Russia has previously placed trade restrictions on former Soviet Union nations to discourage them from building close relations with the EU.

Twenty years after the collapse of the USSR, the Soviet past is still very present in Russia.

The cataclysmic collapse 20 years ago of the Soviet Union unleashed conflict, instability and poverty that are still felt today.

Russia has broken the shackles of state-planned economics but remains tied to oil prices and the whims of a bloated bureaucracy.

Most ANC leaders who returned from exile, including President Thabo Mbeki, received their training in the old Soviet bloc and use Stalinist jargon.