USSR was not the best thing in the world but the collapse of the USSR was even worse for the people who lived in the republics and in a moment notice were separated from Russia. I'm one of them: after the collapse of the USSR my Motherland has been stolen.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: I see the collapse of the Soviet Union as a great tragedy of the 20th century. Do you know why? First of all,
because 25 million of Russian people suddenly turned out to be outside the borders of the Russian Federation. They used to live in one state; the Soviet Union has traditionally been called Russia, the Soviet Russia, and it was the 'greater Russia'.
Then the Soviet Union suddenly fell apart, in fact, overnight, and it turned out that in the former Soviet Union republics there were 25 million Russians. They used to live in one country and suddenly found themselves abroad. Can you imagine how many problems came out?
First, there were everyday issues,
the separation of families, the economic and social problems. The list is endless. Do you think it is normal that 25 million people, Russian people, suddenly found themselves abroad?
The Russians have turned out to be the largest divided nation in the world nowadays. Is that not a problem? It is not a problem for you as it is for me.
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