After Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991 and ceded all the powers still vested in it to Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, the new government demanded that Honecker leave the country or else face deportation.
After Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991 and ceded all the powers still vested in it to Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. Russian authorities long been keen for expelling Honecker, and the new government now demanded that he leave the country or else face deportation.