Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev

Yanayev was a Gorbachev man. I don't think he was a Romanov or even a Ligachev. Gorbachev surrounded himself with moderate reformer 'conservatives' in the late 1980s in order to try to preserve the image of a balance of power (so as not to alienate the conservative party majority). However, most of the cadres he promoted were people who he felt were weaker than himself and/or easy to control. Hence after the coup in September 1988 against the old line conservatives (Gromyko, Solomentsev, Chebrikov, and Ligachev's shuffle to agriculture) the 'conservatives' brought in by Gorbachev were no match for the 'liberal reformers' (factual anti-communists). This includes all the main faces of the GKChP - Yanayev, Kryuchkov, and Yazov.

From what I know of the August Coup, Yanayev was reluctant to carry it out, and had to be persuaded by the others almost at the last minute. Still, he deserves respect for at least attempting to take up this responsibility. Perhaps the issue with the coup was not so much the disorganization and demoralization of the plotters, but the critical demoralization which the party and system had suffered due to years of reckless and destructive reforms, including those aimed at the destruction of Soviet societal consciousness.