Four Soviet ambassadors have been summoned to Moscow to explain their actions during the coup, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
"Perhaps several more will be summoned later, those who have been accused of sympathizing with the coup," said ministry spokesman Vitaly Churkin, speaking on Russian television.Churkin did not identify any of the ambassadors by name or the country where they are posted.
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev fired Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh shortly after the failed coup was in progress Aug. 18-21 coup, accusing him of "maneuvering or worse."
He nominated as Bessmertnykh's replacement Boris D. Pankin, the Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia who spoke out against the coup.
Churkin said that during the coup, the Soviet diplomatic service "did a lot to preserve the stability of the Soviet foreign policy course" laid down by Gorbachev and by Eduard Shevardnadze, who was foreign minister for five years before resigning in December.