Why Vladimir Putin is searching for property of Russian empire and Soviet Union

The order reflects Vladimir Putin's interest in former imperial possessions.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is currently on a property hunt as he asked his officials to find assets that once belonged to its former empire or were owned by the Soviet Union. The order by the Russian leader also allocated funding for a state unit which will conduct searches for such property abroad as well in order to ensure Russia’s ownership rights are registered. Although, the size of the budget for the operation or what kinds of property are being sought was not mentioned in the document, Bloomberg reported.

Russian president Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting.(AFP)

The order also reflects Vladimir Putin's interest in former imperial possessions which raises concerns of his ambitions among neighboring states after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Where were the territories of the Russian empire?

At its peak, the Russian Empire extended into territories of modern Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland. The empire dissolved under the pressure of World War I and the 1917 Bolshevik revolution led by Vladimir Lenin that marked the birth of the Communist state- Soviet Union in 1922 which covered much of the former territory but did not include Poland and Finland. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 as constituent republics in the Baltics, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus and central Asia became independent.

Vladimir Putin's threats to other countries

The Russian president has threatened Latvia over the alleged “oppression of the Russian-speaking population” and has also issued threats against Finland over the country's NATO membership claiming that Russia would deploy troops to the Finnish border.