Moscow has rejected claims by Western nations that President Vladimir Putin wants to return to the borders of the Russian Empire and reunite all the republics of the former Soviet Union. President Putin ruled out the possibility during a meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow.
He says Moscow fully supports the sovereignty of the independent states of the former Soviet Union and has no intention of returning to the Russian Empire.
The allegations were made by Western nations on Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as independent states.
About two months ago, when Russia deployed a large number of troops on the Ukrainian border, Western nations, including the United States, began to announce that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine. But Russia has denied the allegations.
The whole of the West, meanwhile, was stunned by President Putin’s tactical behavior when the West expected Russia to invade Ukraine with full force. Ukraine and its Western backers have not been able to take it for granted that the two republics were separated from the country without invading Ukraine.
That is why they are claiming that President Putin wants to return to the Russian Empire. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Alexei Ruznikov claimed in a statement on Tuesday that by recognizing his country’s two republics as independent states, President Putin had taken another step towards reviving the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was a one-party socialist country, which existed from 1922 to 1991. Until the break-up of 1991, the Soviet Union was engaged in a Cold War with the United States as its only rival superpower. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, 15 new republics were formed. These are Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.