Vladimir Putin said that he will take the bus to end the meeting after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Mr Putin said that the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago was still a “tragedy” for “most citizens”. (File)
Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of “historic Russia”, revealing that he drove a taxi for a living after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Putin, a former spy with the Soviet Union’s KGB security service who previously lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union, said the breakup three decades ago remained a “tragedy” for “mostly” all citizens”.
The comments, reported by state news agency RIA Novosti Sunday, were excerpts from an upcoming Channel One television series, titled “Russia. Recent History”.
“After all, what is the collapse of the Soviet Union? This is the collapse of historic Russia in the name of the Soviet Union,” the Russian leader is quoted as saying.
A loyal servant of the Soviet Union, Putin was stunned when it fell, once calling the collapse “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”.
Putin is sensitive to the expansion of Western military ambitions into former Soviet Union countries and this week Russia asked NATO to formally cancel its 2008 decision to open up Georgia and Ukraine.
The end of the Union was followed by a period of intense economic turmoil that plunged many into poverty, as newly independent Russia transitioned from communism to capitalism.
RIA-Novosti, reporting from excerpts of the documentary, said Putin had revealed that he sometimes worked as a taxi driver to increase his income.
“Sometimes I have to earn extra money,” Putin said.
“I mean, making extra money by car, as a private driver. It’s hard to talk about honestly but, unfortunately, that’s the case.”
Russia was the center of a developed Soviet Union comprising 15 republics from the Baltic region in the West to Central Asia.
In 1991, due to economic problems, the Soviet Union disintegrated and Russia became an independent country.
