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Return to Soviet Union unlikely and possible only through conflicts — Putin

At the same time, the president did not rule out the possibility that in theory "left-wing political forces supporting socialist ideas can control a country and the supreme political power"

© Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin called a return to the Soviet Union unlikely and possible only through "very hard conflicts".

"Socialism in full, that’s my own opinion, is unlikely [to return]. This is only possible through hard internal conflicts. But do we need these conflicts?" he said at his annual televised Q&A session.

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Putin doubts Soviet Union’s fall was unavoidable

At the same time, the Russian leader did not rule out the possibility that in theory "left-wing political forces supporting socialist ideas can control a country and the supreme political power." Putin clarified that "in the course of open political discussion any legal political force can win the people’s support by addressing them and gain a foothold in the upper echelons of power."

"Whether it will be good for the country, I do not know, because it is one thing to nationalize everything and another to make all these nationalized spheres work efficiently. These things are totally different, while elements of state influence and state management we have anyway," the president added.

The head of state recalled that the 1991 referendum on the Soviet Union’s fate took place, "but in spite of the fact that 74% voted to preserve the Soviet Union, after that nobody remembered about it for some reason and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in essence voted for the dissolution of the Union." Putin underlined that in fact the then-ruling Communist Party voted for the dissolution, which supported socialist ideas.

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