“He flew drunk,” – this is how the former vice-president of Russia and major general of aviation Alexander Rutskoi described the state of the first president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin after the signing of the Belovezhskaya agreements on December 8, 1991, which led to the collapse of the USSR.
In an interview with Ukraine.Ru, he also said that Yeltsin deceived him, saying that he was flying to Belarus to establish economic ties, and Rutskoi learned about the Belovezhskaya agreements from radio messages and could not get through to the boss.
When Rutskoi, according to the protocol, met Yeltsin at the airport, then, according to him, Yeltsin responded to his indignation by deceit that he “assumed” the reaction of his deputy to the truth. “If I told you that we are flying to sign an agreement on the termination of the existence of the Soviet Union … your reaction … could lead to the failure of the signing,” Rutskoi quoted Yeltsin as saying.
And he continued: when he asked Yeltsin who authorized him to sign the agreements, he replied that he was a top official and “did not need authorization”.
Then Rutskoi, according to him, went to the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and called on him to save the country, saying that “there is a Criminal Code, the KGB and the prosecutor’s office.” “So what are you, what is the reaction? He started talking nonsense … You should have seen him. He was shaking all over, he was pale, sweating, “- says Rutskoi. And he added that he understood: there was nothing to talk about and left.
As a reminder, on December 8, 1991, the top leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Treaty on the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This act went down in history as the “Belovezhskaya Agreement”. On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced the termination of his activities as head of the USSR and signed a decree transferring control of nuclear weapons to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Source: Rosbalt
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
