The first sign of the coming change was the behavior of the presidents of the republics who gathered in Novo-Ogarevo on November 25 to discuss the new union treaty proposed by Gorbachev. On that day, they were supposed to endorse the text of the union treaty that they had debated and agreed upon at the previous meeting of the State Council. Problems began, as always, with Yeltsin, who again raised the question of the nature of the future union. He claimed that the term agreed on last time, “confederative state,” was meaningless. The treaty should stipulate instead the creation of a union or
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