Vodka putsch

Hoy vi un comentario muy bueno sobre la caída de la URSS. Siempre se debate sobre sus causas, pero hay 2 versiones que predominan:
a) Que se cayó por su propia incompetencia e ineficiencia, intrínseca al socialismo.
b) Que lo derrotó EEUU, específicamente Reagan con su desafiante plan de defensa.
El artículo destinado en su primer párrafo sortea el vericueto con elegancia:

The Soviet Union collapsed under it's own weight, helped along with a shove from one of our nation's greatest Presidents, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Estaba leyendo además el artículo de wiki sobre Yeltsin, de rol protagónico en toda esta intriga del vodka putsch. Me pareció sumamente gracioso el apartado sobre sus problemas de alcoholismo, donde hay algunas anécdotas:

According to numerous reports, Yeltsin was a heavy drinker. Moreover, his alcoholism played a role in significant decisions that had effect on Russia and the whole world:

In 1989, Yeltsin went to the USA to give a series of speeches on social and political life in the Soviet Union. That trip was described by a scandalous publication in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. The article reported that Yeltsin often appeared drunk in public. The article was reprinted by Pravda.
According to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, President Bill Clinton was exposed to Yeltsin's alcoholism in their first phone call when Yeltsin called to congratulate him on Inauguration Day in 1993. Yeltsin was drunk. He was drunk again during the first summit meeting they had with Clinton in Vancouver. Talbott recalls that Yeltsin was so drunk when he arrived in the airport in September 1994 that he could barely get off the plane. The same night Yeltsin was staggering around in his underpants shouting for pizza. According to Talbott, that was a huge problem, and they did their best not to add to the public embarrassment. Phone calls to Yeltsin had to be timed to increase the probability to get him sober. During the Kosovo bombing, Yeltsin, who was obviously drunk, suggested that he and Clinton meet on a submarine.
On 30th September 1994, he was supposed to be meeting Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, Ireland's leader. He failed to get off the aircraft, leaving his Irish hosts standing there. Officially he was tired and ill. BBC report
The portrayal of Yeltsin as a drunk in TV show "Kukly" by Victor Shenderovich led to a criminal investigation, which was later dropped.
Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist, commented in the Moscow Times on April 13, 1999:
"I have seen President Boris Yeltsin drunk and I'm pretty sure I have seen him sober, but unless he does something obvious like singing or falling over, it takes a while to decide: both his body language and his speech patterns tend to blur the issue."

El vodka no se mancha!