'Twelve former Soviet officials go on trial in the Russian Supreme Court on Wednesday facing a possible death sentence for plotting and staging the failed coup of August 1991.
Former Vice President Gennady Yanayev, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov and KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov are among the men who will appear at the Supreme Court's military collegium at 10 A. M. for the beginning of a trial that is expected to last for weeks.
The 12 are accused of high treason through a conspiracy to seize power. If convicted, they will be punished with a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of death under the Russian criminal code.
Starting 20 months after tanks filled Moscow's streets and an eight-man State Emergency Committee took power from President Mikhail Gorbachev, the long-awaited trial has returned to the political forefront the memory of a three-day struggle for power that ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russia as an independent state.
With only 10 days remaining before the referendum on confidence in President Boris Yeltsin's rule, the trial is likely to add to the tension for a leader who was swept to power by the coup plotter's crushing defeat.
The 12 men were arrested and jailed after their plan to introduce emergency rule failed and they were forced to surrender Aug. 21, 1991. Gorbachev, who was held hostage at his vacation home in the Crimea for three days, came back to Moscow and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
There were hopes that the plotters would be brought to justice quickly. But the public prosecutor's investigation dragged on for more than a year as each defendant acquainted himself with his file, as required by law.
While Russia's public prosecutor is likely to seek the maximum sentence, lawyers for the defendants are expected to argue that their clients cannot be accused of committing a crime against a country that no longer exists. The men are charged with "betrayal of the motherland" under article 64 of Russia's criminal code, and the definition of whether "motherland" in this case refers to the Soviet Union, Russia or both remains in dispute, according to both sides.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense would reveal their tactics before the trial. But the defendants themselves, in interviews given since their Jan. 26 release from prison, have shed light on the defense they may take -- that no coup ever took place.
Anatoly Lukyanov, the former parliament speaker and a university friend of Gorbachev's, has said that the Soviet leader knew in advance of their plans to introduce emergency rule.
He has been backed up by Pavlov, as well as Oleg Shenin, a top Communist Party official and another defendant, who told Pravda that Gorbachev had done nothing to stop the plan to introduce emergency rule.
Gorbachev, who is scheduled to testify at the trial but is at present in the United States, has vehemently denied the allegation that he had prior knowledge of the emergency measures.
An unrepentant Yanayev, the unofficial head of the coup's Emergency Committee, told interviewers recently that he had no regrets and that he had been trying to rescue the Soviet Union from collapse. The coup began only two days before Gorbachev was to sign a Union Treaty that would have turned over significant powers from the central government to the 15 Soviet republics.
For conservatives disillusioned with Yeltsin's reform program, and for those calling for a revival of the Soviet Union, the coup plotters have become a cause. Several were welcomed heartily at a Communist Party conference in February.
When Yeltsin declared war on his hardline opponents in parliament in March with an announcement of special rule, Lukyanov appeared at the White House to address the pro-Communist demonstrators gathered there. It was the first major demonstration at the White House since Muscovites mounted barricades there to defend Yeltsin and parliament from the coup plotters.
Calls for punishment have been muted since the heady days after the coup. Now, according to a public opinion poll conducted by Izvestia and published Tuesday, 41. 5 percent of 1, 032 readers questioned favored punishing the coup plotters, while 33. 9 percent were for acquittal. Only 1 percent favored the death penalty.
The pro-communist Working Moscow Party will picket the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning to provide "moral support" for the accused, according to Interfax. The accused themselves and their lawyers said they would gather at 9 A. M. outside the Ivushka cafe, on Novy Arbat, to make a statement, and then proceed together to the court on Ulitsa Vorovskogo.
The trial has been closed to all but a handful of Russian press, causing an outcry among Russian and foreign journalists. Only journalists and camera crews from Russia's main broadcast media, news agencies and seven main newspapers will be allowed in. Those admitted include Ostankino and Russian television, Mayak Radio, Itar-Tass, Interfax, Izvestia, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Pravda, Moskovskaya Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, Yuridicheskaya Gazeta and Trud. The Foreign Correspondents Association has sent letters to Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and others asking the decision to exclude foreign journalists be reversed.
The accused, aside from Yanayev, Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Lukyanov, Yazov and Shenin, are: Yury Plekhanov, the former KGB guard chief; Vyacheslav Generalov, Plekhanov's deputy; Oleg Baklanov, the Communist Party secretary in charge of the military-industrial complex; Valentin Varennikov, army commander; Alexander Tizyakov, the former head of the state enterprise association; and Vasily Starodubtsev, the head of the Peasant's Union.
Yanayev, Lukyanov, Kryuchkov, Yazov, Plekhanov and Generalov also face charges of exceeding their authority.
Former Vice President Gennady Yanayev, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov and KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov are among the men who will appear at the Supreme Court's military collegium at 10 A. M. for the beginning of a trial that is expected to last for weeks.
The 12 are accused of high treason through a conspiracy to seize power. If convicted, they will be punished with a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of death under the Russian criminal code.
Starting 20 months after tanks filled Moscow's streets and an eight-man State Emergency Committee took power from President Mikhail Gorbachev, the long-awaited trial has returned to the political forefront the memory of a three-day struggle for power that ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russia as an independent state.
With only 10 days remaining before the referendum on confidence in President Boris Yeltsin's rule, the trial is likely to add to the tension for a leader who was swept to power by the coup plotter's crushing defeat.
The 12 men were arrested and jailed after their plan to introduce emergency rule failed and they were forced to surrender Aug. 21, 1991. Gorbachev, who was held hostage at his vacation home in the Crimea for three days, came back to Moscow and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
There were hopes that the plotters would be brought to justice quickly. But the public prosecutor's investigation dragged on for more than a year as each defendant acquainted himself with his file, as required by law.
While Russia's public prosecutor is likely to seek the maximum sentence, lawyers for the defendants are expected to argue that their clients cannot be accused of committing a crime against a country that no longer exists. The men are charged with "betrayal of the motherland" under article 64 of Russia's criminal code, and the definition of whether "motherland" in this case refers to the Soviet Union, Russia or both remains in dispute, according to both sides.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense would reveal their tactics before the trial. But the defendants themselves, in interviews given since their Jan. 26 release from prison, have shed light on the defense they may take -- that no coup ever took place.
Anatoly Lukyanov, the former parliament speaker and a university friend of Gorbachev's, has said that the Soviet leader knew in advance of their plans to introduce emergency rule.
He has been backed up by Pavlov, as well as Oleg Shenin, a top Communist Party official and another defendant, who told Pravda that Gorbachev had done nothing to stop the plan to introduce emergency rule.
Gorbachev, who is scheduled to testify at the trial but is at present in the United States, has vehemently denied the allegation that he had prior knowledge of the emergency measures.
An unrepentant Yanayev, the unofficial head of the coup's Emergency Committee, told interviewers recently that he had no regrets and that he had been trying to rescue the Soviet Union from collapse. The coup began only two days before Gorbachev was to sign a Union Treaty that would have turned over significant powers from the central government to the 15 Soviet republics.
For conservatives disillusioned with Yeltsin's reform program, and for those calling for a revival of the Soviet Union, the coup plotters have become a cause. Several were welcomed heartily at a Communist Party conference in February.
When Yeltsin declared war on his hardline opponents in parliament in March with an announcement of special rule, Lukyanov appeared at the White House to address the pro-Communist demonstrators gathered there. It was the first major demonstration at the White House since Muscovites mounted barricades there to defend Yeltsin and parliament from the coup plotters.
Calls for punishment have been muted since the heady days after the coup. Now, according to a public opinion poll conducted by Izvestia and published Tuesday, 41. 5 percent of 1, 032 readers questioned favored punishing the coup plotters, while 33. 9 percent were for acquittal. Only 1 percent favored the death penalty.
The pro-communist Working Moscow Party will picket the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning to provide "moral support" for the accused, according to Interfax. The accused themselves and their lawyers said they would gather at 9 A. M. outside the Ivushka cafe, on Novy Arbat, to make a statement, and then proceed together to the court on Ulitsa Vorovskogo.
The trial has been closed to all but a handful of Russian press, causing an outcry among Russian and foreign journalists. Only journalists and camera crews from Russia's main broadcast media, news agencies and seven main newspapers will be allowed in. Those admitted include Ostankino and Russian television, Mayak Radio, Itar-Tass, Interfax, Izvestia, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Pravda, Moskovskaya Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, Yuridicheskaya Gazeta and Trud. The Foreign Correspondents Association has sent letters to Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and others asking the decision to exclude foreign journalists be reversed.
The accused, aside from Yanayev, Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Lukyanov, Yazov and Shenin, are: Yury Plekhanov, the former KGB guard chief; Vyacheslav Generalov, Plekhanov's deputy; Oleg Baklanov, the Communist Party secretary in charge of the military-industrial complex; Valentin Varennikov, army commander; Alexander Tizyakov, the former head of the state enterprise association; and Vasily Starodubtsev, the head of the Peasant's Union.
Yanayev, Lukyanov, Kryuchkov, Yazov, Plekhanov and Generalov also face charges of exceeding their authority.
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