Unsurprisingly, Putin and His Media Ignore Anniversary of August 1991 Coup Attempt, Malgin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 20 – In contrast to earlier years, Vladimir Putin and the media his regime controlled have completely ignored the anniversary of the failed August 1991 coup attempt that ushered in what the Kremlin leader has called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20^th century, Andrey Malgin says.

            Some might explain this by the rush of other news from Kursk and elsewhere and by the fact that this was the 33^rd anniversary of that event and thus not a “round” anniversary, the Russian commentator says (moscowtimes.ru/2024/08/20/avgust-1991-go-po-putinski-pobeda-demokratii-ili-katastrofa-a139863).

            But the real explanation, Malgin says, is that any talk about the events of 1991 now is both too late and too soon, too late in that Putin’s own policies give lie to earlier claims that post-Soviet Russia was on the path to democracy as coup opponents hoped and too soon in that Russia is not yet again what the coup plotters wanted – and what Putin himself wants.

            If Putin remains in power and gets his way, the August 1991 coup will have succeeded, albeit after an interval of three decades; and when that happens, Putin or his successors will put up monuments to the coup plotters as the forefathers of what the current Kremlin leader has always promoted as well.