[ETL]

I agree with you fundamentally, the demise of the USSR was a "good thing". My point was more subtle, and really, I think requires a sort of perspective only obtainable from having lived in Russia and spoken to people who suffered through the 90s.

So do you agree with McGruff's hero, KGB/FSB Putin, that the "collapse" of the Soviet Union was the "greatest geopolitical catrosphe of the 20th century? Worst than the attrocities of the Soviet Union, ChiComs, Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, and Nazi Germany?

[billakay]

Again, I’m not claiming that in the scheme of things, the demise of the USSR was a bad thing. I’m asserting that, from the perspective of Russian citizens/patriots (of which Putin is one), it really sucked.