Putin: 'Russians Don't Want A Return To The USSR .... But No One Believes Us'

Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with Rossiya 1 TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov © Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik

AFP: Putin: 'We don't want the USSR back but no one believes us'

Moscow (AFP) - Russia is not trying to bring back the USSR, President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary aired Sunday, but the problem is that "nobody wants to believe it".

Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, which saw pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych ousted by pro-European demonstrators, Moscow has accused the West of using "the politics of containment" in a Cold War throwback.

"With Ukraine and other areas of the former USSR, I'm sure our Western partners aren't working in the interests of Ukraine, they are working to prevent the recreation of the USSR," he said in "World Order", a documentary broadcast on the public Rossiya 1 channel.

"But nobody wants to believe us, nobody wants to believe that we're not trying to bring the Soviet Union back," he said.

Update: West fears recreation of Soviet Union, despite nobody planning one – Putin (RT)

WNU Editor: Among all the Russians that I know .... family included .... I can count on one hand the number of people who may miss the "old days". They are all old .... alone .... on pensions .... wondering why no one is paying attention to them. The mass majority of Russians .... by far .... have no appetite for a return to the old Soviet Union. None. Zero. Nada. Myself included.