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Mikhail Gorbachev, eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, closes his resignation speech on the table after delivering it on Soviet television in the Kremlin, Moscow on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1991. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered from the Kremlin, and in its place rose the white, blue, and red flag of Russia. Gorbachev, whose reforms of the Soviet Union paved the way for the Cold War's end and the rise of Boris Yeltsin, on Monday, April 23, 2007 praised the ex-Russian president while also noting their "massive divergences" over policy. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)