Gorbachev resigned 30 years ago marking the end of the Soviet Union

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
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MOSCOW (AP) – People walking on a snowy Red Square in Moscow on the evening of December 25, 1991 witnessed one of the most important moments of the 20th century. That night, the red flag of The Soviet Union flying over the Kremlin was pulled down and replaced with the tricolor flag of the Russian Federation. Minutes earlier, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation in a televised address, ending the Soviet Union’s 74 years of history by responding to the demands of the Soviet republics. claim independence. Political experts to this day debate whether Gorbachev could stand his ground and save the Soviet Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century”.