As Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine over the past few weeks, people were already suggesting that there was more going on. They wondered even then if Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was wanting to restore the old Communist Soviet Union and all its brutal glory, where well over 20 million people died. READ: The Staggering Toll of the Russian Revolution AND 100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead

And with Russia’s invasion fully on, The Blaze reports that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admits that this reviving of the former Soviet Union empire may be exactly what is happening.

The Blaze explains

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine is likely only part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s designs for the European continent.

Blinken made the remarks in an interview with CBS News managing editor Norah O’Donnell. When asked by O’Donnell if the U.S. had any specific intelligence indicating Putin will advance beyond Ukraine, the nation’s top diplomat shrugged off the question, suggesting it’s obvious.

You don’t need intelligence to tell you that that’s exactly what President Putin wants,” Blinken said. “He’s made clear that he’d like to reconstitute the Soviet empire. Short of that, he’d like to reassert a sphere of influence around neighboring countries that were once part of the Soviet bloc. And short of that, he’d like to make sure that all of these countries are somehow neutral.”

READ: Sec. of State Blinken says Putin wants to advance beyond Ukraine as White House is hit hard over ‘failed’ diplomatic strategy: ‘Putin was playing Biden all along’

Why the Soviet Union collapsed?

Before the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, it essentially occupied and controlled 15 nations stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean under the banner of communism.

One of those countries was Ukraine.

The reason that it broke apart was because of a strategy employed by then US President, Ronald Reagan, that in part included bankrupting the communist regime.

Ironically, while it was a strong US president that ended the Soviet Union, many suspect that it is the weakness in the current US presidency that is behind Putin’s push to rebuild it.

READ: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism AND Reagan Envisions Collapse of Soviet Union AND Reagan credited for role in collapse of Soviet Union