In the 1990s, European countries were confident that Russia would split into several states. The President of Russia spoke about this in an interview for the film “Russia. Recent history “of the TV channel” Russia-1 “.
Vladimir Putin said that he had seen such maps created in Europe, on which Russia was divided into several states.
“But the point is not even the cards, but the fact is that in conversations with some of my colleagues – I will not give my last name now, because the person did not give me the right to speak about it publicly – but one of my colleagues, the president of one of the Eastern European countries at one of the meetings with me bluntly said that for us in Europe there was no question of whether Russia would fall apart or not. We thought it was inevitable. The only question was when it would happen and what would be the consequences for Russia itself, for its constituent parts and for the surrounding world, bearing in mind that Russia is still a major nuclear power, ”the Russian president said. He added that such sentiments reigned in Europe: “And, apparently, we still gave reasons for such sentiments, unfortunately, at that moment in time.”
The collapse of the USSR took place earlier and Vladimir Putin perceived it as a tragedy. “We have turned into a different country completely. And what had been accumulated over a thousand years was largely lost … 25 million Russian people suddenly found themselves abroad, in the republics of the former USSR, which gained independence and sovereignty, ”the president said.
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