FORMER Soviet countries could be set to form a huge powerful bloc reminiscent of the USSER, the former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has claimed amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
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| Putin could potentially head up a huge Soviet bloc |
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Mr Gorbachev, who was the eighth and final leader of the former Soviet Union, has suggested countries within the former Communist republic could form a new union with an opt-in basis.
Reflecting on the collapse of the USSR in an interview with a Russian TV show to mark the 25th anniversary of its dissolution, the former statesman said: “I think that a new union is possible.”
Although he added that it would be “not the Soviet Union, but a new union state.”
He said: “It could be within the same borders and formed with the same states, but voluntarily.”
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| A Soviet bloc could aid Putin in his fight against Nato |
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If Gorbachev’s “new union state” were to resemble the USSR, it could include the 15 former member Soviet Socialist Republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The capital of the USSR was Russia, and if a similar leadership model were to be adopted, Vladimir Putin could extend his reach of power and take on the West.
The mountain speculation comes as the Russian leader squares up to Nato, having blasted the alliance as a “truly aggressive bloc” and stationed nuclear missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
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| Putin has deployed nukes to Kaliningrad to defend against Nato |
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As well as making his worrying predictions, Mr Gorbachev was also keen to insist he stepped down as president of the USSR in 1991 to avoid civil war.
He claimed after leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian Soviet Republics signed the so called Belovezha Accords, which initiated the collapse of the USSR, a civil war could have broken out if he had attempted to arrest them.
He said: “I think this all smelled of civil war. This was dangerous. I made a different move – I gave up my power and left my post in order to avoid bloodshed.”
Mr Gorbachev insisted he tried to prevent the collapse of the union “’till the very end”.
