Moscow, December 25, 1991

This would be another global exclusive. As flights in and out of Tbilisi are not operating, a CNN producer in Moscow calls a pilot contact in the Russian air force to make the two-and-a-half-hour flight to Tbilisi and return with the tape immediately. The pilot, a small man in a large fur hat, says he will do it for $10,000 cash. Tom Johnson gives him $5,000 and promises the other half when he returns. The pilot does not show up again for twenty-four hours, by which time BBC has broadcast its own interview with Gamsakhurdia and the CNN Moscow office has broadcast a copy of Amanpour’s interview acquired from a courier who came on a regular flight from another airport in Georgia. When the tardy pilot at last arrives, he demands the other $5,000. CNN staff at first decline, but as he is accompanied by two large, menacing bodyguards, they come to the conclusion it might be unwise to refuse. According to Ghitis, “We paid the money, received the tape, and put it in the trash. The new Russian capitalism was making its way into the old Soviet Union.”

Chapter 27 DECEMBER 26: THE DAY AFTER

The morning of December 26, 1991, is sunny but much colder. The temperature has dropped to 22 degrees Fahrenheit, and icicles have formed beneath the snowcovered roof of the presidential dacha. Gorbachev wakes to find that the Zil limousine is no longer waiting for him in the driveway. Another Yeltsin promise—that he can retain his presidential transport until December 29—has not been kept. With some difficulty Gorbachev’s guards manage to get a spare Zil that, as Chernyaev notes acidly, is “kindly” provided by Yeltsin, so that Gorbachev can return to the Kremlin, where he also has three days’ grace, or so he believes, to clear out his desk and keep last-minute appointments.

The new ruler is making Gorbachev aware of his dependency on the Russian presidential whim. Yeltsin has ordered his security chief, Korzhakov, to single out Gorbachev’s guards and drivers for harassment to make the family leave the dacha as quickly as possible. His rationale, he claims later, is that as sole president he must commandeer the presidential residence right away, no matter what he promised. Barvikha-4 has a military command post and all the communications for the country’s top leader. The supreme commander of the country’s military forces cannot be somewhere without facilities for the nuclear button and the accompanying colonels.

Notwithstanding his new civilian status, Gorbachev is still conveyed at a terrific pace along the reserved center lane of Kutuzovsky Prospekt in the borrowed Zil, with police cars before and behind. When he arrives in the Kremlin, where the Russian flag is fluttering over the Senate cupola, he finds that the attitude of the Kremlin guards, normally deferential, has become distinctly surly. When Andrey Grachev and Anatoly Chernyaev turn up to help Gorbachev with his final duties, they too are made aware that the security people and ancillary staff are under new orders. Grachev observes how they are rudely and deliberately making Gorbachev aware of the change in his status.

The loyal aides are struck by how drawn and out of sorts Gorbachev looks. He is hung over and fighting the aches and discomfort that accompany a bout of flu. Aside from the crushing blow of being forced out of office, he has to concern himself with the emotional turmoil affecting Raisa and the physical disruption in their personal life. He broods about the way he is being kicked out of office as “most uncivilized, in the worst inherited Soviet traditions.”

“They are throwing me out of the dacha, and they are taking the car away,” Gorbachev complains angrily as he enters his office, where a brass plaque on the door still proclaims, “M. S. Gorbachev, President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,” and the red flag remains in place behind his desk.

Chernyaev again wonders why Gorbachev still wants to use the presidential office in the Kremlin. It is a temptation for his foes to treat him with disrespect. But he finds it difficult to contradict Gorbachev at such a sensitive time. “He is stubborn and I’m not comfortable to be sharp with him while arguing. He might think that I am being too cheeky, now that he is not a president anymore.”