deja vu?
hasn't this Mr Cohen's article discussed on this site quite recently? Or he's writing all the same, endlessly repeating himself?
And where did he find the data proving this statement -
A large majority of Russians, on the other hand, as they have regularly made clear in opinion surveys taken during the past fifteen years, regret the end of the Soviet Union

The bits of a VTSIOM's survey published in yesterday's newspaper Izvestia in the article connected with some aspects of the Russian-Belorussian relationships (see www.izvestia.ru) somehow contradict Mr Cohen's words.

Answering the quiestion In which country/union of coutries would you like to live?

30 % chose  the answer 'only in my own country' (Russia, that is)
appr.22 % would love the Russia-Ukraine-Belorussia-Kazakhstan's Union
20 % chose rebuilt old Soviet Union
14 % prefer EU
12 % would live in SNG (Union of those 9 republic)

And where's that large majority? I've seen enough surveys to get the trend of decline in popularity of the USSR.