Sean Guillory's blog has a wonderful, terrifying review of an article explaining how the goals of the August 1991 putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev have been realized under the rule of Vladimir Putin, indicating that the Russian people in fact supported the putschists goals even as they resisted their immediate methods.

The author writes chillingly: "A decade and a half after the attempted coup, Russia in many respects looks as if the coup plotters has succeeded. Many of their aims have been achieved and most of the plotters have had successful careers. Their primary objective, preservation of the union, was not achieved, but this was not a realistic goal short of war. Much of the rest of the agenda outlined in the GKChP’s 'Appeal to the Soviet People' sounds remarkably similar to Putin’s policies."

And indeed, what more could the anti-Gorbachev forces have asked for than a proud KGB spy taking the reins of power? Sean asks: "When evaluating the type of resistance that ordinary Russian practiced in 1991, we must also ponder what it was all worth when it came to building a society from the rubble of the Soviet project."