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When Putin feared imprisonment

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW Sept. 1. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, disapproved of Mikhail Gorbachev's kowtowing to the West, but feared the Communist coup against the reformist Soviet leader in 1991 could land him in prison.

"It was crystal clear to me that our unilateral disarmament in all spheres (in front of the West) augured ill for us," Mr. Putin was quoted as saying in the book Vladimir Putin: Road to Power, which is due for release. When hardliners in the Soviet leadership staged a coup attempt in August 1991, Mr. Putin was a senior aide to the anti-Communist Mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak.It was then that Mr. Putin made his "moral" choice and quit KGB, whose head was among the putschists.

Mr. Putin was sure that the putschists, had they triumphed, would not forgive him his work for the liberal administration of St. Petersburg. ``Frankly speaking, I thought then: If the coup plotters triumph and they don't put me behind bars, how am I going to feed my family?!'' he said. "To tell the truth, I thought of becoming a taxi driver."

The coup failed and Mr. Putin continued his career which landed him in the Kremlin. The new book is the second volume in a trilogy written by the journalist, Oleg Blotsky.

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