US split: Collapse of 'shattered union' to begin with Texas? Russian economist and academic Igor Panarin says that there is a strong possibility that the United States will break into six pieces by June 2010, which he says will be the result of a second economic crisis in late November. After Texas Governor Rick Perry mentioned the possibility of his state seceding from the union, Americans started to take Panarin’s predictions much more seriously and now the video game 'Shattered Union' is being developed into a major Hollywood motion picture.