Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/events01/world/eur/russia/91slideshow/sovi et.ram (RealPlayer Audio/Picture Footage of 1991 Coup) BBC Online: ============================ 1) Gorbachev praises Putin as 'inspiring' 2) Ex-putschists defend 1991 Soviet coup ============================ Thursday, 16 August, 2001, 15:31 GMT 16:31 UK 1) Gorbachev praises Putin as 'inspiring' =========================== http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1494000/1494674.stm Yeltsin 'gave Gorbachev 24 hours to leave the Kremlin' The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev has lashed out at the 1991 coup plotters and the man who stood up to them, Boris Yeltsin, while praising the current Russian President, Vladimir Putin. At a news conference ahead of the 10th anniversary of the coup, Mr Gorbachev said that he should have sent Mr Yeltsin, who replaced him in the Kremlin in December 1991, "to some banana republic". "What Putin has been able to do over the past year inspires me" Mikhail Gorbachev He said that the perpetrators of the August 1991 coup were pursuing selfish interests and used the idea of saving the Soviet Union merely as a cover. But Mr Gorbachev was full of praise for President Putin, who he said had the correct strategy and was acting in the interests of the majority of Russians. He reiterated that his Russian Social Democratic Party would support Mr Putin at the next presidential elections. Caution "What he has been able to do over the past year inspires me," he said. Gorbachev said Putin inspired him "I like the caution with which Putin works to implement social and economic reforms." He dismissed claims that fear was returning to Russian society under Mr Putin. "It is the nomenklatura that is trembling because it's afraid of losing its perks," he said. Yeltsin criticised But Mr Gorbachev was far from complimentary about former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, both for his role after the coup and as a reformer. He said that Mr Yeltsin had speeded up the disintegration of the Soviet Union so that Russia could rely on its vast natural resources to advance faster. Mr Yeltsin did not "take the road of strengthening the democratic gains" of perestroika during his eight-year rule, he added. Mr Gorbachev said he had not seen his successor since December 1991, when he was given 24 hours to leave the Kremlin. Tanks Mr Yeltsin was seen as the main victor in the coup attempt. Yeltsin urged Russians to defend their parliament Mr Gorbachev's leadership was undermined by several of his own ministers, who sent tanks into the streets of Moscow on 19 August. He was placed under house arrest in his holiday home. But the coup plotters failed, as Mr Yeltsin brought thousands of Muscovites out onto the streets to defend the Russian parliament. Mr Gorbachev was released and returned to Moscow, but his authority was now sinking just as Mr Yeltsin's was soaring. Mr Yeltsin banned the activities of the Soviet Communist Party, of which Mr Gorbachev had been general secretary, on Russian soil. In December, the Soviet Union itself was disbanded and Mr Gorbachev resigned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Thursday, 5 July, 2001, 02:08 GMT 03:08 UK 2) Ex-putschists defend 1991 Soviet coup ============================= http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1423000/1423034.stm The former coup leaders are unrepentant Russian Communist hardliners who staged the abortive August 1991 coup against the former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, have jointly defended their actions. The former top Soviet officials appeared together in public for the first time in 10 years at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday. They denounced "the destruction of the country," and said they were ready to "mount the barricades" again to restore the Soviet Union. Mr Gorbachev was kept isolated for two days Coup leader Gennady Yanayev - a former Soviet vice-president who proclaimed himself acting president of the USSR - said he would gladly do it all over again. "All my comrades gathered here are true patriots, defenders of the state - I'm proud to have joined them in their battle to defend the Soviet Union and its long suffering people," he said. The coup lasted only two days and the plotters were later sent to jail, labelled traitors. They were granted an amnesty in February 1994. Their coup paved the way for the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Unrepentant The BBC's Steven Rosenberg in Moscow says the plotters lined up just like they did in 1991, when they announced that Mikhail Gorbachev was sick and they were forming an emergency committee to run the country. He says the surroundings were not the most auspicious this time - a tiny office of the newspaper Patriot in a crumbling Moscow block. Dmitry Yazov - a former defence minister - said that in the decade since the dramatic events of 19-21 August 1991, "the political system, the economy and the army have been wiped out, along with the moral purity of the Russian people". Another of the plotters, Oleg Baklanov, listed what he saw as the country's present ills. Gennady Yanayev: "We are patriots" "Wars in the former Soviet republics, refugees, children left alone, tuberculosis, Aids and prostitution - that is the result of the presidency of Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin," he said. "The current leadership is making efforts to restore control over the country," said former Soviet Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov. "Today they are trying to do what we attempted to do in the Soviet Union in 1991." Short-lived coup On 19 August 1991, the coup plotters announced that President Gorbachev was ill, isolated him at a Black Sea resort and put themselves in charge. They moved armoured columns in Moscow, but stopped short of using force against thousands of protesters who rallied behind Boris Yeltsin, at the time the president of the Russian Federation. Vyacheslav Generalov - the secret service agent charged with keeping Mr Gorbachev under house arrest - outlined why he thought the coup lacked popular support. Dmitry Yazov regretted the lost "moral purity of the Soviet people" "The only reason people didn't support us is that they'd been hypnotised, turned into zombies. But history's shown that we were right to do what we did." Despite all the opposition, at least one member of the group - Valery Varennikov - still believed the coup could have been a success. "If we'd only been firmer, stuck to our guns, then everything would have been OK. But at least we showed Gorbachev that we opposed his policies," he said. Our correspondent says the plotters still consider themselves the heroes - true patriots who fought to save the Soviet Union. Their only regret, he says, is that they failed. ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
