welcome back you're watching our team now here's a recap of today's headlines the world's financial markets are in false by a fresh wave of selling of the fears of the world economy is declining experts put a bleak forecast on american and european growth saying both are dangerously close to recession. in. the u.s. russia still harness foreign internet services thought to have played a pivotal role in the arab uprisings that critics say while spending millions to promote on live from the broad washington is out to being more control over events

through the web. russia remembers the attempted coup twenty years ago that precipitated the breakup of the soviet union and then a new country the failure of the overthrow brought a series of collapses to communist institutions and the soviet state. will find out how the coup emerged in august ninety ninety one and follow each step of the historic event for russia in our special report coming up next. central moscow moscow's regional k.g.b. headquarters. early morning of august the nineteenth one nine hundred ninety one. this is the officer and. the events of the day the could have reversed the country's history. it was an attempt to depose president mikhail

gorbachev put his reforms on hold. tanks and other hardware thirteen moved into moscow. the city's key points have been taken over. that. is the nineteenth nine hundred ninety one monday only in the morning teacher tatiana yakovlev a switch the t.v. on a sort of following picture instead of the usual programming every channels broadcasting tchaikovsky's famous ballet. ok out of which i turned the t.v. on to check the latest news and i was so surprised to see swan lake everywhere i was switching the t.v. channels for a long time thinking maybe there was something wrong with my t.v. set. at the same time as the ballot will cast more than seven hundred tanks and on the personnel carriers were being stationed in the streets the

porters were in the criminal. meanwhile so-called white house was at the center of civil resistance at the time it housed the russian parliament where the people's deputies met in session. it was past seven in the morning when the security chief came to my place. when i opened the door it's old me i had better go to the white house right away. as far as i could tell there was a coup going on in the country that's how i learned about it where you would decided to take a roundabout route instead of going straight to this building for. the coup was led by top brass and high ranking communist officials they had expected to get support from the population who were dissatisfied with the long drawn process of perestroika. they decided to make short work of gorbachev's reforms.

the situation was quite ops the country was in turmoil. there was a revolt of the hungry but equal standing in line for sausages stoop to fist fights but there were pervis of sort of jizz on the consumer market. but the country's president waved good bye to everybody and headed down south to the career to relax in. the crimean peninsula southern shore serbia president mikhail gorbachev's private residence in the village of. both its and scores of surrounding hecht as it came a prison for the head of state. here he spent several days and what amounted to confinement but there were a site can be seen from all sides you get an almost bird's eye view of it from that amount and a rude leading to the residence can easily be blocked with stones after those

events the joke here was that gorbachev's residence must have been deliberately built in this place so that he could be easily cut off from the outside world is going to go through where the. k.g.b. colonel left tolstoy was directly involved in the events of those days he's a direct descendant a name sake of the celebrated russian novelist leo tolstoy. before he rose to the rank of colonel he served as a bodyguard on august the eighteenth one nine hundred ninety one top k.g.b. officials ordered him to block all exits from the go over to off residence but i have no idea what would have happened if gorbachev and others had tried to escape from the residence or for what i do think he would have faced very unpleasant consequences. this is exclusive footage of the residence of the first savior president the splendid park was laid out almost on bare rocks this had special

significance because gorbachev was known to be very fond of strolling by the seaside. what israelis are is only a cedars these pines and these shrubs were all planted just before the territory was to be collision at in one nine hundred eighty eight with that nickel we got that was a short while before mikhail gorbachev's first visit here. the crimean residence was code named terra trees idea and k.g.b. documentation the interior design of the main building reflected the wishes of race ago but so over the president's wife she was with mikhail gorbachev throughout the force or deal. with those who really built what i would describe as internal defenses there were men carrying guns with live ammunition

were posted all over the place they were under strict orders not to allow provocations. the soviet president study was on the second floor close to the hole it was here that mikhail gorbachev learned about his complete isolation from the outside world. gorbachev study looks just like it was back then for this is his desk. and that telephone was meant for communicating with government officials. for lying was shut down at four pm on august eighteenth. gorbachev remained at his residence moreover measures to isolate him were reinforced still further valarie shah was the one who got to the gate to the residence during coup k.g.b. officers from moscow kept a close eye on him along with other local agents. special

measures were taken with a truck was stationed on the help to prevent helicopters from touching down a tractor with a trailer outside the gates was meant to prevent motor vehicles breaking through into the compound. rain for security precautions were introduced throughout. the army general valentyn very nick of was one of the key figures in the coup attempt on august the eighteenth one thousand nine hundred one even it'd gorbachev at his residence in the crimea which. asked the soviet president to recognize the legality of the coup. we knew what we were going through today and unite told him all that acute somehow befitting to state of emergency and gorbachev retorted whites claiming that a state of emergency was dancer green machine guns and blood in its wake at the

core or even i realized that other people as well as my family would suffer no doubt blood would be spilled certainly in such a vast country as out as this country takes time to get worked up when it does you can hardly stop at my belief is the country's modernization without blood. august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred one must go his eleven am i cried halt armored personnel carriers heading for the city center demonstrators climb one of them chanting no to fascism. hundreds of people gather womanish square in central moscow they are ready to oppose the so-called state committee on the state to the nation see people who met each other back then drink to still keep in touch and remember those events. hello hello hello brothers i'd seen in

a hundred years when my parents woke me up in the morning they told me that a coup was underway i was actively involved in a youth democratic movement so i said if no one i know was arrested right away this is no could all yes there were tanks but people were blocking them off all kind of coup is that if tanks can be stopped short in their tracks. a small radio set is one of the most treasured mementos from those days people used it to listen to the few independent stations that was still in. one report said the air force refused to side with the coup are poor. going to another a military garrison in st petersburg also refused to back it it was great to hear the people in many towns were supporting us. a minor radio station called echo of moscow was the main source of news in those days the k.g.b.

shut it down in the first few hours of the coup but whether by fair means or foul it's stuff managed to regain access to the airwaves. at one point we even used telephone lines to reach out to our audience there was no link between the studio and the transmitter so our engineers used an analog telephone line by all accounts those were circular and signs. the students who assumes it's meanwhile the coup organizers called a press conference in moscow many took note of cannot deny its trembling hands he named himself the country's head of state claiming that gorbachev had fallen ill. the press conference reached a turning point after a question from touchy an american or the then twenty four year old journalist who might do you realize that's what you have a down to do is a coup do you see parallels with your actions in soviet history nineteen seventeen

or nineteen sixty four. it was for your clear him but a coup took place during the night. i would disagree with you because all legal and constitutional norms were complied with so i bring it up just say that they look tested and would be an understatement they looked as if life was dying out of them and there was no retaliatory left in their faces and chief the eyes they looked like people who had lost a battle before they had a chance to start it. all this nineteen nineteen ninety one zero eight a spontaneous rally began in my. goes my nation as square a crowd swelled as more and more people arrived he events in moscow are described as an see constitutional coup there are calls for an open ended general strike.

on this day on we are protesting on so large a man's a mess. no to fascism no if you fascism a lot really. cultures that same of you i can get. some of them was worth something. big failed to change everything twenty years ago communist party hardliners attempted to derail me help out of a child's efforts to reform the soviet union. kind of approach. the future flights. martin takes to the max air show. a

notice to nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety one top k.g.b. officials in moscow ordered to reinforce security precautions. residents in the crimea on the same day mikhail gorbachev videotaped has since become a famous address. a coup has taken place. and he constitutional action. is based on a tremendous. and there was little chance of the tape being taken out of the compound on the same day coast guards protecting the residence attempted to establish contact with the president. since i was serving in one of the k.g.b. naval units i was not allowed to communicate with the president therefore i asked my wife to write a note in her own handwriting

a note said that the sailors were ready to take the president to a place of his choice one of my subordinates took the note to the security guards asking him to hand it over to gorbachev. when he came back they told him that nobody will be allowed to approach the residence and intruders will be shot. pull the troops residence was secured from the sea even better than from the land. and was one of the security guards there during those days nobody could approach the shore within less than four nautical miles without being spotted by the guards if they saw the intruder as a possible threat they were under orders to open fire but they are the three groups on permanent duty scoured the woodlands. snipers were in position on the mountain. there was a soldier with a machine gun on top of the cliff near the base remains of it can still be seen with their. landing gear they for all us had

a celebration. health resort from communist functionaries and their families was near the residence of the soviet president oldest is high season that the resort was crammed with holiday makers to capacity cuttlefish soft of the forest result was in charge of discos and other entertainment programs. up on aug nineteenth i said to student and physician bloke the country's president mikhail gorbachev is under arrest near here that got shall we cancel the dances you know she said the guests should not suffer let them dance this iteration with gorbachev doesn't concern us. august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred ninety one hundred twenty water cannons attempt to break through to the downtown area

demonstrators damage some of them and force them to turn back. meanwhile the coup organizers ordered the arrest of the president of russia boris yeltsin at the time he was at his residence near moscow the chief of his security guards alexander korsakoff was with him they drove a service counter moscow and reached the city unhindered. yeltsin was seated between two guards but he flatly turned down the idea of wearing a bulletproof vest so we simply put it over him just in case. heavy vest weighing nine kilos was of the kind worn in the army but the driver was told to go as fast as he could without stopping no matter what. yeltsin managed to get to the white house where he reunited with his team later he climbed the tank to

read out a message to a large crowd that had gathered outside the white house we were claiming all the decisions and orders by that committee illegal. by then white house defenders had set up a makeshift barricade near the building in a bid to block the access of military vehicles. everybody was dragging whatever they could lay their hands on a trolley bus stop there the driver got out and lowered the trolleys the trolley bus was left standing across the road the barricade was here that's how we began blocking all approaches to the building. the crimea the city of sevastopol a soviet black sea fleet based fifty kilometers from gorbachev summer residence throughout the coup first rank captain sim young of waited for an order to rescue. with the defense ministry part of the coup the rescue plan was ignored or with what they did i first the pockets of resistance were to be suppressed seconds the

president was to be found and taken under our protection third the remaining pockets of resistance were to be eliminated and we were to help evacuate the. president i see him. the upshot of it was that naval commanders only sent a telegram to cool off urging him to hold on that telegram was received by luke. an employee of the for us post-office hundreds of telegrams addressed to go bunch of were arriving from all over the soviet union k.g.b. men immediately seized all such mail. those three days oldest eighteen nineteenth and twentieth within those disturbing days in my life we had no idea whether we would be allowed to go home and be arrested things were simply left around the course. was bracing for the worst case scenario people inside the white house expected an assault on the

building with that possibility in mind they inspected all of the place once secret passages leading out into nearby courtyards. some of the regular reports coming in here claimed that an assault on the building of the supreme soviet would begin in an hour's time but why would they need an assault or the building is like an aquarium all you need to do is just answer it and that's all there is still it. really go. this old order was in fact given to the k.g.b. so called alpha unit the men were already on high alert but for the first time in the unit's history they demanded an open debate and a vote from the order before launching operation but it's over. the commander asked everybody to voice their opinion on the operation and whether an assault was necessary at all. with or yes yes. most of the men with a service record of more than five years said no to the operation. the operation

was told of but casualties were still unavoidable in the early hours of august the twenty first ninety ninety one the crews of several armored vehicles ordered to move to another location city white house defenders attempted to stop them because they thought the vehicles were heading towards the parliament building to attack it three young men died as a result. you both comber spent the night waiting for his son shortly before the oldest events he had served as a soldier in afghanistan and went to the white house after hearing an appeal from vice president alexander and called on people to go and defend democracy our government forever when my son had to riscos appeal he went to the barricades because that's was a call from someone who served in afghanistan two hundred but a day before. i asked him if he was going to the barricades and he said no that he

has he's you know fighting in afghanistan. he had no business small making around barricades but on tuesday it was a different story. on wednesday that he was no more. after that tragedy it became obvious the coup had failed tanks began leaving moscow and oldest the twenty first a card carrying russia's vice president would spoil over took one of the convoys it was rushing to the airport to bring the county a patrol back to moscow it was a total mess with a mound and timea. with workers in the build up and none of the ground controllers gutted our flight not even during the landing regardless it was a trouble free flight when we touchdown the airdrome superintendent drove up to the plane i introduced myself and said i needed a car and a bus to take us to gorbachev problem. he said go right ahead for all your.

good scores planes called the chalk on board touchdown in moscow on august twenty second one thousand nine hundred one a coup had failed of the soviet president and in effect returned to a different country should change during those three days in august i defended the soviet union to the last bullet that's what i did but failed. the finale of the standoff central moscow ammonium. to felix regence keep the founder of soviet secret police standing in front of k.g.b. headquarters and look young to square is pulled down it was a symbol of the beginning of the people. the bright future which the communists had been talking about for seventy years finally became a possibility we could build it with our own hands we were used to the fact that the state was on neverland that it could break and destroy anyone but this time nothing happened people had risen like a wall we said no enough white. at approximately the same time the prosecutor

general's office launches an investigation into the role of the coup organizers the plotters try to pass the blame on to crimean frontier guards. initially the team of investigators of the prosecutor general's office displayed tolerance then they began dropping hints purging us to repent and take the whole blame for gorbachev's isolation otherwise we would face charges of high treason. as military men we became very bitter when we heard the word treason. however the frontier guards were later acquitted only those who gave the orders were arrested the driving forces of who led by general to unite a year later they were released from prison under an amnesty you know i have died in two thousand and ten this is an excerpt from one of his last interviews. nor.

of any misguided decisions were made during those three days of august nine hundred ninety one we will not text should not have been brought in and demonstrated for should not have been used for a few months where we all that could have been done in a different way. when people today are asked whether they want a revival of the soviet union only nine percent say yes there is no chance of the state being revived in the form of the soviet union. mikhail gorbachev has never returned to summer residence since august one thousand nine hundred one now it's the property of the ukrainian state however top officials rarely vacation and. the former k.g.b. colonel tolstoy makes no secret of the fact that even now he has no right to talk about some aspects of what happened then. crimean residents still harbors many secrets relating to those three days in one thousand nine hundred one only when new

information is being because the fight live be able to shed light on. a figure of to be frank this place is not considered to be a very lucky hole that would bet your life. back. in the this is the officer on duty august twenty second nine hundred ninety one five am boris yeltsin declares and there reactionary coup has failed and thanks to defenders of the white house twelve pm for the first saw him the three colored flag is raised over the supreme council of russia. health said held for. only five months or left before the collapse of the soviet union.

morning when the t.v. newsman still and my valet. going while the streets in the capital. the turning point in russia's history. was a justified move forward. miming many years since the battle for democracy on our cheek.

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