Transition period and cessation of the existence of the Soviet Union

In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling.

Nationalist, democratic and liberal movements gained momentum across the Soviet republics, and the control of the Communist Party weakened.

As a result of its status as a sovereign state, the Union Republic de jure had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude treaties with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives and participate in the activities of international organizations (including membership in international organizations).

In 1989, the European-Asian Union was proposed by the co-chairman of the Interregional Deputy Group Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and with the participation of members of the group Galina Starovoitova (as a representative to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union from Armenia), Anatoly Sobchak and others.

Six of the fifteen Soviet republics, however, did not participate in the drafting of the treaty: Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

[8] On 5 September 1991 the Law of the USSR “On the bodies of state power and administration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the transition period” was signed.

According to the decree of the President of the USSR of 6 September, the committee was to cease its activity from the moment the IEC began its work.

Article 3: For the coordinated decision of internal and foreign policy matters affecting the common interests of the republics, the State Council of the USSR shall be formed on an inter-republican basis.

On 24 September, RSFSR State Secretary Gennady Burbulis arrived to Boris Yeltsin, who was on vacation at the Black Sea coast.

He brought a document “Russia's Strategy for the Transition Period”, which later received the unofficial name “Burbulis Memorandum”.

[11] As the Kommersant newspaper wrote on 7 October 1991, a series of conflicts occurred in the RSFSR government during preparations for the signing of the Treaty on the Economic Community.

In his speech to members of the Russian parliament, RSFSR State Secretary Gennady Burbulis declared Russia's special role as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.

Yegor Gaidar, Alexander Shokhin and Konstantin Kagalovsky were named as the developers of the statement made by Burbulis.

Nazarbayev announced that 10 of the 13 republic leaders present in Alma-Ata had pre-agreed to adopt an economic community treaty in the near future.

8 republics - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - adopted a statement on the need to sign a treaty on economic community before 15 October 1991.

[13] According to Grigory Yavlinsky, on 1 October the draft Treaty was approved by the prime ministers and plenipotentiary representatives of the 12 sovereign republics.

[17] On 18 October 1991, in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace Mikhail Gorbachev and the leaders of eight Union republics (excluding Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan) signed the Treaty on the Economic Community as planned.

The signing ceremony was also attended by representatives of Moldova, who also clearly expressed the republic's desire to become a member of the newly created economic union.

[25] Because of the referendum results and the actions of the Verkhovna Rada, Leonid Kravchuk refused on 7 December to sign such a political agreement that did not take Ukraine's status into account.

The Belovezha Accords were signed on 8 December, where it was Burbulis who authored the phrase “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist.”[26][27] The agreement declared the dissolution of the USSR by its remaining founder states (denunciation of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR) and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

[citation needed] Khasbulatov recalled in his book, "Yeltsin successfully shifted the blame for the collapse of the USSR to Ukraine."

In the letter to NATO, Yeltsin stated, “This would contribute to an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust and would strengthen stability and cooperation on the European continent.

[25][37] On December 30, 1991, 11 countries signed the Agreement between the participant states of the Commonwealth of Independent States on Strategic Forces, according to which "the member states of the Commonwealth recognize the need for a unified command of the Strategic Forces and the maintenance of unified control over nuclear weapons", "For the period until their complete destruction, nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of Ukraine are under the control of the unified command of the Strategic Forces with the aim of not using them and dismantling them by the end of 1994, including tactical nuclear weapons - by July 1, 1992", "The process of destroying nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine is carried out with the participation of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine under the joint control of the Commonwealth states".

The inspirer of the Ashgabat statement, Nursultan Nazarbayev, informed his colleagues about the meeting with Yeltsin, during which the Russian president said that the creation of the commonwealth was not an accomplished fact, but only a proposal sent to the republics for consideration.

Further prospects of the inter-republican commonwealth will be discussed on 21 December in Alma-Ata, where Nursultan Nazarbayev invited the leaders of all 12 republics.

Therefore, it would be unreasonable to change the name both legally and politically.” Nursultan Nazarbayev immediately added: “But in the Declaration, which you will read tomorrow, the economic area is called Eurasian.” [52] The Soviet Union officially self-dissolved on 26 December 1991, and this date is considered the date of the final recognition of independence by the Soviet Union.

On 24 September 1993, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Georgia signed the Agreement on the Creation of the interstate Euroasian Coal and Metal Community, which entered into force in 1995 for Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and in 1996 entered into force for Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

[53] On 12 January 1994, the Kommersant newspaper wrote that “for the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, representatives of economic sectors have managed to create a supra-governmental body that has not only recommendatory functions, but also has the ability to solve most of the production issues of metallurgical and coal enterprises” and the authority of the Euroasian Community of Coal and Metal is mandatory for the governing bodies of the participating countries, rather than recommendations.

[54] On 24 September 1993, at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Heads of State in Moscow, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan signed the Treaty on the creation of an Economic Union which reinforces by an international agreement the intention to create an economic union through the step-by-step creation of a free trade area, a customs union and conditions for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor.

On 29 March 1994, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev complained that the CIS was inadequate and did not provide the integration that the countries badly needed.