, but he dismissed the opposition's iconic white ribbons. In the past Putin has mocked the ribbons, saying they looked like condoms. Today he called them yesterday's protest tactic, suggesting, as he has in the past, that they are the result of foreign influences in Russia."

"I felt sorry for those people who use the tried and tested technology somewhere over the hill," he said, according to Russia's Interfax news agency, drawing a comparison to Ukraine's Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.

Putin said he saw nothing wrong with his decision to return for a third term as president.

Putin also defended recent legislation that requires foreign-funded NGOs to declare on their website and reports that they are "foreign agents" (which in Soviet times mean spies) and a new measure criminalizing libel.