プーチン氏、タクシー運転手の過去明かす　旧ソ連崩壊後

【モスクワＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領は１２日、ソビエト連邦崩壊は「歴史的ロシア」の終焉（しゅうえん）だったとの考えを示した。また、崩壊後は生計を立てるため一時、タクシー運転手をしていたと明かした。（写真は資料写真）
　プーチン氏は、近日公開の映画『ロシア近代史』に関する国営ロシア通信（ＲＩＡ）の番組で「個人運転手として副収入を得ていたことがある。正直言うと話したくないが、残念ながら事実だ」と話した。
　プーチン氏はまた、３０年前のソ連崩壊は「大半の市民」にとって今でも「悲劇」だと指摘。「結局、ソビエト連邦崩壊とは何だったのか？ ソビエト連邦という名の歴史的ロシアが崩壊したのだ」と語った。
　ソ連時代に国家保安委員会（ＫＧＢ）の諜報（ちょうほう）員だったプーチン氏は以前、ソ連崩壊について「２０世紀最大の地政学的大惨事」と呼んだ。
　ソ連崩壊後、資本主義化したロシアでは経済が極めて不安定となり、多くの国民が困窮した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/12/15-12:33）

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the collapse of the Soviet Union spelled the end of historical Russia, revealing he drove a taxi to make ends meet following the USSR's fall.
Putin, a former agent of the Soviet Union's KGB security services, who has previously lamented the USSR's fall, said the disintegration three decades ago remains a tragedy for most citizens.
The comments, reported by state-run news agency RIA Novosti Sunday, were excerpts from an upcoming film by broadcaster Channel One, dubbed Russia. Recent History.
After all, what is the collapse of the Soviet Union? This is the collapse of historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union, the Russian leader was cited as saying.
A loyal servant of the Soviet Union, Putin was dismayed when it fell apart, once calling the collapse the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century.
Putin is sensitive to the perceived expansion of Western military ambitions into ex-Soviet countries and Russia this week demanded that NATO formally scrap a 2008 decision to open its door to Georgia and Ukraine.
The end of the Union brought with it a period of intense economic instability that plunged many into poverty, as newly independent Russia transitioned from communism to capitalism.
RIA-Novosti, reporting from excerpts of the documentary, said Putin had revealed that he worked occasionally as a taxi driver to boost his income.
Sometimes I had to earn extra money, Putin said.
I mean, earn extra money by car, as a private driver. It's unpleasant to talk about to be honest but, unfortunately, that was the case.
Russia was the centre of the Soviet Union that grew to include 15 republics from the Baltics in the West to Central Asia.
In 1991, wracked by economic woes the Soviet Union disintegrated and Russia became an independent nation.