MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has stated that it is necessary to analyze the dissolution of the Soviet Union and to name the officials who "betrayed" their country.

"Yes, we need to assess why the Soviet Union fell apart. It would be right to do that without delay. Who betrayed it? We need names and surnames," Volodin said during a plenary session at the State Duma.

The politician recalled that the former Soviet elites had managed to benefit economically from the dissolution of the USSR, adding that former district party committee secretaries "became owners of oil companies."

The speaker is convinced that many issues that modern Russia is facing are a consequence of the fall of the Soviet Union. "There were 30 [post-Soviet] years, including ten years that count as lost time, and the rest involve collecting lands, putting an end to conflicts, paying out debt obligations. We need to admit that the payments started only in 2004, followed by sanctions and crises," he noted. 

Despite the negative consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has managed to embark on the path of development, the politician pointed out. "Right now, the companies that first went into private hands have now become state property. The subsoil resources are owned by the state as well. Social standards have been enshrined in the Constitution. <…> We have gone through a very difficult path of building a new Russia," Volodin concluded.