and his government for brutally executing Russia's last czar along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests and placing a "time bomb" under the Russian state by drawing administrative borders along ethnic lines.

As an example of Lenin's destructive legacy, Putin pointed at Donbass, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine where a pro-Russia separatist rebellion flared up weeks after Russia's March 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict since April 2014, and clashes have continued despite a February 2015 peace deal.

He said that Lenin and his government whimsically drew borders between parts of the U.S.S.R., placing Donbass under the Ukrainian jurisdiction in order to "increase the percentage of proletariat" in a move Putin called "delirious."

Putin's criticism ofLenin could be part of his attempts to justify Moscow's policy in the Ukrainian crisis, but it also may reflect the Kremlin's concern about possible separatist sentiments in some Russian provinces.

Putin was particularly critical of Lenin's concept of a federative state with its entities having the right to secede, saying it heavily contributed to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. "It was a time bomb under our state," he said, adding that Lenin's was wrong in a dispute with Josef Stalin who advocated a unitary state model.

In the past, Putin has denounced Stalin for massive purges that killed millions, but noted his role in defeating the Nazis in WW II.

In Monday's comments, Putin also blasted the Bolsheviks for making Russia lose World War I in their quest