Moscow, Dec 12 (Agency) “[It became] the same tragedy [for me] as for the majority of Russian citizens. Well, what was the collapse of the Soviet Union? It was a collapse of the historic Russia called the Soviet Union,” Putin said in an interview to the Russian broadcaster Rossiya 1 on the occasion of the Russian Constitution Day. The president added that in fact, the country had a civil war in 1990s, right after the USSR collapse, and both economy, and law enforcement and armed forces were in unsatisfactory condition.
On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian socialist republics signed an agreement in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus. This deal declared the dissolution of the USSR and terminated the work of the Soviet Union government from that moment on. The document also proclaimed the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, incorporating most former Soviet republics. On December 12, Russia commemorates the adoption of the Russian Constitution in 1993.