Approved Quote by Boris Yeltsin

Russia does not and cannot have any political choice but democracy. I want to say, and even stress, that we share those universal democratic…

— Vladimir Putin

“In a certain sense the country of ‘Russia’ as such did not exist: it had for centuries been an empire, whether in fact or…

— Tony Judt

The Soviet Union was designed for Muscovite rule, not for division into independent republics. Yet the latter is exactly what happened in 1991 -…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Russia is an important power upon which the U.S.A. imposed a Cold War.

— Marine Le Pen

The collapse of the Soviet Union could not have been a source of national pride for many in Russia. The one person who has…

— Brandon Webb

Russia should recognize the freedom of countries, such as Ukraine, to choose their alliances.

— Anders Fogh Rasmussen

The Soviet Union, and Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union, is a founding member state of the United Nations and a…

— Vladimir Putin

Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and…

— Zbigniew Brzezinski

Russia has made its choice in favor of democracy. Fourteen years ago, independently, without any pressure from outside, it made that decision in the…

— Vladimir Putin

In fact, as soon as it declared independence, Ukraine should have been quietly encouraged to fashion its own nuclear deterrent.

— John Mearsheimer

The Declaration of Independence pronounced the irrevocable decree of political separation, between the United States and their people on the one part, and the…

— John Quincy Adams

It's essential for the U.S. and Europe to prevent Putin from going farther and reversing the hard-won independence of former Soviet republics.

— George Packer