On 20 August 1991, following the hard-line Communist putsch in Moscow, Alain Peyrefitte comments in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro on the reasons behind the forced removal from office of Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR.

On 22 August 1991, Boris Yeltsin, President of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, addresses the Russian Parliament in Moscow following the failure of the putsch incited by Soviet military and political leaders against Mikhail Gorbachev.

Following the coup d’état in the Soviet Union, the Foreign Ministers of the European Economic Community, meeting in The Hague on 20 August 1991, decide to suspend the aid granted by the EEC to the USSR until Mikhail Gorbachev is restored as Soviet Head of State.

Dans ses Mémoires, Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, ancien président de l'URSS, commente l'échec de la tentative de putsch organisé en août 1991 par des hauts fonctionnaires de l'État et du Parti communiste soviétique.

In his memoirs, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former German Foreign Minister, refers to the attempted coup d’état in the Soviet Union in August 1991 and focuses on the demands for independence in the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) which are becoming increasingly strident.

On 23 August 1991, following the failure of the coup d'état spearheaded by members of the Soviet military and political elite, Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, addresses the Duma, lower house of the Soviet Parliament.

On 26 August 1991, commenting on the failed putsch led by conservative leaders against President Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow the week before, the German daily newspaper Der Spiegel assesses Gorbatchev's political strategies and considers the role of Boris Yeltsin, Russia's new President.

On 27 August 1991, the French daily newspaper Le Monde speculates on the possible collapse of the Soviet Union in the light of the declarations of independence made by several republics and the gradual disintegration of the Communist Party.

On 18 August 2001, 10 years after the coup d’état in the Soviet Union, the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité considers the varied reactions of Western countries to the putsch: the United States and the United Kingdom strongly supported Boris Yeltsin; Germany called for Gorbachev’s return to power; and France firstly took the side of Gennady Yanayev and his putschist junta before giving its support to the Russian President, Yeltsin.