The Moscow coup in 1991:
Landsbergis soon took a call from the Soviet army’s Baltic district. “We are the power now,” said the voice

The author of this article is Mr. Neil Buckley, Financial Times' Eastern Europe Editor.

Shortly after 6am on August 19 1991, Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania’s pro-independence leader, received a phone call. A colleague gave him news from Moscow. There had been a coup; Mikhail Gorbachev was under arrest.

Mr Landsbergis had feared something like this since Lithuania became the first Soviet state to declare independence, unrecognised by Moscow, a year earlier. He soon took a call from the Soviet army’s Baltic district. “We are the power now,” said the voice.

Yet little over 48 hours later, the coup collapsed; within months, so did the Soviet Union. Mr Landsbergis set Lithuania on the path to Nato and European Union membership. At 78, he now sits in the European parliament. His view of Lithuania’s transformation is hard-headed, however. “It could have happened even sooner,” says Mr Landsbergis, “if only Russia had succeeded in building a European democracy.”

These are the opening phrases from an article written by Neil Buckley in the Financial Times. The article is recommended by VilNews. To read the full text, go to:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/005007d6-c9b2-11e0-b88b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1X9SJXb7z