in 2018, due to prolonged tensions with Russia. Georgia was not a member until 1993 and withdrew in 2008 following the Russo-Georgian War. Names of the proposed state On the first draft of the treaty released in July 1991, the proclaimed name for the new polity was the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics (). This name was proposed in order to conserve the Russian "СССР" acronym, meaning "USSR" and "Soviet Union" in English and other languages. By September 1991, overall support for preserving the Soviet state changed to reform the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states. The final draft renamed the proposed state the Union of Sovereign States (). The overall chances of a continuation of the Soviet system in any form continued to drop and was soon abandoned. Following the August coup, the new union treaty was further reformed into the Commonwealth of Independent States. Proposed member republics, autonomous republics (ASSR) and autonomous oblasts (AO) Union republics (SSR) Russia (Russian SFSR) Byelorussia (Byelorussian SSR) Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR) Kazakhstan (Kazakh SSR) Kirghizia (Kirghiz SSR) Tajikistan (Tajik SSR) Turkmenia (Turkmen SSR) Uzbekistan (Uzbek SSR) Former autonomous republics (ASSR) and autonomous oblasts (AO) Abkhazia (former Abkhaz ASSR) South Ossetia (former South Ossetian AO) Gagauzia (Gagauz Republic) Transnistria (Pridnestrovian SSR) Republics (SSR), autonomous republics (ASSR) and autonomous oblasts (AO) that rejected the treaty Former Union republics (SSR) Armenia (former Armenian SSR) Georgia (former Georgian SSR) Moldova (former Moldavian SSR) Estonia (former Estonian SSR) Latvia (former Latvian SSR) Lithuania (former Lithuanian SSR) Former autonomous republics (ASSR) and autonomous oblasts (AO) Nagorno-Karabakh (former Nagorno-Karabakh AO) See also History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991) Perestroika Uskoreniye Glasnost New political thinking Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union) 500 Days Program Predictions of the collapse of the Soviet Union Revolutions of 1989 Notes References 1990s in politics 1990s in the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union History of Russia Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika Reform in the Soviet Union Soviet internal politics Proposed countries