Putin accused Ukraine of unwillingness to repay debts and told how he worked as a bombila

Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward new claims to Ukraine and told how he earned money as a private driver, reports BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

“In 1993, we committed to repay all the debts of the former Soviet Union, for all the former Soviet republics, with the expectation that these republics would transfer to us the foreign assets of the former Soviet Union,” Putin said in an interview for the film “Russia. Recent History".

“We have paid off everyone’s debts, but not everyone has fulfilled this obligation to transfer foreign assets. For example, Ukraine has not yet done this,” he noted.

In an interview, Putin called the collapse of the USSR the collapse of historical Russia and expressed regret about this.

“It was the collapse of historical Russia called the Soviet Union,” he said.

According to him, the West then believed that the further disintegration of Russia was only a matter of time.

On the subject: 'Serious military risks': Russia demanded to close the path to NATO for Ukraine and Georgia, the Alliance was denied

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called Putin’s words regarding foreign assets “manipulation of facts” and explained why in the 90s Russia and Ukraine were unable to resolve this issue.

Putin's remarks could prompt speculation about his intentions towards Ukraine.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as of early December, Russia had gathered more than 94 troops at the borders of Ukraine and in the annexed Crimea.

There are fears in Ukraine and Western countries that Russia is planning a large-scale invasion.

Russia denies this, accuses Ukraine of provocation and demands guarantees from the West that NATO will not expand eastward.

How did Ukraine react to Putin's words

“Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement about Ukraine’s alleged failure to fulfill its obligation to transfer foreign assets of the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation is a manipulation of facts,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.

He recalled that the division of Soviet property is governed by the 1991 Treaty of Succession for the External State Debt and Assets of the USSR.

According to the agreement, Ukraine's share in the total debt and assets of the USSR was 16,37%.

In 1994, Ukraine and Russia signed the so-called “zero option agreement”, according to which Russia agreed to pay the Ukrainian share of the USSR's external public debt as of December 1, 1991.

For its part, Ukraine was to transfer to Russia its share in the assets of the USSR as of December 1, 1991.

“The Russian side’s ignorance of legal requirements to provide information on the value of Ukrainian assets that were to be transferred made it impossible for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to ratify the agreement. This document has not entered into force either for Ukraine or for Russia,” said Oleg Nikolenko.

“It seems unreasonable to talk about failure to fulfill any obligations without due legal process,” the Foreign Ministry speaker emphasized.

Was Putin a bomber?

Another interesting detail of the interview is Putin's mention of how he earned money delivering people by car in the early 90s.

“Sometimes I had to earn extra money (drive people for money. - Ed.). It’s unpleasant to talk about this, to be honest, but, unfortunately, that’s how it happened,” he said.

In the early 90s, there were not many taxis in Russia; some people provided driver services to make money.
While taxis were often used by work transport and even ambulances.

According to the official version, Putin resigned from the KGB in August 1991 after a failed coup orchestrated by the State Committee for the State of Emergency.

Since 1990, he worked as an adviser to the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, and in July 1991 got a job at the mayor's office of this city.

BBC correspondent Patrick Jackson, who worked in the USSR at the final stage of its existence, recalls that in the early 90s it seemed that every Russian car owner was moonlighting as a “bombila”, as self-employed taxi drivers were then called.

“When I first came here as a student in 1989, there were only two unwritten rules: don't get into a car with more than one person and agree on the fare before you set off. There simply weren't enough official taxis. Usually the biggest risk you could take was offending a macho driver by trying to fasten your seat belt,” the journalist says.

The number of such drivers increased sharply with the collapse of the USSR and hyperinflation in 1991, when the “bombers” were people from completely different walks of life.

“From time to time I had educational conversations with drivers, but there was often an uncomfortable silence, perhaps because the driver realized that he could have been paid much more, but he realized too late that I was a Westerner,” the journalist says.

“But perhaps it was because they were ashamed that they had to spend the best years of their lives working as bombers instead of pursuing the careers and lives they had planned,” says Patrick Jackson.

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