The last president to win in a runoff was Boris N. Yeltsin in 1996. Polling services suggest Mr. Putin may struggle to break the barrier. The independent Levada Center last week said 37 percent of its respondents would vote for Mr. Putin if the...

In fact, the Soviet Union had already ceased to exist after the creation of the new Commonwealth of Independent States, composed of 11 former republics of the collapsed Soviet empire under the lead of President Boris N. Yeltsin of Russia. At least...

Throughout the western and southeastern borderlands of the Soviet Union, the disintegration proceeded apace. In August 1991, while Mr. Gorbachev vacationed in Crimea, his subordinates acted to halt his reforms by staging a coup. But the plotters...

When explaining his decision to seek the presidency again, “Putin admitted that he had not wanted the position when it was offered to him by Boris Yeltsin, in 1999, but would ‘take it to a logical conclusion.’ He likened himself to Franklin Roosevelt,...

Headlines Learn about key events in history and their connections to today. On Dec. 8, 1991, leaders of three of the 15 Soviet Republics, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid M. Kravchuk and the Belarusian leader Stanislav...