Jonathan Marks pieces together how news of the “coup” was disseminated, how it was picked up in the West and what it says about the Soviet media, both state and private. The programme includes the official Radio Moscow announcement that President Gorbachev was “too ill” to carry on. Former Radio Moscow journalist Vasily Strelnikov is interviewed extensively about the way the Soviet media operated in “crisis situations”.
Presenter: Jonathan Marks
Broadcast: August 20, 1992