" the greatest tragedy to befall Russia was the dissolution of the Soviet Union."

Yes, but that quote is incomplete. The full quote is:

"First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory.

For Putin, the "tragedy" was that, almost overnight, "tens of millions" of Russians suddenly found themselves in a foreign country with a worthless Soviet passport.

One of these countries was Ukraine. Another was Georgia.

Under the USSR, Russians living in Ukraine had equal rights as everyone else did. They could speak their own language, practice their own religion, learn their own history.; Schools and official business were conducted in Ukrainian and Russian. Both Russian and Ukrainian history were taught.

From 1991 to 2014 it stayed that way; there was no real difference.

But the Nazi coup government in Kiev outlawed all things Russian in 2014.

THAT is the tragedy.