Word: coupes
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...Even the greatly diminished degree of control from Moscow foreseen under the Treaty of Union, worked out between the Kremlin and nine of the Soviet Union's 15 constituent republics in June, suddenly seemed far too much. Two weeks ago, the treaty looked so radical that it triggered a coup attempt by communist hard-liners, nostalgic for the bad old days of dictatorship, who figured they dared not let the pact go into effect. Now, in the wake of the popular upheaval that defeated the putsch, the treaty has become a dead letter, judged totally inadequate to slake the republics...
...strong armed forces were put under the control of the regular army and its governing collegium was dismissed. Remaining bosses of the agency that for decades terrorized millions of Soviet citizens were put on notice that they would themselves be investigated to determine their roles, if any, in the coup. New Defense Minister Yevgeni Shaposhnikov had earlier pledged to remove most of the ministry's collegium, its top leadership...
...moves added up to a sweeping purge that apparently still has some way to go. Fourteen alleged coup plotters, including all seven surviving members of the so-called Emergency Committee that ran the putsch, were formally accused of treason, an offense punishable by imprisonment or death. The latest to be arrested was Anatoli Lukyanov, former chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who was ! taken into custody on Friday. During a session of the parliament earlier in the week devoted largely to finger pointing or to attempts by some members to convince others that they had nothing to do with the conspiracy...
...military spending and a reduction in Moscow's aid to Cuba. Major agreed, and was prepared to pass along that message on a Sunday visit to Moscow, where he was slated to become the first Western head of government to confer with both Gorbachev and Yeltsin since the failed coup...
Whatever is done about aid, though, outside powers have only marginal ability to influence what happens inside what must be called the former Soviet Union. Soviet citizens must decide their fate themselves, while the world holds its breath. The failed coup and the turmoil that has followed are fundamentally enormously hopeful events. If the immediate results are chaotic -- well, revolutions by their nature cannot be tidy. The trouble is that the most democratic revolutions can so easily degenerate into lasting chaos, out of which a new dictatorship can be born. Remember the February 1917 revolution that overthrew the Czar...