[sumedh]

Are you suggesting that Russia is not USSR's legal successor. Maybe we are living in different realities since Russia still exists.

[ImJamal]

Russia was a state of the USSR, not the USSR itself. That is like saying the Roman Empire exists today because Italy is the successor.

[racional]

Don't make such far-flung analogies.

The Russia/USSR transition is more akin to that of the Roman Republic to the Principate/Dominate. Or the different stages of other closely related empires throughout history after dealing with internal regime, partial reversals and so forth.

Even Putin sees Russia/USSR as parts of a organic historic continuum, and this is a key component of his rhetoric. That the USSR's territorial losses are Russia's losses and must be reversed if Russia it to "save face" and so on.