Word: putsch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...curtain rose last week on what could prove the final act in a drama of tragicomic ineptitude: the "vodka putsch." Remember the three days in August 1991 when a dozen communist leaders imprisoned Mikhail Gorbachev and seized control of the Soviet Union? After the scheme fell apart, one conspirator drank himself into a stupor, another shot himself dead, and a third made a break for the airport -- where he was arrested with the key to his new Kremlin office still in his pocket...
...Yeltsin's opponents are expected to launch an all-out offensive to restrict his personal authority, reverse his main policies and remove his key ministers. In the scarier versions of the scenario, the maneuvers against the Russian government could be a prelude to a parliamentary upheaval or even a putsch...
There are certainly those on the political fringe who openly advocate taking power by force. But Russians' predilection for the rhetoric of impending apocalypse and unfamiliarity with the concept of loyal opposition or healthy difference of opinion tend to exaggerate the risk of a putsch. They also obscure both the complexity of the country's evolving political culture and the frequent back-room negotiating that leads to shifts in allegiance among political forces and personalities. Short of being ousted himself, and perhaps as a means to avoid it, Yeltsin may decide to share power with some of his less radical...
...season's biggest drama, a putsch by owners removed Fay Vincent from the office of commissioner of Major League Baseball. Admittedly, Vincent's personality could have benefited from a few more readings of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Beneath the surface, however, owners wished to emasculate the broad powers of the commissioner's office...
...Yeltsin's power to rule by decree. They will expose the party's checkered past and pose painful questions about retribution and punishment in future trials. And they could provoke a surge of resentment among the party faithful that could spill into the streets -- and heighten anxieties about another putsch attempt...