SOCHI (Sputnik) – Putin has previously called the breakup of the Soviet Union the "greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century."
"An event in my life? You’re putting me in a difficult position … Probably, the collapse of the Soviet Union," Putin said said speaking to children of the Sirius children’s center in Sochi.
Earlier, Putin said that Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin had planted a "delay-action mine" by advocating for the individual republics' right to political secession.
Lenin, a Russian revolutionary and the leader of the Bolshevik party, was the first leader of the USSR and the government that succeeded Russia after the 1917 revolution.