Gennady Burbulis, one of the most influential Russian politicians in the early 1990s and a co-author of the Belavezha accords that effectively ended the existence of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 76 in Baku.
Several relatives, colleagues, and the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan on June 20 confirmed the June 19 death of Burbulis, a close associate of Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Burbulis was considered the mastermind behind Yeltsin's successful 1990 presidential campaign, and as head of the State Council played a key role in the early years of Yeltsin's first term as Russian president.
More recently, he was critical of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Burbulis was one of the six top officials who signed the document on the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 along with Yeltsin, Belarusian Prime Minister Vyachaslau Kebich, Belarusian parliament speaker Stanislau Shushkevich, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin, who is the only remaining signatory still alive. He is 89.