MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Ukraine in its present-day borders is wholly and fully a brainchild of the Soviet era largely created at the expense of historical Russian lands, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wrote in an article, On the Historical Unity of the Russians and Ukrainians, posted on the Kremlin’s website on Monday.
Putin recalled the policy of Ukrainization carried out by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s and 1930s, and the inclusion of western lands and the Trans-Carpathian region in the structure of Soviet Ukraine.
"Therefore, present-day Ukraine is wholly and fully a brainchild of the Soviet epoch. We know and remember that it was largely created at the expense of historical Russia. It is enough to compare, which lands reunited with the Russian state in the 17th century, and which territories were within the UkrSSR, when it seceded from the Soviet Union," the Russian leader pointed out.
The borders between the republics in the USSR were imaginary. However, all these territories and, importantly, people turned out to be abroad all of a sudden in 1991 "and were really torn from the historical Motherland," the Russian leader pointed out.
As Putin stressed, "everything changes, including countries and societies and by virtue of historical circumstances a part of one people "may at a certain time feel and perceive itself as a separate nation." "How is it necessary to treat this? There can only be one answer: with respect!" the Russian leader wrote.
"Do you want to create your own state? Do it! But on what terms?" Putin went on to say, recalling a proposal by First Mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak that the republics - founders of the USSR should return to the borders they were within, when they became part of the Union, while all the other territorial acquisitions "are a subject of discussions and negotiations."
"In other words, leave with what you came in with. It is hard to dispute this logic," Putin said.
As the Russian leader recalled, "the Russian Federation recognized new geopolitical realities and helped the formation of independent Ukraine".