Read the passage carefully and answer the question. Mikhail Gorbachev's ouster, though dramatic in every respect, is on no account a surprise. Both his foes and his closest friends have been warning…

Read the passage carefully and answer the question.

Mikhail Gorbachev's ouster, though dramatic in every respect, is on no account a surprise. Both his foes and his closest friends have been warning of it with a high sense of urgency for the past several months. Its consequences, however, are unpredictable. The USSR could well witness protracted violence should he and those republics which have sought varying degrees of sovereignty for themselves choose to defy the central authority. It is possible that the country, after an initial period of uncertainty and perhaps even violence, could revert to the pre-perestroika system. Equally uncertain is the course of east-west relations. These are bound to deteriorate though the extent of deterioration must remain a matter of conjecture. Hailed abroad as a leader who had dared to free Soviet citizens from fear, enabled the countries of Eastern Europe to become democracies even as they regained their full sovereignty, paved the way for the reunification of Germany and exposed the moribund and totalitarian character of communism, he appeared at home to come under fire from all sides.

The post-Gorbachev era may witness