Mr. Gorbachev's future role in bringing about stability is uncertain. In a dramatic climax to the coup of Monday, August 19, in Moscow, the hard-liners who took power were forced to capitulate yesterday by protesters and a determined Russian Parliament led by Boris Yeltsin, the president of Russia. He seemed to tower over the hard-liners during the standoff and now emerges easily as the most powerful man in the nation. The Kremlin has been trying for months to keep Mr. Yeltsin from becoming prime minister, but he is still widely seen here as an obstacle to his own political survival. His future role in bringing about stability is uncertain given public opinion that Gorbachev himself created the possibilities for the coup.
In a dramatic climax to the coup of Monday, August 19, in Moscow, the hard-liners who took power were forced to capitulate yesterday by protesters and a determined Russian Parliament led by Boris Yeltsin, the president of Russia. He seemed to tower over the hard-liners during the standoff and now emerges easily as the most powerful man in the nation. The Kremlin has been trying for months to keep Mr. Yeltsin from becoming prime minister, but he is still widely seen here as an obstacle to his own political survival. His future role in bringing about stability is uncertain given public opinion that Gorbachev himself created the possibilities for the coup.