The right of the republics to withdraw from the Soviet Union was a time bomb and Russia should avoid such mistakes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin on Rossiya-1 TV channel on Sunday.

According to Putin, the Soviet Constitution included a thesis of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that the republics should be given the right to pull out from the USSR. "This is a time bomb laid back in 1922 when the Soviet Union was established," Putin said, stressing that this right was included in other Soviet Constitutions of 1924, 1936 and 1977. "Certainly, we should avoid these things," Putin said.

"I am absolutely convinced that we are doing the right thing when passing amendments to the current Constitution. They will strengthen our statehood and create conditions for consistent development of our country for dozens of years to come," the Russian leader said.

The procedure of the republics’ withdrawal from the Soviet Union was not regulated, Putin stressed. "The question arises: [what to do] if a republic joined the Soviet Union, but amassed into its "baggage" a huge number of Russian lands, traditional Russian historic territories and then suddenly decided to leave the Union," the Russian leader said. "Then, it should leave like when it came rather than drag "gifts" from the Russian people. Nothing of this was written down," Putin said.

On Friday, the Central Election Commission confirmed the outcome of the nationwide vote on amending the Russian Constitution. According to the document, 77.92% of voters backed the amendments to Russia’s key law, while 21.27% opposed them. One of the amendments includes a ban on the alienation of Russian territories.