[Huck]

Granted, the centralized power which could have coerced them to return was in collapse during the time.

You toss that off as an aside? C'mon, Gianni. I don't think I've met you before this thread, but you come across as a nice person to debate with, reasonable, fair, level-headed. But that was nothing short of comical. I can imagine Michael Palin saying it out of the side of his mouth, trailing off, "Well, the central government was a little weakened at the time....A bit! A bit!"

[Gianni]

I don't toss it off as an aside. Economic meltdown in the Soviet empire did not preclude them from coercing member states, and in some cases they even chose to do so!

Besides, they could have staved off the meltdown by printing bogus money and enforcing its worth at gunpoint, now couldn't they?