Remembering the fall of the USSR

Twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, putting an end to almost 70 years of its history.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the June 1941 invasion as a cause for "shame." In her weekly video podcast, she also criticized modern-day crackdowns in Russia and Belarus.

Putin expressed the devastating effect the demise of the USSR had on him and millions of others, admitting he took up driving a cab during hard times, even though he said "it's unpleasant to talk about."

Thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the martial rhetoric and other trappings of the "strong men" of the totalitarian era are making a comeback. Why?

We bring you a special edition of the FRANCE 24 Debate marking the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Growing up, it seemed as if the zero-sum game of the Cold War would last forever. What did we see coming? And what did we miss as supplies ran low, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant broke down, the Red Army suffered setbacks in Afghanistan and the Communist Party's grip started to loosen, in the far reaches of an empire that stretched over 11 time zones?

The Soviet bloc officially collapsed in late December of 1991, leaving 14 independent republics in its wake in addition to the newly named Russian Federation. Three decades on, FRANCE 24's James André, Achraf Abid, Gulliver Cragg, Sylvain Rousseau and Elena Volochine bring us a series of reports from Russia, Estonia, Ukraine and Georgia on what remains of the Soviet era – and the relationship that these countries have with Moscow today.

Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century, was laid to rest in a relatively low-key ceremony and without the presence of the current Russian leader Vladimir Putin.