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‘You know, Mr. Nice, it's not view. It's the view of Mr. Jesenski. He preaches to this day, and he's still supported by many politicians both in the US and Europe, that Russia has to be broken up the same way as the Soviet Union was broken up in its time. The Soviet Union was broken up into 15 parts and the plan is to break up Russia into eight or ten different countries. You know that Russia includes some far eastern countries, European republics, other regions.

‘That's not my view, it's the view of Mr. Jesenski, I'm telling you again. I personally am against it. I am against what was done with the Soviet Union. If the same is done to Russia, it is not us who will suffer. You will suffer. You in Europe will then understand what is going on in Europe, and that's why I am firmly convinced, and I'm ready to subscribe to this paragraph today, that greatest misery that can happen is the destruction of Russia. And there are those who are aspiring to do that. If not today, then tomorrow, but they are playing with fire.’

— Nikolai Ivanovic Ryzhkov, 2004