Peaceful Revolution increasingly lacked the materials to continue the arms race with the Reagan-era United States – particularly with a drawn-out war in Afghanistan – and the resources to control Central and Eastern Europe. With his economic and sociopolitical reform program as well as his disarmament initiatives, Gorbachev therefore sought to take appropriate steps. Having initiated a policy of "glasnost" (openness) and emphasized the need for "perestroika" (economic restructuring), Gorbachev essentially permitted the six member states of the Warsaw Pact to now each take their own direction with their own reforms. While those reforms implemented the Soviet Union were met with broad
1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign until its dissolution in December 1991. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin (whose rise to power Gorbachev had tried to prevent) became the Russian head-of-state. Gorbachev had, reportedly, been contemplating a political return since sometime in the middle of 1993. Gorbachev was still a vigorous and opinionated man. He desired to escape from his political exile and to repair his image. Gorbachev was also motivated, amid chaotic reform efforts by Yeltsin, by a belief that he could implement far superior (and less disastrous) reform than Yeltsin. Gorbachev also had a strong personal animosity towards Yeltsin. All of