On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time from the flagpole in the Kremlin.
Mikhail Gorbachev had no other choice when he stepped down as president of the state he had fought to keep together.
17 days earlier, the heads of state of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus had triggered a political earthquake when they gathered in a hunting lodge in the Belarusian Belavezja forest, and signed the agreement that made the president redundant.
Gennady Burbulis, then Secretary of State for Russian President Boris Yeltsin, has been credited with putting forward the meeting’s first proposal – reportedly the only wording passed without a single objection:
“The Soviet Union as a geopolitical entity and internationally recognized legal entity has ceased to exist.”
On Sunday, Burbulis’ spokesman, Andrej Markov, confirmed to the news agency Interfax that the former top politician is dead.
– Putin is partly right
“Yeltsin’s gray cardinal”
The man with the nickname “Yeltsin’s gray cardinal” is also considered the mastermind behind Boris Yeltsin’s successful election campaign in 1990, and played a key role in the early years of his first presidency.
As leader of the president’s advisory group, which pushed for several reforms, he also became very unpopular with the opposition.
In December 1992, he was fired. According to NTB, the dismissal was considered part of a compromise solution between Yeltsin and his conservative opponents in the People’s Congress.
Burbulis continued as a Member of Parliament until 1999, and was later Deputy Governor of Novgorod County.
According to his spokesman, the 76-year-old died unexpectedly in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, where he was attending a conference.
– He was not ill, and felt good, Markov says to Interfax.
The news agency states no cause of death.
