acknowledged the game was up. the leader of the ussr mikhail gorbachev realized basically he would have to agree. and before the end of that month, on christmas night, kn december 25th, 1991, mikhail gorbachev stepped down as head of the soviet union. the hammer and sickle flag of the ussr was brought down at the kremlin. the three-color flag of the russian federation was raised in its place. and on christmas 30 years ago, christmas 1991, boris yeltsin became president of the russian federation. he served as president for eight years almost exactly from christmas 1991 until new year s eve, 1999.re he served as president until dee y2k, december 31st, 1999. that night yeltsin was gone and vladimir putin surprise, who s he became president of the russian federation. and putin has been running that country with an increasingly authoritarian hand ever since.