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Radio War Nerd #263 — Yeltsin's 1993 Coup, Part Four: The Apologists (Patreon)

Published:
2021-01-19 00:36:50
Imported:
2026-06
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Recorded: January 14, 2021

The final part of our series on Yeltsin's 1993 coup, we look at the aftermath — the end of Russia's democracy, a constitution making the presidency a near dictator, all fully backed by Washington DC. And we look at the coup's apologists in the US media: New York Times, Washington Post, and above all, the New Yorker's David Remnick. We also pay tribute to the late Stephen Cohen, Rest In Power...

First, we discuss Dublin junkies & the January 6 CoupAnon...

-At 26:45 we recap the last day of Yeltsin's coup, October 4, 1993, and the bloody days immediately following...and then we turn our attention to the US Establishment media's shameless support for Yeltsin's coup...

*Photos

*Arrested parliament defenders leaving the White House

*Parliament Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov and Vice President Alexander Rutskoi

*Memorial to the dead near the White House

*Graffiti outside White House: "Yeltsin, where'd you hide the corpses?"

*The Paper of Record

*New Yorker editor David Remnick

Check out the rest of our RWN series on Yeltsin's 1993 coup: Part One (EP #260) , Part Two (EP #261), and Part Three (EP #262).

Total time: 2:01:01

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

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Comments

ploob

Hey WarNerd & Ghost, have you checked out QAA? Right here on Patreon, great deep dive into Qanon from a "secular" perspective. Great deep dive into the cult, where it came from and where it is headed. Love your work

Animals in Motion

Great series! To be that little weasel who gives the devil his due, I guess from the elite point of view, it's amazing that the USSR-era was wind down with such "little violence" - you have the brutal civil war in the Balkans of course, and then this massacre. But if you listen to elite opinion and mainstream political history on this, the relative lack of violence is always the "triumph" of diplomacy or statecraft that they'll mention.

Benjamin Cheney

Great intro- was a riveting commute soundtrack- can’t wait to finish the saga when I am done with work! In the meantime, if anyone wants to get too familiar with the abyss I thoroughly recommend QAnon Anonymous

Hugh

Fascinating listening to John react to the visible denizens of Dublin like a 19th century New York protestant observing Irish immigrants.

Hugh

Seconding the Q Anon Anonymous recommendation

Paul Vd

It's a shame that Yeltsin and his crew blew up the historic Russian empire. The world worked far better with 2 major economic blocs rather than this hyper globalist hellscape that we have now. Now it's the new Russians job to put it back together again. Maybe they can build a new Eastern bloc. China sure won't. China is a Anglophile wanna be. They had a chance to build a new Eastern bloc but chose to jump in bed with the US empire instead. China and Russia could have built their own airliners and anything else that they needed. Instead China builds 737 Max's. How pathetic.

Kevin Walsh

As a non-Dub who has spent a lot of time in Dublin, the funniest thing for me was the pronunciation of Ha'penny. For reasons that are obscure to me, the start of it is pronounced like hay. On the subject of cultural differences between Belfast and Dublin, I have been told that people charged with minor criminal offences in Belfast turn up to court in their good clothes while similar people in Dublin absolutely do not. As far as immigrants go, there are a fair number of immigrants working in tech or, I imagine, finance, but there are also a lot of them working in the service industry, the trades, and places like print shops, meat-packing plants, etc.

Blaz Kelbl

This episode is making me just sad.

Ellen Harold

It is almost too painful to listen to. I have been taking it in small doses. Kudos to Mark and John.

Jed Hovey

I think the argument about different Christian/religious history in the US is almost beside the point. It's much more accurate to talk about how the political right in the US has weaponized Christianity in the name of anti communism going clear back to the turn of the 20th century. It's nothing new, and capitalist forces long ago realized that Christians were ripe for exploitation.

mark

Excellent episodes. Chechnya wars next!?

Scorched Earth

This is probably why Cuba is still a communist nation. They actually saw what happened to Russia when it tried to go democratic and they were probably thinking (and rightly so) that the Americans will try to medal in their politics if they were to go democratic too. The last thing the Cubans want is another American backed Fulgencio Batista wannabe.

Galerkin

The fact that people, even Stephen Cohen, thought the "reforms" had anything to do with "democracy" is seriously depressing. I don't know why Mark and John are so uncharacteristically uncritical on this. Do you guys seriously believe(d) that the intention was to introduce "democracy", whatever that means?

Matthias Höck

Great series. Makes me think that there must have been a lot of Russians wanting some retaliation against the Clintons. Not necessarily Putin, but some Oligarch hiring spooks that looked for a lucrative side job (like some Austrian BVT spooks worked for/with Wirecard). Would have been quite easy to be effective, just look at this story: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/macedonian-fake-news-industry-and-the-2016-us-election/79F67A4F23148D230F120A3BD7E3384F

online Leftist Archive Project (LARP)

I read Lenin's Tomb and Resurrection in high school, and I (even as a teenager) noticed that he cribbed BIG passages from Lenin's Tomb in Resurrection. Like entire paragraphs. Is that self-plagiarism?

Jim Vail

Thank god the US is democratic. Biden or Trump. Deep state or right wing. Austerity or rich tax breaks.

Jim Vail

I would argue just the opposite here. Media like David Remnick and WaPo or NYTimes reporters didn't get it wrong on US imperial nightmares like Iraq War or Russia. They got it right for the editors and publishers who own their media. These media work for capitalists, not the people. That is why rather than lose their jobs they get promoted.

Lauren Giniger

it's striking how absolutely mediocre everyone who has smeared, Cohen, Robert Fisk and Seymour Hersh.

David Andrews

Highly informative series. It's odd that none of this history is mentioned when Russian election interference takes place today.

Jim Vail

One thing about Alexander Cockburn's asking Mark if Remnick was CIA. Cockburn & St. Claire wrote a brilliant book about the CIA called Whiteout how the agency infiltrated governments and media. When I was reporting in Russia I ended up talking to some mysterious shady Romanian diplomat of Greek descent who told me Bill Gallagher the Chicago Tribune correspondent in Moscow in the 90s was CIA. I didn't follow up.

Evan Lichty

Mark, I really, really appreciate you giving this story such a thorough treatment; and it's connections to today, the same damn people, are right on. This is the 'straight dope' as some of us millenials say. You were there at the coup when I was playing with GI Joes, reproducing my own tiny microcosm of American hegemony. Hindsight is very important, see. Indeed, I now have a growing interest in the Soviet century. RWN is helping me keep my eyes open.

Henry Nichols

I was hoping the quote from the IMF director would come back up in this episode. Now I can’t find where it was first referenced. I think episode 3. Anybody have a timestamp approximately? Incredible series by the way. Really, feel like I learned more about modern Russia from this than anything else I’ve heard or read.