The Moscow Coup(s) of 1991: Who Won and Why Does it Still Matter?

Summary:

The August 1991 coup by hard-line conservatives against the reformist Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, ended in failure after three days. But three decades later, modern Russia’s political system owes more to the putschists than to the Russian democrats who defeated them. What can the West learn from what went wrong?

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