But detailed claims were first made in public by a member of the former Soviet parliament, Andrei Zolotkov, in late 1991.

The nominal Soviet parliament automatically approves party and Government decisions.

The decision and his deprivation of citizenship were rubber-stamped by the Soviet parliament.

Yanayev had initially been rejected by the Soviet parliament, but he was finally approved due to Gorbachev's reluctance to replace him with another candidate.

Now he talks of revoking some of the freedoms, including a freer press, that the Soviet parliament brought into being last year.

In the end the plan was repudiated by Mr Gorbachev and rejected by the Soviet parliament.

In 1940 he was appointed to Moscow and offered a seat in the Soviet parliament.

In 1989 he bounded back, winning a Moscow constituency with 89.4 per cent of the vote in the elections that year for the Soviet parliament.

Later he ascended to the Soviet parliament where he remained for two years while serving on the Military Affairs Committee.

Mr Gorbachev last month signed an agreement with nine republics which, amongst other things, proposed elections to a new Soviet parliament sometime next year.