Life in the Union of Sovereign States

In a alternate timeline, Gorbachev gets wind of the August Coup plot and tricks the Gang of Eight into attending a meeting of the Politburo where they are arrested for treason. With the coup foiled before it can happen, Gorbachev is able to push through the New Union Treaty with these nine Soviet republics, in which the Soviet Union is transformed into the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics, a federation of independent states with a common president, foreign policy and military.

Assuming the USSR remains intact to the present day, what is life like in this reformed Soviet Union? Does Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost continue or does the USSR return to being an autocratic regime? What is their relationship like with the rest of the world?
 
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