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December 13,2021

Andrew Campbell 

The remarks were made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a documentary film titled Russia, Latest History, which aired on state television on December 12. Vladimir Putin has lamented the Soviet Union's demise three decades ago, claiming that the ensuing economic crisis forced him to work as a taxi driver. 

Following the Soviet Union's demise, which culminated in the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 31, 1991, the former superpower was replaced by 15 independent countries.

At the time, President Putin described Russia as a completely different country. Much of what had been built up over the previous 1,000 years was also destroyed. More than 25 million Russians living in newly independent countries were abruptly cut off from Russia, which President Putin described as a major humanitarian tragedy.

President Putin is a former KGB agent who claims to have resigned after the August 1991 coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Later, in the early 1990s, he worked in St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak's office. President Putin admitted that he had to moonlight as a taxi driver during the difficult economic times that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Russia experienced double-digit inflation.