Putin says former Soviet Republics regret end of USSR

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the citizens of many former Soviet Republics regretted the collapse of the USSR, which he described as a "great state".People in the former republics "interpret it in their own way, but all the same they believe that life in the Soviet Union was more secure, calmer, they felt surer of themselves," he told a forum in the Russian city of Sochi.A conflict in eastern Ukraine in which more than 10,000 people have lost their lives has been ongoing for