During the late Soviet Glasnost policy of Mikhail Gorbachev, new elections were held, returning a parliament that introduced a resolution for independence on 8 May 1990. Anticipating Estonian independence, Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR met with his counterpart, Arnold Rüütel, chairman of the Estonian SSR, in January 1991 to plan for transition. During the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, the Estonian parliament issued a Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union on 20 August 1991, which was recognized by the State Council of the Soviet Union on 6 September 1991. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the year, the Russian Federation emerged as the Soviet Union's legal successor. The first ambassador of the Russian Federation to Estonia, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, was appointed on 24 January 1992.