'..the imperial nostalgia is being exploited by politically savvy people who understand the impossibility and catastrophic consequences of any form of restoration.''The fall of the imperial state was not dealt with properly by the public consciousness. In Russia a responsible political force could not be found that would dare to declare that, from the point of view of self-preservation and reproduction of the Russian people, the collapse of the USSR was the luckiest event in the past half-century. There were influential political forces that started feeding and using nostalgic feelings for political purposes. Particularly unseemly is the fact that the imperial nostalgia is being exploited by politically savvy people who understand the impossibility and catastrophic consequences of any form of restoration.'
- Igor Yakovenko, “Ukraina i Rossiia,” pp. 65, 66
'..Few remember that the imperial state regalia and symbols were restored in Germany eight years after the empire's collapse, in 1926, and in Russia, after nine years, in 2000..''Let me repeat: I know more than many people about the practical issues related to the collapse of an empire and the problems faced by the authorities in the metropolis. But I would not have taken on this work if I did not see the political danger of exploiting the post-imperial syndrome in today's Russian politics, if I did not see the striking analogies between the rhetoric of people using post-imperial nostalgia in our country and the standard propaganda of the National Socialists in the last years of the Weimar Republic.
Parallels are frequently drawn between Russia and the Weimar Republic. I am among those who did so in Russian political discussions in the early 1990s. But not everyone understands their import. Few remember that the imperial state regalia and symbols were restored in Germany eight years after the empire's collapse, in 1926, and in Russia, after nine years, in 2000. Not many more know that an important Nazi economic promise was to restore the bank deposits lost by the German middle class during the hyperinflation of 1922-23.'
- Yegor Gaidar,
Collapse of an Empire, page xv
Context'..repression against the opposition .. suicidal strategy. Russia's history..' - Yegor Gaidar'What Russia needs today is to learn how to develop steadily .. avoiding wars..' - Yegor Gaidar'Putin has been deceiving the world since the very beginning of the Ukraine crisis..' - Der Spiegel'..[Russia was] "practically in a war against Europe". ' - Dalia Grybauskaite'..[Andrei Piontkovsky] says Putin will not stop at Ukraine..''Putin should be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity.' - David L. Phillips'We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.' - Ronald Reagan