Summary
Overview
This episode examines Vladimir Putin's trajectory during the final days of the Soviet Union, focusing on the August 1991 coup attempt that changed Russian history. Expert Mark Gagliotti joins to discuss the chaotic three-day coup by hardliners attempting to remove Gorbachev, the unexpected resistance led by Boris Yeltsin, and Putin's murky role during this pivotal moment. The episode draws parallels between the failed 1991 coup and Prigozhin's 2023 mutiny, revealing how both events caught intelligence services completely off guard.
Setting the Scene: Putin Between Collapsing Regimes
The episode opens with Putin's return from East Germany after its regime collapse, only to find himself in an equally unstable Soviet Union. The hosts establish the context for examining the August 1991 coup, which would prove to be the pivotal moment ending Soviet rule. They introduce expert Mark Gagliotti to explore this critical period when Putin's career hung in the balance alongside his country's fate.
- Putin returns to Soviet Union from collapsed East German regime, unknowingly heading toward another collapse
- August 1991 coup by hardliners trying to remove Gorbachev was not predicted by observers
- Soviet Union showed signs of stress but no one expected the sudden coup attempt
The Unexpected Coup: Intelligence Failure and Improvisation
Mark Gagliotti reveals he was in Russia just before the coup and that neither Western intelligence nor Russian experts saw it coming. Even Defense Intelligence staff were caught watching CNN for updates on the morning of the coup. The coup plotters themselves were surprisingly unprepared, assuming their authority would be automatically accepted without needing detailed planning, much like Putin's later miscalculation with Ukraine in 2022.
- Gagliotti interviewed embassies in Moscow shortly before coup; no one predicted it would happen in August
- British Defence Intelligence staff were watching CNN for updates the morning of the coup, having no advance intelligence
- MI6 station in Moscow noticed surveillance withdrawn the evening before, an unusual signal something was happening
- Coup was haphazard and improvised, with plotters assuming decades of Soviet rule meant automatic obedience
" I still believe rather perversely that Russia owes me a coup. So someday I expect to be able to collect on that. "
" So we're watching CNN. So in other words, they were basically in exactly the same position at that point. "
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