In a speech to Russia’s parliament while formally annexing Crimea from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin cited history to legitimize his decision for “reunification.”

But it’s another speech he made nine years ago that provides clearer insights into his motivations and end game. In 2005, Putin said during a nationally televised annual address that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” It spelled the end of Russia as the nucleus of a world superpower and, according to Putin, left tens of millions of Russians outside the Russian Federation.