How the Soviet Union's collapse explains the current Russia ...

But there's often been friction among the former Soviet republics, including the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. But there's often been friction among the former Soviet republics, including the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.On Christmas Day 1991, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sat down at a table deep inside the Kremlin and prepared to deliver a monumental speech. As Gorbachev finished speaking, Liu ignored the warning he'd been given and quickly snapped a photo that became an iconic image: Gorbachev closing the folder that held his speech, marking the end of the Soviet empire.Seconds later, a Soviet security official approached Liu and "slugged him, hard, right in the stomach," Cooperman said. He's also the author of a new book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union."The story of Ukrainian-Russian tensions go all the way back to the rapid and unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union," said Zubok.The collapse meant thousands of Soviet nuclear weapons were spread across four of the newly formed states, including Russia and Ukraine. He served at the embassy in Moscow as the Soviet Union was collapsing, and again in the years afterward.He believes the U.S. was too focused on trying to build democracy in Russia, while the Russians were actually battling each other over power and money."By pursuing the set of policies that were premised on a democratic transformation, we got into big trouble," he said. "I say this with great humility, we misunderstood what happened because of missing things like the money issue."He cites an example in 1995, when he was riding a tram in Moscow and saw Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former head of the Soviet security service, the KGB, who led a failed coup attempt against Gorbachev in August 1991, four months before the Soviet collapse.Jensen set up a meeting, and over a bottle of vodka they discussed the final days of the Soviet Union.