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Containment Beyond the Cold War
How Washington Lost the Post-Soviet Peace
In December 15, 1991, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker arrived in Moscow amid political chaos to meet with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, who was at the time busy wresting power from his nemesis, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
- M. E. Sarotte
- Foreign Affairs
Yeltsin had recently made a shocking announcement that he and the leaders of Belarus and Ukraine were dismantling the Soviet Union.
Their motive was to render Gorbachev impotent by transforming him from the head of a massive country into the president of nothing.
In the short run, it was a brilliant move, and within ten days, it had succeeded completely.
Gorbachev resigned, and…