Timeline - 1990-1999

1990

• 31st January - The first McDonald's in Russia (Moscow) opened. It closed in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, and was re-branded.
• 11th March -  Lithuania became independent.
• 29th May -  Boris Yeltsin was elected as president of Russia.
• 2nd August -  Iraq invaded Kuwait, beginning the First Gulf War.
• 3rd October - Germany was reunified.
• 29th November -  John Major (Conservative) became  UK Prime Minister.
  

1991

• 13th January -  Soviet troops entered the Lithuanian city of Vilnius to restore the pro-Moscow government. Clashes between Soviet troops and unarmed Lithuanian demonstrators claimed 14 lives.
•  UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
• 14th January -  Valentin Pavlov become the new premier of USSR
• 28th February -  The First Gulf War ended.
• 3rd March -  Citizens in Estonia and Latvia voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence from the Soviet Union.
• 17th March -  More than three-quarters of citizens in nine Soviet republics voted in favour of maintaining the Soviet Union.
• 31st March -  Albania held its first multi-party elections.
•  In an independence referendum: Georgia voted for independence from the Soviet Uion
• 12th June -  Boris Yeltsin was elected as first president of Russia.
• 31st July -  US president George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow.
• 19th August -  Communists launched a coup attempt in USSR, arresting Gorbachev. The coup collapsed after two days, due to popular opposition whipped up by Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
• 24th August -  Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Over the following week, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also declared independence and left the USSR.
• 30th September -  The majority of civilian members of the Royal Observer Corps were stood down.
• 8th December -  Russia and 11 other Soviet bloc nations formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• 25th December -  US President George H. W. Bush, after receiving a phone call from Boris Yeltsin, delivered a Christmas Day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War.
•                             Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR. The hammer and sickle was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.
• 26th December -  The Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognised the dissolution of the Soviet Union and decided to dissolve itself.
• 31st December -  All Soviet institutions ceased operations.

• 1992

• 1st January -  The USSR was re-named the Russian Federation.
• 2nd January -  Russian President Boris Yeltsin ended retail prices control in Russia some prices increased 300 - 500%. This was the end of one of the Cold War cornerstones, command economy.
• 6th January -  Zviad Gamaskahurdia  President of Georgia fled due to a military coup.
• 20th January -  John Major agreed an arms control deal with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in London.
• 26th January -  Boris Yeltsin announced that Russia would stop targeting US cities with nuclear weapons. George H.W. Bush announced that the West would reciprocate.
• 1st February -  George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin met at Camp David and announced that the Cold War was over.
• 9th March -  The Peoples Republic of China ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• 16th March -  Boris Yeltsin announced the creation of a Russian army.           

1993

• 1st January -  Czechoslovakia ceased to exist as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in the Velvet Divorce

1994

1995

• 31st December -  The remaining volunteer members of the Royal Observer Corps were stood down.

1996

• 31st March -  The Royal Observer Corps Headquarters were stood down and remaining officers re-deployed.

1997         

1998

1999