legality of the dissolution was unclear, as Gorbachev had not concurred with it, and so most members remained in office and continued their work. Оn 25 December 1991 Gorbachev announced his resignation from the post of President of the USSR in connection with the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, meaning that the union government ceased to exist. Later career and death On 18 December 1991, Silayev was appointed by Yeltsin as the Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Community in Brussels; he resigned from this post on 7 February 1994. In late 1994 Silayev became the President of the Machine-Building Association of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which consisted of more than a hundred civilian and military enterprises and associations, mostly of Russian origin. He became a member of the Ecological Movement "Cedar" in 1995. From 1998, he was President of Industrial Machine, an industrial and financial group; he simultaneously headed the National Committee, which promotes economic cooperation with Latin America. On 26 September 2002, Silayev became Chairman of the Russian Union of Mechanical Engineers. His wife died on 18 March 2006. During the 2007 legislative election Silayev ran as a candidate for the Agrarian Party, but failed to get elected. Silayev died on 8 February 2023, at age 92. Recognition Silayev was awarded an Order of Lenin on two different occasions—once in 1971, and another during a closed session of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1975, when he was also awarded a Hero of Socialist Labour. He was awarded a Lenin Prize in 1972. In 1981 he was awarded the Order of the October Revolution and in 2002 the National Prize of Peter the Great. On 19 October 2000 and on 21 October 2005 Silayev was awarded the Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation. Citations General and cited references External links 1930 births 2023 deaths People from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Heads of government of the Soviet Union Heads of government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Eleventh convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members People's commissars and ministers of the Soviet Union Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Russian Federation) Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Soviet Union) Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Soviet engineers Soviet politicians Heroes of Socialist Labour Lenin Prize winners Recipients of the Order