© Reuters
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The collapse of the USSR was also the collapse of historical Russia. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a documentary entitled “Russia. The latest story”, broadcast on Russian television “Russia 1”, world agencies reported.
Asked what the collapse of the Soviet Union had been for him for 30 years, Putin said it was as much a tragedy as it was for most citizens. “It was the disintegration of historical Russia called the Soviet Union.”
Putin recalled that at that time the country had lost 40 percent of its territory, approximately as much production capacity and population. “We have become a completely different country. And what has been achieved over thousands of years has been largely lost,” Putin said.
According to him, after the collapse of the USSR, 25 million Russian citizens suddenly found themselves abroad, in the republics of the former USSR, which became independent. Putin added that for those people who found themselves abroad against their will, it was bad. They could not return, to reunite with their relatives. For them, there was neither a job nor a residence, and this was a great humanitarian tragedy, Putin said.
The Russian president also said that in the early 1990s he, like everyone else, had to deal with difficulties and sometimes work in more than one place. He sometimes had to perform private transport services with his car “Volga”. Putin added that he was uncomfortable talking about it, but that it was unfortunately a fact.
Returning to Russia in the 1990s, Putin said that at that time it had lost a significant part of its sovereignty, was in a rather weak state, and was dependent on various financial instruments and mechanisms.
Putin also warned that in the event of the break-up of the Russian Federation, the consequences would be more severe and bloody than what happened in Yugoslavia.
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