MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Consequences in case of Russia’s collapse could be much more dramatic and bloodies than in former Yugoslavia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview for a documentary entitled "Russia: Its Recent History" aired on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Sunday.
"It can be definitely said that we would be feeling very bad, we would be battling to survive now rather than seeking to boost birth rate. And the tragic example of Yugoslavia demonstrates that if we had lived through what happened in Yugoslavia, consequences for Russia, bearing in mind the mentality of the Russian people, and not only Russian, but all other nations living in Russia, the confrontations would be much tougher and bloody than after Yugoslavia’s collapse," he said.
"I would put it delicately not to give grounds to say that we are indulging in looking for enemies, it was absolutely evident for me, when I was FSB (Federal Security Service - TASS) director, I saw it with my own eye that certain forces in the West wanted Russia to collapse, directly supporting separatists, bandits and terrorists who were sparing no effort to shake Russia. It was an absolutely evident thing for me," he said.
According to the Russia president, separatism in the Caucasus in the 1990s emerged "not from nothing, it largely stemmed from the Soviet-era heritage, from the forcible displacement of people after World War II, but it was used by destructive elements abroad." "The North Caucasus was flooded with various terrorist units and terrorists from the Middle East. And along with political, economic and social problems, the country was faced with the aggression of international terrorism, and actually, a civil war, very bloody and brutal," he added.