Russia today marks two decades since Soviet hardliners precipitated the demise of the USSR with a botched coup,haunted by some regret that the Soviet Union broke up and facing an uncertain future. Conservative top Soviet officials known as the "gang of eight" sought to seize power on August 19,1991 from Mikhail Gorbachev,who had sought to save Moscow's troubled empire with his perestroika reforms. But the coup was defeated by August 22 amid popular resistance and the indecision of its backers,a flaw immediately betrayed by the shaking hands of its leader Gennady Yanayev at the first news conference. The coup had the reverse effect of delivering a fatal blow to the Soviet Union,which would formally break up in December that year. Gorbachev never recovered credibility and Russian president Boris Yeltsin emerged as a national leader. Russian liberals fondly remember the popular resistance against the State Committee for the State of the Emergency (GKChP) as a victory for Russian democracy but a poll this week showed that many see this differently. Only 10 per cent of Russians see the defeat of the coup as a victory for democracy,according to a poll published by the Levada Centre this week. Meanwhile,39 per cent of Russians believe that the coup was a tragic event that had grave consequences for the country and its people,it said. Ten years before,this number had stood at 25 percent. Some 27 per cent believe that after the coup Russia moved in the right direction but 49 per cent think that it went the wrong way afterwards. Gorbachev,80,remains a marginal figure in modern-day Russia but he re-emerged this week to make clear he was "unhappy" with the current situation in Russia and believed it was going backwards. Many Russians share the belief of popular strongman Vladimir Putin that the collapse of the USSR was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century. It remains unclear how the anniversary will be marked by Putin and his successor as president Dmitry Medvedev,who appears at least slightly less nostalgic about the USSR than his mentor.
