Vladimir Putin played a crucial role in stopping a violent confrontation in 1991 between KGB hardliners and Russia's emerging democratic movement in St Petersburg by striking a deal which helped to guarantee the security service's future in the country's second biggest city.
In August 1991, Soviet hardliners rushed to arrest Mikhail Gorbachev and halt perestroika, which signalled the end of the USSR.
Tanks were on the streets of Moscow. In St Petersburg, the democratic movement, led by Anatoli Sobchak, the then mayor, formed an operations center to try and keep a grip on the city.
The local KGB and military, however, did not take to the streets and Sobchak, who was at the time served by a young, unknown deputy called Vladimir Putin, began frantic negotiations with the military. Days later, once the coup attempt had failed in Moscow, the military and KGB still had not risen up.
According to a liberal MP and two close friends of Putin from his days in St Petersburg, Putin played a seminal role in ensuring that the two sides did not come to blows. It also ensured that the KGB, to whom he pledged allegiance 12 years earlier, would not feel its influence diminish in the years of democratic change that were to come.
The liberal MP said, on condition of anonymity: "Sobchak and the local KGB head spoke over the phone and agreed to help each other out." Two friends of Putin confirmed that he had arranged the call.
Putin has maintained he was on holiday in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad at the start of the crisis and rushed back to help Sobchak as soon as he learnt of the coup attempt. He has never spoken about the telephone call.
Defenders will seize upon the disclosure as evidence of Putin's abilities as a behind-the-scenes deal broker and his commitment to peace and stability in Russia. Critics will see it as a demonstration of his lifelong devotion to the KGB and that democracy came to his hometown of St Petersburg with its powers unharmed.
The timing of Putin's departure from the KGB is unclear. He has maintained that he left in 1991, before the coup attempt, although an unauthorized biography by an alleged former colleague said he remained an employee during the August revolution.
The disclosure comes just over a fortnight before Putin's expected re-election as president to a second term, with Washington and the EU questioning his commitment to democracy in Russia.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was