'USSR should NOT have been destroyed' Putin's longing for return of the Soviet Union
THE USSR should have been reformed rather than destroyed, according to Russian leader Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin/Mikhail Gorbachev
The Soviet Union was dissolved on Boxing Day 1991 after Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final president, declared his office extinct and handed power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
But Mr Putin said the Communist Party should have transformed the bloc into a democratic entity rather than oversee its collapse.
Tanks rumble across Red Square in scenes echoing the former Soviet Union
Russian President Vladimir Putin
You know my attitude towards the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was no need to do it
He told leaders of the parties which won seats in last week's general election: “You know my attitude towards the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was no need to do it.
“Reforms could have been undertaken, including those of democratic nature.
“But I want to point out that the Communist Party was in charge of our former homeland, the USSR, not any other.”
The eighth and final Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
His comments come at a time of increased tension between Russia and the West and will be seen by some as yet more provocation.
In April 2005, Mr Putin called the USSR’s collapse “the major geopolitical disaster of the last century” in a public address to the Russian parliament.
His quote was widely circulated by the international media claimed it revealed a Kremlin plot to return to socialism.
Red Square remains a potent symbol of the USSR
Last year the president was interviewed for a documentary and directly stated that Russia had no plans to bring back the USSR but complained that no one believe him.
He went on to accuse European governments of confusing modern Russia with its Communist-run predecessor and of sacrificing the interests of common people in post-Soviet republics like Ukraine for the sake of preventing an imaginary threat.
The Communist Party of Russia, which evolved from its Soviet predecessor, is among the political forces represented in Russia's new parliament.