During the previous year, meanwhile, Gorbachev, seeing the end coming, had been struggling to create some portable unity that would carry on after the fall of the Soviet Union. He proposed changing the government to a federation called the Union of Sovereign States, a less centralized government in which the Republics would have more independence. It failed to win the unanimous approval of the nine loyal Republics (out of 15, the other six abstaining from the vote). A second proposal for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was accepted and co-existed temporarily with the Soviet Union. It was an agreement to act together in matters of trade and security. Its core was the loyal nine, but the total membership would grow to 12.