Invariably in an effort to prove that Mr. Putin intends to reconstitute the USSR and conquer the world, critics excerpt part of a sentence from Mr. Putin’s April 25, 2005 speech. They quote him as saying,
“The breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.”
Well the actual quote from the official English translation on the Kremlin’s website seems to indicate something far less sinister. Mr. Putin is quoted as saying,
Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.
Individual savings were depreciated, and old ideals destroyed. Many institutions were disbanded or reformed carelessly. Terrorist intervention and the Khasavyurt capitulation that followed damaged the country’s integrity. Oligarchic groups – possessing absolute control over information channels – served exclusively their own corporate interests. Mass poverty began to be seen as the norm. And all this was happening against the backdrop of a dramatic economic downturn, unstable finances, and the paralysis of the social sphere.
As I read it, Mr. Putin is lamenting the fact that after the fall of the USSR, native Russians were stranded in former Soviet Republics and outside of the Russian Federation. It might be the Soviets had a practice of moving native Russians into Soviet Republics in an effort to increase the numbers of native Russians.
None of what Mr. Putin said in his speech indicates that he wants to resurrect the USSR and conquer nations and expand the Russian Federation.
Mike Pole writes that part of the problem is in the translation of the Russian into English. He quotes Patrick Armstrong as saying,
“There is the argument from common sense: no Russian would ever say that any “geopolitical disaster” was bigger than the Second World War. His tongue couldn’t even form the syllables.”
And later,
“One must assume that Putin chooses his words carefully and knows what they mean especially in a formal speech like his address to the Federal Assembly in 2005 from which the sentence is taken.”
It’s also true the the neocons in Europe and the United States have every reason to cast whatever Mr. Putin says in a critical light. The neocons have been wanting to turn Russia into a compliant vassal state and control its natural resources since the Clinton administration.