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Mikhail Gorbachev flashes the decree relinquishing control of nuclear weapons to Russian President Boris Yeltsin after its signature at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday, December 25, 1991. Gorbachev whose reforms gave Soviet citizens freedom but ultimately led to the destruction of his nation, resigned Wednesday as president of the defunct Soviet Union. Yeltsin now controls the arsenal of some 27,000 nuclear weapons. (KEYSTONE/AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing )