How have many russians responded to changes brought about by more openness to outside influences

Gorbachev's openness policy, known in Russia as Glasnost, had a transformative impact on Russian society. With more openess to the west came greater awareness of and desire for the individual freedoms and, perhaps more importantly, consumer choices of those living in the outside world. Although Gorbachev's Perestroika, or restructuring, program attempted to direct these impulses in a productive, or at least controllable, direction in the long run the Communist Party was not able to maintain its hold on power.