Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu raised eyebrows in a video clip posted to Twitter, with translations of his recent speech suggesting that “the Soviet Union would return” soon, Newsmax reports.
While the translated remarks were deemed to have been taken out of context, according to Newsweek, it has shed renewed light on Russia ruler Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24 as “a special military operation,” sparking a war that has lasted into the summer and shows no signs of subsiding. Military strategists have long believed Putin has designs on reconstituting the old Soviet Union, and Shoigu’s video clip shared on Twitter fed into that possibility.
The translation of the video, leaving out the context of Shoigu talking about the Soviet Union’s demise in the early 1990s, when the USSR permitted states to vote to secede from the Soviet Union. Shoigu remarked that Russian leaders felt the Soviet Union would either hold together or vote to reform.
“At the time, I am certain, especially among my generation, we were absolutely convinced that all of this was temporary, that our nation would once again be great and powerful, that the Soviet Union would return, and that no one would leave — everyone would live in peace and harmony,” Shoigu says in the clip, according to the Newsweek translation, adding that he wished “all those events truly remained history, and were never to repeat.”
A Newsweek fact-check showed Shoigu did say the “Soviet Union would return,” but it was reportedly stated in the context of the 1992 Russian leadership belief that the departed USSR states would ultimately voluntarily return.
There were other versions of the translation, including:
“Soon, there will be a Soviet Union again and we will again live in peace,” according to one tweet.
“This is all temporary. There will be the Soviet Union again, no one will go anywhere, and we will live in peace,” according to another tweeted translation.
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