By gaining more influence over the former member states, Moscow wants to resurrect the Soviet Union, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, stressing that it is unacceptable for the United States.
Talking to Jake Tapper of CNN State of the Union, Blinken noted he believes that restoring the Soviet Union is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objectives in order to re-exert a sphere of influence over countries that used to be part of the USSR.
This isn’t the first statement of the kind coming out of Washington since US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland raised in December the same concerns held by Washington.
Kremlin was fast to rebuke Nuland’s statement with Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressing that being well-versed on the subject of Russia and all the nuances of the post-Soviet space, Nuland, like other specialists, understands perfectly well that the Soviet Union’s restoration is impossible.
Putin stressed the same in June, pointing that the Soviet Union’s restoration makes no sense as it would be impossible and unadvisable due to certain demographic, social, and ethnic issues.
The Russian president, who famously stated in 2008 that he considered USSR’s collapse a huge geopolitical catastrophe, has repeatedly said he has no aspirations to rebuild it.
He also added that anyone that does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart, but whoever wants it back has no brain.
Previously in 2012, Hillary Clinton, who was the State Secretary in the Obama administration, called Russian efforts to promote Eurasian economic integration of the former USSR a move to re-Sovietise the region.
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