Former Soviet president and Nobel laureate Mikhail Gorbachev has spoken out in defence of democracy in Russia on the 30th anniversary of the hardline communist coup against him and his sweeping reforms.
"I believe that the democratic path is the only right one for Russia's development as it is the only way the country can move forward and solve its problems," the 90-year-old said in Moscow on Wednesday.
Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of the attempted coup by communist hardliners against Gorbachev in 1991, which, had it succeeded, would almost certainly have brought Gorbachev's experiment with democracy and free speech to a sudden end.
The seven coup leaders attempted to preserve the Soviet system at any cost, but ultimately failed due to the unexpected resistance of Muscovites and the actions of then Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
"People did not want a return to the former order," Gorbachev said.
On taking office as general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985, Gorbachev began a programme of reforms in the Soviet Union that he termed glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reconstruction).
"The democratic institutions that emerged as a result of perestroika survived the test," he said, looking back on the coup. However, under President Vladimir Putin, who was first elected more than 20 years ago, Gorbachev repeatedly complained of democratic backsliding.
In his statement on the anniversary of the coup, Gorbachev once again made it clear that he had intended to preserve the Soviet Union. On the one hand, he blamed the coup leaders for the disintegration of the USSR, but also condemned the then leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus who had sealed the end of the Soviet Union in what Gorbachev called a "conspiracy" in December 1991.
As the Soviet Union no longer existed, Gorbachev found himself out of a job and the sceptre of power in the Kremlin was passed to Yeltsin. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, of which Gorbachev is a co-owner, devoted its entire 24-page issue on Wednesday to the coup's failure.
