Many of his supporters are committed nationalists and have blamed Mr. Yeltsin's reforms for weakening Russia.

He accused Washington on 24 March 2008 of trying to "weaken Russia" by supporting independence for Kosovo despite opposition by Serbia and Russia.

Russians today believe we exploited the collapse of the Soviet Union to weaken Russia.

In this a priori realm, all western diplomats and journalists are spies, and every move by the west part of a conspiracy or plot to weaken Russia.

The suggested military reforms will weaken Russia and embolden those who seek the disintegration of the Russian Federation.

Some here have even suggested that Washington was abetting the drug trade in an effort to weaken Russia.

This combined with the military losses, epidemics, poor harvests so weakened Russia that the Crimean Tatars were able to sack central Russian regions and burn down Moscow (1571).

The truth is that every possible pretext is sought to weaken Russia or any other nation that resists the new imperialist world order.

On 24 March 2008, Chavez accused Washington of trying to "weaken Russia" by supporting independence for Kosovo.