Constant price increases, impoverishment of the population

17

• "High prices, a bad life"; "everything is bad; for four years we didn't get a salary, medical services require payment"; "the living standards changed for the worse"; "we used to live better"; "inflation grew"; "everything requires payment"; "people became beggars: it was nonsense before – now it is a usual thing"

Decline in the economy and agriculture

13

• "Destabilization of economics in all the republics"; "enterprises declined, oil, coal, gas, collective farms, the land all became property in abeyance."

Breaking of economic relations between the republics

5

• The single economic territory disintegrated"; "economic relations were broken"; "industries stopped; many partners went abroad."

Appearance of unemployment

4

• "People became unemployed"; "no workplaces»; "unemployment increased."

Russia took on the debts of the former USSR

2

• "Everything we used to build together now isn't ours, but we have to pay the debts"; "Russia has to pay the debts of the USSR"

Communication between relatives in different republics was broken

15

• "Relatives and friends became separated: you cannot write or visit them"; "close relatives lost one another"; "a great procrastination with papers – this makes us very indignant"; "a frontier was made with Ukraine – now I cannot go to the graves of my mother and father."

Limitation of free travel within the territory of the former USSR

9

• "Frontiers were made between the republics: you cannot go to another republic without a visa"; "frontiers, customs"; "it's impossible to travel; I used to be able to go anyplace I wanted."

Appearance of "house-hold nationalism"

8

• "Everybody was friends, brothers, and now there is hostility"; "there is no internationalism"; "aggravation of the national question."

Appearance of international conflicts and wars

7

• "Many national conflicts came about: Pridnestrovye, Chechnya"; "wars began between the countries of the former USSR."

Infringement on the rights of Russians in the former republics

2

• "I have relatives abroad – in Latvia and Lithuania – and they humiliate us here"; "Russian people in all republics are like second class citizens"; "I lost connections with my daughter: she is in Uzbekistan, and as soon as they see a Russian letter, they burn it up and tear it to pieces," «in Kazakhstan and in Ukraine, there is an anti-Russian policy."

Appearance of refugees

1

• "There are many refugees in Russia."

• "What did they do with a great and strong state?"; «there was a great country, and now there are several weak little republics"; "we became a third-class country"; "we became a country like one in Africa."

• "The country is going to its end"; "there is no discipline"; "we have no good master"; «there is no order in the state."

• "People became like in a pack of wolves"; "rudeness, evil, greediness is in people now"; "people used to be more human and kind, everybody used to be together."

• "Gorbachev's treachery"; "Yeltsin gained power"; "all this glasnost began... they have to stop the program "Kukli" – this is a real mockery."

• "Someone wanted it to happen fast"; "those who wanted it, got it"; "there are no negative points"; "let them bring back the USSR – it was good"; "one billion moments."

Geo-economic benefit

4

• "We don't have to feed all the former union republics"; "we have to give less of our natural resources: gas, oil"; "it is economically profitable for Russia"; "we can reconstruct our economy faster without the republics"; "we freed ourselves from some problems, and now we don't have to share anything."

Disappearance of shortages and lines

2

• "We can freely buy everything now, but in that time, only the trade workers and their relatives had everything; now our children see everything, eat everything, if their parents work»; "there are no shortages"; "there are lots of goods in the stores, and no lines"; "we learned about many new imported goods"; "people gained the opportunity to buy everything they can – they only need money."

• "Every nation has to define its own fate"; "every republic became a master"; "all nations could began to improve their economies."

• "You can speak freely about everything"; "there is more freedom."

• "Russia gained its freedom: it depends on no one"; "Russia became a separate state"; "the raising of Russia's international authority"; "all the union republics began to respect the Russian people"; "they began to pay more attention to Russia in the world."

• "Democracy was established."

• "It is easier to govern a smaller village"; "there are fewer problems in Russia than in the USSR, and the president deals with Russian problems only."

• "There is nothing good in the disintegration"; "there are no positive points, they made a beggar of a great state."

• "Sooner or later, it had to happen»; "wishes became real."