MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The competition between Moscow and Kiev after the collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable but expected to be in a civilized manner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
"It was inevitable after the breakup of the USSR that there would be a kind of competition between Russia and Ukraine. This goes without saying but probably the ones dealing with that assumed that everything would be in a civilized way and, furthermore, on the basis of our proximity and commonality -historical, cultural and language one, and so on. Regrettably, things followed a different way," the head of state said.
Ukraine found itself under control of pro-Western political figures started turning the country into "anti-Russia" almost immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the President added.