Word: putsch
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...determined as ever to hold on to his powers as President of the Soviet Union. Never mind that the Communist Party was no more, the central government dissolved, the security services and armed forces undergoing a painful purge and the Soviet parliament in total disarray. The failed putsch may have left a gaping hole at the very center of power, but Gorbachev was toiling to fill it by the sheer force of his presence...
...Gorbachev still remains the one Soviet politician with whom international leaders feel comfortable doing business. In diplomacy the Yeltsin factor looms large. His heroic stand against the conspirators won him applause abroad, but foreign diplomats are less enthusiastic about what they have seen of the Russian president since the putsch was crushed. Gorbachev's prestige abroad will prove to be important capital in the bank, especially now that his homeland is entering a new era of absorption with domestic problems...
...many American officials stunned by the anti-Gorbachev putsch was ROBERT STRAUSS, the Democratic power broker whose fondness for creature comforts made him an unlikely ambassador to the Soviet Union. "I'm not sure I'm the right guy for the job," confessed Strauss in the early hours of the crisis. But as he thought about the prospect of taking on the hard-liners, Strauss warmed to the challenge. "I guess I could tell those motherf--- sons of bitches off," he concluded...
...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' suddenly sharpened thirst for independence. At barest minimum, what was still officially one country on Aug. 19 will be four. The center, as Soviets call the government in the Kremlin, is no longer even trying...
...ORIGINS: The prelude to the putsch against Gorbachev...