Moscow
Saddam Hussein awarded one of his country’s highest honors to two former Soviet generals just days before the war began, the Russian media reported this week. The retired generals, Vladimir Achalov and Igor Maltsev, are both communist hard-liners who were part of the failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. In Baghdad this year, they apparently helped Iraqi forces prepare plans to defend against the U.S. invasion. Achalov ducked questions from the Russian Web newspaper Gazeta.ru about why the two received Iraqi medals, saying only, “We didn’t fly to Baghdad to drink coffee.” The Soviets had close military ties to Iraq, but it is unclear whether the current Russian government knew of the two men’s activities.
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