Anatoly Lukyanov, ex-Soviet parliament speaker, dies at 88

MOSCOW — Anatoly Lukyanov, the speaker of the Soviet parliament who joined a hard-line coup that precipitated the Soviet collapse, has died at 88.

Russia’s Channel One state television said Lukyanov died Wednesday. It didn’t specify the cause of his death.

In the 1980s, Lukyanov, a senior Communist Party official, became a key associate of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1989, Lukyanov was elected the speaker of the Soviet parliament, which served as a stage for the intense political infighting that marked the waning years of the Soviet Union.

In August 1991, Lukyanov teamed up with other top Soviet officials to stage a botched coup against Gorbachev. Lukyanov was imprisoned along with others after the coup failed, but was amnestied the next year after the Soviet Union had collapsed. He later served as a member of the Russian parliament.

The Associated Press

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