it's one thirty am moscow time it's covered over here in our t.v. smalling of our top stories for you i must rocket attacks on israel a day after its announcement of pulling off a cease fire with the jewish state this is the middle east peace quartet called now on egypt to help restore security in the region the ministry of tension. despite reports of a rebel advance in libya journalists on the ground claim it's a nato decision from a shouldn't count play pro get off in force and say there are may well a little ready to fight for me and. also with mark twenty years since moscow was

placed under military curfew during the ten to overthrow mikhail gorbachev he faced fierce resistance then and failed to topple the government but nonetheless change the course of history that is something. i must continue with that story now it's time for our in-depth accounts of those dramatic events the subject of our special report 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 reverse the country's history. was an attempt to depose president mikhail gorbachev put his reforms on hold. tanks and other hardware

being moved into moscow. the city's key points have been taken over. that. is the nineteenth nine hundred ninety one monday. morning teacher tatiana yakovlev a switch said t.v. on a sort of following picture of the usual programme in every channel was broadcasting tchaikovsky's famous ballet. i thought 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 armored personnel carriers were being stationed in the streets the plotters were in the criminal. meanwhile those 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 for work 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 were decided to take a round about 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 reforms.

the situation was quite all right the country was in turmoil. there was a revolt of the hungry but able standing in line for sausages stoop to fist fights but there were pervis of sort of just 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 soviet president mikhail gorbachev's private residence near the village or false. both its and scores of surrounding head tez became 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 mountain the rude leading to resilience can easily be blocked with stones after those events the joke you're on 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. k.g.b. colonel left tolstoy was directly involved in the events of those days he's a direct descendant a namesake 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 thousand nine hundred one top k.g.b. officials ordered him to block all exits from the gorbachev residence but i have no idea what would have happened if gorbachev and others had tried to escape from the residence or what i do think he would have faced very unpleasant consequences. this is exclusive footage of the residence of the first save it president a splendid park was laid out almost on their wrongs this had special significance

because gorbachev was known to be very fond of strolling by the seaside. work of visa arizona seeders these pines and the shrubs were all planted just before the territory was to be commissioner out in one nine hundred eighty eight well starting it was a short while before mikhail gorbachev's first visit here. the crimean residence was named terra trees and k.g.b. documentation the interior design of the main building reflected the wishes of race to go over the president's wife she was with mikhail gorbachev throughout the force or deal. with guns or you would build what i would describe as internal defenses their men carrying guns with live ammunition were posted all over the place they were under strict orders not to allow provocations or.

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 . trick of being. a child study looks just like it was back then for this is his desk the world war two and that telephone was meant for communicating with government officials. for the lying was shut down at four pm on aug eighteenth which. gorbachev remained in his residence moreover measures to isolate him were reinforced still further valarie shah was the one who caught at the gates to the residence during. k.g.b. officers from moscow kept a close eye on him along with other local agents. special

measures were taken a truck was stationed on the helo pad to prevent helicopters from touching down or 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. their army general balanchine very nick of as one of the key figures in the coup attempt on august the eighteenth one thousand nine hundred one he visited gorbachev at his residence in the crimea if you. asked the serbian president to recognize the legality of the coup. according to be we knew what we were going to do during he and i told him all that could somehow be fitted into state of emergency and gorbachev retorted by exclaiming that a state of emergency was bonsa bring machine guns and blood in its wake at a quarter or even i realize that other people as well as my family would suffer no

doubt blood would be spilled certainly in such a vast country as ouse this country takes time to get worked up when it does you can hardly stop it my belief is the country's modernization without blood. august nineteenth might in ninety one must go to eleven am i cried halt armored personnel carriers heading for the city center demonstrators climb one of them chanting to fascism. hundreds of people gather womanish square in central moscow they are ready to oppose the so-called state committee on the state of emergency people who met each other back then joined to still keep in touch and remember those events. hello hello hello brothers and seeing in a hundred years when my parents will clear up in the morning they tell 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 if this is no could all yes there were tanks but people were blocking them off what kind of career is it 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 it was still on that. one reporter said the air force refused to side with the coup are poor. 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. tediously didn't see that 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 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 use an analog telephone line by all accounts those words are a billion times the level of 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 the good which offered for an ill. press conference reached a turning point after a question from turkey an american or the then twenty four year old journalist then why do you realize that what you have the down to do is a coup do you see parallels with your actions in soviet history nineteen seventeen or nineteen sixty four. does 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 jim everything just say that they looked hesitant would be an understatement i knew they looked as if life was dying out of them and there was no retaliates he left in their faces and shifty eyes they look like people who had lost a battle before they had a chance to start it and i took. this nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety one zero eight as spontaneous rally began in my. goes my nation as square a crowd swelled as more and more people arrived the 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 until our demands are met.

no to fascism no to fascism your lot. of approach. the future flights. marty types to the max their show. british scientists on. market dynamics can find out what's really happening to the global economy for no holds barred look at the global financial headlines if you need to cause a report. on august the nineteenth nine hundred ninety one top k.g.b.

officials in moscow orders reinforce security precautions. residents in the crimea on the same day mikhail gorbachev videotaped since become a famous address. the crew has taken place. this anti constitutional action. is based on a tremendous slide. and there was little chance of the taping taken out of the compound on the same day coast guards protecting the residence attempted to establish contact with the president as an on line of defense since i was serving in one of the k.g.b.'s 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 residents and intruders will be shot. comatose residence was secured from the sea even better than from the land. 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 got 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 feel the theme of their. day for all us had

a celebration. health resort for 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 puzzles their self of the forest result was in charge of discos and other entertainment programs. on aug nineteenth i said to students and physician look the controls president mikhail gorbachev is under arrest near here shall we cancel the dances you know she said biggest should not suffer let them dance this iteration with gorbachev doesn't concern us. moscow august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred one there it seems when sea water cannons attempt to break through to the downtown area demonstrators

damage some of them and force them to turn back. meanwhile the cool denies this 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 i drove a service car to 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. that 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 a tank to read out a message to

a large crowd that had gathered outside the white house we reclaim 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 trolley a trolley bus was left standing across the road and 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 placed fifty kilometers from trough summer residence throughout the coup first rank captain simeonoff waited for an order to rescue called much of it with the defense ministry part of the coup the rescue plan was ignored but they didn't like the first the pockets of resistance were to be suppressed the second 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. the upshot of it was that naval commanders only sent a telegram to cool off urging him to hold on and that telegram was received by luke . an employee of the forest post-office hundreds of telegrams addressed a good bunch of were arriving from all over the soviet union k.g.b. men immediately seized all such mail. those three days oldest eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth were the most 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 corps. 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 basement 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 solved it 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 actually do. 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 on the order before launching operation motley fool for. the commander asked everybody to voice their opinion on the operation and whether an assault was necessary at all. yes yes. most of the men with a service record of more than five years said no to the operation. the operation

was called off but casualties were still unavoidable in the early hours of august the twenty first ninety ninety one the crews of several armored vehicles order 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 calmer spent the night waiting for the sun shortly before the oldest events he had served as a soldier in afghanistan he went to the white house after hearing an appeal from vice president on xander and called on people to go and defend democracy are gullible slip for god when my son had to squeeze appeal he went to the barricades because that's was a call from someone who served in afghanistan two hundred ninety days before. i asked him if he was going to the barricades were going and he said no that he had

to be the fighting in afghanistan. he had no business small king around barricades but in tuesday's was a different story. on wednesday and he was no more. after that tragedy it became obvious the coup had failed tanks began leaving moscow i want to go to the twenty first a card carrying russia's vice president would spoil over token for convoys he was rushing to the airport to bring mikhail gorbachev back to moscow it was a total mess both on land and yet. with none of the ground controllers guided our flight not even jeering the landing regardless it was a trouble free flights when we touched down the airdrome superintendent drove up to the plane i introduced myself and said i needed a car and the bus to take us to gorbachev no problem call madrid he said go right ahead. good scores planes schoolbooks

off on board touchdown in moscow on august twenty second one thousand nine hundred one the coup had failed but the soviet president had in effect returned to a different country much change during those three days in august i defended the soviet union to the last bullet that's what i did what failed. the finale of the standoff central moscow ammonium. to felix region ski the founder of soviet secret police standing in front of k.g.b. headquarters and looked young to square is pulled down it was a symbol of the beginning of a new 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 the evidence that it could break and destroy anyone but this time nothing happened people had risen like a wall we said no enough white. approximately the same time the prosecutor

general's office launches an investigation into the role of the coup organizers the plotters tried to pass the blame onto crimean frontier guards. initially the team of investigators of the prosecutor general's office displayed tolerance of that then they began dropping hints urging us to repent and take the whole blame for gorbachev's isolation otherwise we would face charges of high treason and. 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 the coup 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.

of any misguided decisions were made during those three days in august one thousand nine hundred one you know that we were more tanks should not have been brought in and demonstrated or should not have been used for a few months where we might 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 his 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 and nine hundred ninety one only when new

information has been declassified livy able to shed light on. an affair for him to be frank this place is not considered to be a very lucky at all that's what bet your life. that. this is the officer on duty august twenty second one thousand nine hundred one five am boris yeltsin declares that their 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. yeltsin held for. only five months or left before the collapse of the soviet union.

all.

as you know song was sixteen years old when he committed these murders that's not inside the song so it should not be punished for his crimes sean is being punished no rational person and deny that john has been punished is been punished and will be punished. by sours must be executed for the brutal crime committed this is a punishment this is not. imagine. that it's a. constant been immersed know me whatsoever. and i didn't come here just. and heard they first. started this more. violent martin. and my that is now.