The picture was unsettling. The policemen who had been so visible in previous days had disappeared from the streets. Near City Hall, Muscovites loyal to Yeltsin were scurrying around, carrying pieces of rusted metal, street benches, and other junk, just to do something to protect the building. Since the August 1991 coup attempt, Muscovites have become experienced in the construction of barricades. But this was a purely symbolic exercise.
Barricades are meaningless in the era of tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Red Square smelled of gasoline. Someone had put a huge container of gasoline near the entrance to the radio station called Echo Moskvy, the station that made its reputation in August 1991, when it was nearly the only continuing source of information. We just remember the time of the coup. Moscow nights are pretty cold and we might need a fire. Later I would think of this defenseless crowd and the few police officers I saw sitting indifferently in their cars.