Putin: Russia Has No Imperial Ambitions

Speaking during an informal, closed-door conversation with a group of international academics and political analysts on September 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has no imperial ambitions and ruled out that any rifts in relations with the western states over the peaceful revolutions which took place in Georgia and Ukraine exist, the Russian media sources reported.

He said that Russia ?is not interested in destabilizing the situation in the post-Soviet space.?
 
?We will never return to the Soviet empire. Such an attempt would create a huge burden on the economy, politics and ideology,? RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying during the 2 1/2 hour meeting at the Kremlin. 

He also said that Russia wants ?its opinion to be taken into consideration.?

?No one knows the situation here [in post-Soviet space] better than we do,? he added.

Putin also said that he plans to discuss issues related with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at the Great 8 summit.

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