Recreating a communist superstate would be impossible and is not something Russia is working towards, the Kremlin has said in response to the US claims that Moscow wants to revive the USSR, which ceased to exist 30 years ago.
On Tuesday, December 7, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said, “The worry is that [Russian President Vladimir Putin], as part of his legacy project, is trying to recreate the Soviet Union. And then, who knows if his appetite will be satisfied, or if he’ll decide to go farther?”
By this statement, Nuland suggested that Putin considers Ukraine and other former Soviet republics to be under Russian influence. According to Nuland, Washington fears that military conquest of Ukraine may just be the first step in reuniting the old Soviet republics into one state.
“Nobody wants or needs war at this moment least of all the people of Russia, who deserve better schools, better hospitals, better infrastructure, better health care, and that’s where the wealth of that great country ought to be going, not on sending their guys to freeze on the Ukrainian front,” she claimed.
Nuland’s comments come as tensions continue to rise on the Russia-Ukraine border, with Washington fearing that Moscow seeks to mount a military invasion. The Kremlin has denied all accusations. In particular, the Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, responded on Wednesday, December 8, that Nuland has “extensive knowledge about Russia and all the nuances of the post-Soviet space.”
“I’m convinced that Ms Nuland, just like us or other experts, clearly understands that restoring the USSR is impossible,” he stated.
Commenting on Russia’s attempts at integration with other former Soviet nations, Peskov emphasized that the Kremlin has different and not the same relationships with post-Soviet states. Besides, Peskov further suggested that recreating the Soviet Union was impossible because the states which appeared in its place had enough time to strengthen themselves as independent entities.
Moreover, earlier, the Russian President said that the restoration of the USSR would be “impossible” and “senseless,” and even suggesting this would be “inappropriate.”
“Otherwise, we may also face social issues that will be impossible to solve, and even some issues of dilution of the state-forming ethnic core,” Putin stressed.
In addition, the Russian President has said repeatedly that he has no aspirations to rebuild the Soviet Union, famously quipping in 2008 that he considered the country’s collapse a “huge geopolitical catastrophe,” but adding that while “whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart, whoever wants it back has no brain.”
Also, in 2014, Putin told that claims that Moscow wants to restore its “empire” are made up.
“They try to stick this label on us – a label that we are trying to restore an empire, the Soviet Union, make everyone subordinate. This absolutely does not correspond to reality. It is a media weapon of war,” he concluded.
