<P> On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place . While doubts remained over the authority of the accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia signed the Alma - Ata Protocol, which confirmed the accords . On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct . He turned the powers that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin . That night, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolor was raised in its place . </P> <P> The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, voted both itself and the Soviet Union out of existence . This is generally recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state . The Soviet Army originally remained under overall CIS command, but was soon absorbed into the different military forces of the newly independent states . The few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased to function by the end of 1991 . </P> <P> Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, Russia was internationally recognized as its legal successor on the international stage . To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed overseas Soviet properties as its own . Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics . Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations . Ukraine has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the USSR and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was codified in Articles 7 and 8 of its 1991 law On Legal Succession of Ukraine . Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against Russia in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the Soviet Union . </P> <P> The dissolution of the Soviet Union was followed by a severe economic contraction and catastrophic fall in living standards in post-Soviet states including a rapid increase in poverty, crime, corruption, unemployment, homelessness, rates of disease, demographic losses, income inequality and the rise of an oligarchical class, along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income . Between 1988 / 1989 and 1993 / 1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries . The economic shocks that accompanied wholesale privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality . Data shows Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994 . </P>

When was the soviet union changed to russia
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