Western countries, believing that such a big Russia is not needed, want to divide and subdue it, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV channel journalist Pavel Zarubin, according to TASS.
"After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, [Western politicians] believed that all they needed was a little patience and Russia would have completely collapsed," he said, adding that such a relatively large country by European standards - with the largest territory in the world and a fairly large number of inhabitants compared to other European countries - "is generally not needed". "It would be better, as suggested by a well-known political figure in the United States [former US presidential adviser Zbigniew] Brzezinski, to divide it into five parts and subdue these parts and use the resources," he said.
