The desintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 demonstrated the instability of an ideological state system. Globalization of economic development outsourced some western industries to China, India and other countries with cheap labor. The transformation of Russian economy from socialist to capitalist system by "shock therapy" resulted in sharp decline of living standards. In 1998 Eugeny Primakov did return Russian policy to patriotic values. The sharp rise of oil and gas prices since 2001 did help to restore the growth of Russian economy. The attempt of Ukraine to join EU and to restrict the use of Russian language failed and resulted in loss of Crimea and Donbass. Belarus and Kazakhstan integrated their economies with Russia by creating the Eurasian Economic Union.

The main direction of the economic programme for the next six years is the economic and techological breakthrough with simultaneous increase in the wellbeing of the population, increase in the birth rate and life expectancy, development of medical care, education and science and accelerated growth in the production and export sectors of the economy. However, the financial part of this programme will require the increase of taxes, rising the pension age, reduction of military spending, reduction of subsidies, import substitution. Implementation of the "Putin's Programme" needs careful and detail planning in order to remove its contradictions.

The lifting the Soviet Communist Party of the monopoly of power started the nationalistic desintegration movements in some of the union republics. Because the economic and financial crisis did reduce the influence of the central government President Gorbachev did try to receive a massive financial aid from developed western powers (G-7) to subsidize market oriented reforms. After the failure of this plan , the conspiratorial attempt was made to replace the USSR with the loose voluntary union of the sovereign states by the signing the new treaty which would replace the current Constitution. Ukraine, Belarus and few other republics did not plan to sign a new treaty. The objection to this plan by the government of the USSR, the speaker of the Supreme Soviet and the Chairman of the State bank led to their confrontation with Gorbachev and Yeltsyn.

In 1993 I met in Moscow Leonid Shebarshin former chief of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Services. After retirement he did create private security organisation which did employ former professionals of the state security system – KGB, who now were protecting new private enterprises. The simplified “vaucher” form of the rapid privatisation, which started in Russia from the beginning of 1993, created many new economic and political problems. The development of the conflict between the president and the parliament lead to the unconstitutional dissolvent of the parliament by Boris Yeltsyn and the decision of the parliament to dismiss the president.

The State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) was not created by “hard-liners” as an attempt of the “coup d’etat”. to take power. It actually tried to save the USSR and its Constitution and to prevent its dessolution and replacement by the new Union of Sovereign States. The defeat of the GKChP, which consisted by the main members of the USSR government and headed by the vice-president, resulted by the transfer of power to Boris Yeltsyn and the government of the Russian Federation which was unable to control the main branches of the economy, foreign trade and the financial system. Because Michail Gorbachev restored as the USSR President was unable to rule by decree or create the new government, the power was transferred by the Supreme Soviets to “The State Council”, which consisted of leaders of ten Union Republics with Gorbachev as its chairman. In September of 1991 The State Council proclaimed the independence of the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

After defeat of GKChP the main state owned newspapers were closed by Yeltsin’s decree. “Izvestia”, however, survived, due to privatisation. The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet renamed as Supreme Rada declared referendum on full independency. Similar decrees in other republics of the USSR were destructive for soviet industry, particularly military, atomic and space branches. The ban on the Communist Party of the USSR and CPRF resulted in the formation of many smaller left-oriented parties. One of them was the Socialist Party with R.Medvedev as one of its leaders. All members of GKChP and the speaker of the Supreme Soviet Anatoly Lukyanov were arrested. M.Gorbachev was still the president of the USSR and the main problem remained the payment of huge Soviet state debt. The referendum in the Ukraine which confirmed its independence was the main step of the full desintegration of the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of December 1991 the Committee of State Security (KGB) was reorganised and Vadim Bakatin was appointed the Chairman of the new security sistem. As “The Act of the Good Will” Bakatin presented the US Ambassador in Moscow secret documentation on the overhearing devices installed into the walls of the new building of the American Embassy. On 7–8 December the leaders of Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belorussia, Yeltsyn, Kravchuk and Shushkevich signed a Declaration on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR declared his resignation. Consequences of this rapid transformation of the socialist economy into the free market capitalist economy are discussed. Rapid inflation, financial crisis and the decline of the living standards of population forced Boris Yeltsyn to change the rate of reforms. At the end of 1992 Victor Chernomyrdin was appointed as the new prime-minister and Victor Gerashchenko became the Chairman of the Central State Bank.

The attempt by the new Soviet leadership in 1965 to increase all forms of censorship and other repressive measures created opposition among many intellectuals which developed into «dissident movement». To suppress this dissent the KGB started to use different repressive measures, including the pressure to emigrate, deprivation of some dissidents of Soviet citizenship with confiscation of their passports and the deportation. Zhores Medvedev, biologist, was deprived his Soviet citizenship in July 1973 while officially arranged research trip to London. In his Memoirs «Dangerous profession», extracts of which are published here, he describes some episodes of his first year as an exile and the problems of some other dissidents, in this story Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexander Solzhenitsyn forced out of the USSR in 1974.

The appearance in 1974−1975 some new anti-socialist and religious journals of Soviet emigration stimulated the creation by Roy Medvedev a new samizdat journal «XXth Century» in Moscow with socialist-democratic orientation. Collections of essays and literary stories from this journals were published also abroad in Russian, English, French, German and other languages. One of the authors of this journal was Michail Yakubovich active participant of Russian revolution who knew well its main leaders. Memoirs of Yakubovich about his arrest and interrogation with the use of torture were included by Alexander Solzhenitsyn into his epic «Gulag Archipelago», however with many distortions and falsifications of Yakubovich case. It is described in this essay how it became possible to force Solzhenitsyn to make necessary corrections in the text of the first Soviet edition of his work pablished in «Novy Mir» in 1989.

During September and October 1974 the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations under the chairmanship of Senator J.W.Fulbright organised the open «Hearings» on «Détente» and the awarding the Soviet Union «The Most Favoured Nation» status in trade and the Jackson amendment attached to it. This Amendment linked the MFN status to free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. At the same time the new Trade agreement was also linked to the ratification of Agreements on the mutual reduction of strategic weapons (SALT-1) signed by Brezhnev and Nixon in 1972. Zhores Medvedev was invited to participate and in his Statement before the Committee on October 8th insisted that the Senate approval of «Jackson amendment» which was unacceptable to Soviet leadership might ruin not only the Trade agreement, but also the whole détente, SALT-1 and create new restrictions for emigration from the Soviet Union.

My report at the «Hearing» of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on «Jackson Amendment» on October 8th 1974 produced an «Open Letter by Lidya Chukovskaya and Lev Kopelev to Zhores Medvedev» which was broadcasted by foreign radios. Both authors criticised me for negative attitude on awarding The Nobel Peace Prize to Andrey Sakharov. This criticism was based on false information. In November 1974 I was appointed as Senior Reserch Scientist of the National Institute of Medical Research and was able to resume my study of biochemistry of ageing. In 1974 Vladimir Maximov and Solzhenitsyn founded a new literary-political journal «KONTINENT». Attention of western press in December of 1974 was also attracted by the ceremony of the presentation of Nobel Prize for Literature to Alexander Solzhenitsyn.