Mikhail Gorbachev has died

Probably the most relevant sentence from that article:

> The role of Mikhail Gorbachev in the January events remains disputed.

What is "disputed"? It says right there, under Commanders and leaders: Mikhail Gorbachev. Such is the nature of the deal; power for responsibility.

The last missing puzzle piece is pretty clear when looking at the full picture. Maybe now that he is gone, nobody will prevent from stating it officially.

It's pretty clear that he was aware and gave orders. There're testimonies that next time Alfa unit asked for written orders. Guess when Alfa unit was given unwritten orders and who could give them such orders? If they acted without orders, why no heads roll back then?

There's no paper with Gorbachev's signature. Which is pretty usual to Soviets - leave no paper trace was modus operandi since the establishment of USSR.

I wonder how all of this played into Alfa's decision not to kill protestors in service of the August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt.

If I remember correctly, that was the case, according to some high officials at the time. Alfa asked for written orders but they were refused.

Regarding Lithuania's January events, other units did refuse to operate even back then. IIRC Pskov airborne unit was given unwritten order to fly to Vilnius, but the commander refused.