Nightline (ABC) - 1991-08-21 (partial)

Name: Nightline (ABC) - 1991-08-21 (partial)
Uploaded: 2025-08-25
Duration: 1628 s
Channel: malgent
Description: Read a transcript preview of “Nightline (ABC) - 1991-08-21 (partial)” from malgent, uploaded on 2025-08-25.

Channel: malgent

Uploaded: 2025-08-25

Duration: PT1628S

Read a transcript preview of “Nightline (ABC) - 1991-08-21 (partial)” from malgent, uploaded on 2025-08-25.

Transcript preview

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:02] Tomorrow, join us for continued coverage

[0:04] of the crisis in the Soviet Union. And

[0:06] back home, the challenges of preserving

[0:08] Yellowstone Park on Good Morning America

[0:10] tomorrow.

[0:13] [Music]

[0:15] Joining us now live from his home in

[0:17] Tennessee, the man who until 10 days ago

[0:19] was the US Ambassador here in Moscow and

[0:22] who is now an ABC News analyst and

[0:24] consultant to ABC News, Ambassador Jack

[0:27] Matlock. And joining me here in Moscow,

[0:30] a man who until June of this year was

[0:32] deputy spokesman for President Mikhail

[0:34] Gorbachev and is now an analyst of

[0:36] Soviet affairs

[0:38] and that is Sergei Grigoriev. Mr.

[0:41] Grigoriev, the truth now. Are you

[0:43] surprised by how quickly this thing was

[0:45] turned around?

[0:47] Well, I think that on Monday, on the

[0:50] first day of the coup, we all knew it

[0:52] will not last for a long time. We're

[0:55] surprised. My prediction was it's going

[0:56] to be all over by next Monday. It's all

[0:59] over even earlier, but it's because of

[1:01] the people here that showed magnificent

[1:03] things and magnificent courage as well

[1:05] as Boris Yeltsin

[1:07] and his people who really knew well how

[1:09] to organize and mobilize people. Tell me

[1:10] something. Why do you think that the men

[1:13] who held power for only 3 and 1/2 days

[1:15] as it turned out did not mobilize the

[1:17] military, use the military and arrest

[1:20] Yeltsin right away? Well, first of all,

[1:23] I think that the plotters were trying to

[1:25] use the old kind of mentality. They

[1:28] thought that fear is enough, that the

[1:29] germ of fear in the Soviet people is so

[1:32] strong that they can do everything. And

[1:34] the other reason, and it's the main

[1:36] re