according to the voting results, boris yeltsin, paired with alexander rudsky, won in the first round, defeat of the pair nikolay ryshkov - boris gromov, who received less than 17% was devastating. third place with almost 8% was sensationally won by vladimir zhirinovsky, who became. from that moment on, he became a significant and colorful figure in russian politics. yeltsin predictably received the greatest support in the urals, moscow and leningrad. in the last two capital cities, simultaneously with the presidential elections, mayoral elections were held for the first time, which were convincingly won by yeltsin's associates, gavriil popov and anatoly sobchak. the election of boris yeltsin as president of russia in direct popular elections dealt a serious blow. by the legitimacy of the ussr president mikhail gorbachev, elected only by the congress of allied deputies. it became clear that it was impossible to defeat or at least push aside yeltsin by political or legal methods in the coming years. gorbachev could only accept the inevitable and try to re-enter an alliance with yeltsin