Commander in Chief of Russian invasion of Afghanistan dies

Russian Gen. Valentin Varennikov dies at 85

Former General Valentin Varennikov, who led the Soviet war in Afghanistan and later backed the 1991 coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, has died aged 85.
He died on Wednesday at Moscow's Burdenko military hospital after recovering from a neurosurgery operation he underwent in January.
Varennikov joined the Red Army during the World War II and rose steadily through the ranks.
He directed the Soviet Union's highly controversial occupation Afghanistan from 1984-1989, which ended with the mass withdrawal of Communist forces shortly before the end of the Cold War, due to a huge guerrilla resistance campaign orchestrated between the CIA and local mujahadeen fighters (see Charlie Wilson's War for the details of this fascinating episode).

In August 1991 Varennikov supported a hardline coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev (the newly elected President of Russia, which at that time was a region in the Western Soviet Union)which attempted to crush the democratic movement and reintroduce hardline Communist rule. The coup failed to gain momentum despite the large power base of KGB/military senior personnel who backed it, and the Soviet Union collapsed shortly after.