Early 2000's, Putin is asked "what are our main problems with Ukraine" by a journalist and categorically replies that "Russia doesn't want to take Crimea from Ukraine" and such thinking would trigger unpredictable processes in the region which would be catastrophic for Russia, which "alone has over 400 territorial disputes with its neighbours". But at the end he says, "the main problem of Russia is its imperial legacy", represented by the people "who still believe Russia is an empire".