This isn't his only speech like this. He has been publicly bemoaning the fall of the Soviet Union for several years and is now taking the steps necessary to restore it to power. The idea of a rogue Soviet Union (Version 2.0) with nuclear weapons and a very public chip on their dictator's shoulder towards the U.S. is more worrisome to me. Look at Putin's latest public announcements; blaming the attacks in Russia on the United States. It also disturbs me that this ex-KGB agent is cuddling up so close to Germany and France; that could well be the next Axis we fight.
My other problem is with Chechnya. Yeltsin gave them their independence, Putin took it back. The situation in Chechnya festered for 10 years under Putin's heavy hand and Soviet style tactics, and has now blown up...and is giving him the excuse to revive the Soviet empire. Sounds too much like the Reichstag fire to me.
Ronald Reagan may not have killed the beast.
Methinks Putin will discover, as Stalin did, the price tag for cozying up to Germany.
Russia is a divided country. Twenty million Russians and some 50 million Russian-speakers were left behind its borders after collapse of Soviet Union.
No nation in the world could tolerate this abnormal situation for long and Russians are no exception.
As Russia rises from its knees, the Russian Reunification becomes as inevitable as German reunification in 1990 was.
To stand in the way of the coming Russian Reunification is the best way of making Russia an enemy again.