WI: Gorbachev Won in 1996?

Former leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev ran for President of Russia in 1996 and got .05% of the vote.

Ignoring the reasons he lost, what if he had won?
 
ASB. Gorbachev had almost no chance to win the 1996 elections. IIRC his campaign wasn’t given any coverage on both local and national media. You’ll need to somehow butterfly away the post-communist socio-economic crisis in Russia, which is pretty unlikely.
 
You can't ignore the reasons he lost because the only way you're getting this happening is by changing the reasons why he lost. Gorby's name was poison in Russia after the breakup of the USSR. You need to essentially change his entire career to give him viability in post-Soviet Russia, and consequently change the timeline.
 
Considering the unpopularity of his name, the state media being in the pocket of Yeltsin, possible fraud and American interference (which would never allow Gorbachev to win an election anyways), etc. pretty much all rule out his winning the 1996 elections unless you completely revamp his career and the collapse of the USSR.
 
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