Russia revives claim of illegal Soviet Union's collapse: ISW explains why

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.

On May 22, Russian State Duma deputy Nina Ostanina stated that Russian parliamentarians are ready to initiate a review of the legality of the Soviet Union’s collapse. She supported the opinion of Russian dictator’s advisor Anton Kobyakov, who claims that the founding bodies of the USSR did not participate in the decision to dissolve it, and therefore, legally, the Union still exists.

Ostanina also stated that the Belovezha Accords, signed in December 1991 by Yeltsin, Kravchuk, and Shushkevich, lacked legitimacy because these leaders did not have the proper authority.

The ISW noted that such claims are not new - Russian propaganda has actively promoted this narrative since 2014, periodically returning to it in various forms.

Such statements align with the Kremlin’s strategy of absorbing Belarus through the so-called Union State and denying Ukrainian sovereignty. This policy is accompanied by the ideological concept of the “triune people,” which claims that Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians are one nation artificially divided by history.

According to experts, the Kremlin assigns lower-level politicians to voice these ideas, laying the groundwork for a possible future revocation of the recognition of Ukraine’s and Belarus’s independence.

“Russian officials have notably not acted upon past calls for the reestablishment of the Soviet Union, and the most recent iteration of this information campaign is similarly unlikely to have any near-term effects,” analysts say.

• In 2023, according to sociologists, 73% of Ukrainians surveyed assessed the collapse of the USSR positively.