Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR.

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after their independence from the Soviet Union

FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians. Maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, as well as the possible nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities and 2 million of its citizens by Soviet-controlled forces, are released.

Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.