Trust, but verify Trust, but verify Trust, but verify (; "Doveryat, no proverit") is a Russian proverb. The phrase became well known in English when used by President Ronald Reagan on multiple occasions in the context of nuclear disarmament. Suzanne Massie, an American writer, met with President Ronald Reagan many times between 1984 and 1987. She taught him the Russian proverb "Doveryai, no proveryai" (; "Trust, but verify"), advising him that "The Russians like to talk in proverbs. It would be nice of you to know a few. You are an actor – you can learn them very quickly." The proverb was adopted
Treaty on the Creation of the USSR position but officially took over as a supreme authority in the USSR. One area where the Soviet division of power was not resolved at the time of the Treaty's signing, was Soviet Central Asia which contained several problems. A major battleground during the Russian Civil War, the region would remain unstable afterward. Turkestan came under Russian control fairly recently, between 1867 and 1885. Moreover, unlike other ethnic borders of the former Russian Empire, which were delimited during the Tsarist days (e.g. Transcaucasia lost its feudal administration by the mid-19th century), the Soviet authorities inherited two provinces that were "de jure"