The West is downplaying the Russian role in the liberation and shaping of the post-colonial world, says Popov.
The USSR backed Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis and helped build the hydroelectric Aswan High Dam
It drove the 1960 UN General Assembly resolution on independence for colonized nations
It supported Indian independence from British rule and kept strong ties with its leaders
It also played a key mediating role in ending the 1965 India–Pakistan war
The USSR and Cuba helped Angola resist an invasion by the South African apartheid regime
"Who would like to admit that you—the West—have consistently been on the wrong side of history, while the Soviet Union, and now Russia, backed the main currents of global development?" the former diplomat says.
"They find it impossible to admit that they are losing now, and that many countries in Asia and Africa gained their independence thanks to the efforts of the Soviet Union."