20 years ago this week, the failed August Coup took place in Moscow, when Soviet hardliners attempted to oust Mikhail Gorbachev, and were themselves overcome by Boris Yeltsin, setting the stage for the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. The events remain controversial, and within Russia the anniversary went by largely unnoticed and unmarked — an indication of the ambivalence with which the Putin/Medvedev government views those events. Below, some of the best links.

• Russia downplays anniversary of 1991 coup — AFP
• New light shed on 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup – How it unfolded — BBC News
• New light shed on 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup – Doomed from the start? — BBC News
• Gorbachev says Putin ‘castrated’ democracy in Russia – BBC News
• Twenty years after the Soviet coup, Russia takes a hard look in the mirror — RT
• Coup ‘was doomed’ says Russian parliament speaker — RIA Novosti
• Russia remembers 1991 USSR coup — RTÉ News
• The K.G.B.’s Bathhouse Plot — The New York Times
• A very Russian coup –Russia & India Report