russian invasion of Ukraine/Reasons
Reviving the Soviet Union
“ Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.
- — Vladimir Putin, “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation”, April 25, 2005
“ In essence, Ukraine’s ruling circles decided to justify their country’s independence through the denial of its past, however, except for border issues. They began to mythologize and rewrite history, edit out everything that united us, and refer to the period when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as an occupation.
- — Vladimir Putin, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, July 12, 2021
Expanding the russian empire
“ Peter the Great ... was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing.
Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well. And if we operate on the premise that these basic values constitute the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in achieving our goals.
- — Vladimir Putin, “Meeting with young entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists”, June 9, 2022
