Something people should keep in mind when they think of Putin as anything other than a Soviet thug:

Putin: Soviet collapse a ‘genuine tragedy’

In a speech way back in 2005, he said:

“First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Putin said. “As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory”

Yeah, the well-deserved and long overdue end of the Soviet Union caused chaos for the Russian people. But to declare it as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century is really saying something. He’s saying that the loss of power and prestige of the USSR was worse than:

1) The Russian loss in WWI

2) The Bolshevik Revolution

3) The extermination of the Kulaks

4) The Holodomor

5) the gulag system

6) Dozens of millions of Russians/Soviets getting wiped out in WWII

7) The Russian mess in Afghanistan

8) Chernobyl

9) Friggen’ *Communism*

All of those are less “catastrophic” than, say, Latvia and Ukraine and Estonia getting to live out from under the Kremlins thumb in Putin’s view. Any wonder he’s launched a world-threatening genocidal war?

And in ironic claims that did not age well:

In an apparent response to foreign allegations that Russia has been backtracking on democracy, Putin said Russia’s main political task was to develop as a free, democratic nation with European ideals. He stressed that individual freedoms would not be compromised by strengthening the state.