The Kremlin Insider - Jeffry Weiss - Bog

Russia is on the verge of fracturing after twenty years of government corruption, patronage, and incompetence.A nascent protest movement is gathering momentum. And even as the attacks at protest rallies, by ministry police with their truncheons, grow in intensity, the number of dissidents willing to risk their freedom, even their lives, to unseat the president increases.Vladim Pushkin, president of Russia, along with the oligarchs and mafia, have bled the country dry by their unbounded greed. And while millions live in 3rd world conditions and are subjected to threats, imprisonment, and one-way passage to Siberia, the president and his cronies live like emperors of yore.With little left to steal, Pushkin plans to invade Eastern Europe and take control of the Baltic States. He is counting on the element of surprise and believes America has no fight left in it for another war.Russia tests American resolve by arming Iran who attacks U.S. interests in the Middle East.American President James Hardessy learns that Russia is massing troops on their eastern border, but whether it is for their normal spring military exercise, or the initiation of an invasion, is uncertain. In an effort to determine which, Hardessy sends in Captain Paul Decker to learn the Russian plans and also work with the opposition to overthrow the Pushkin régime. Paul enlists the help of his ever-present computer hacker Pavlik Lasky, in Talas Kyrgyzstan, who will create havoc by siphoning money out of the accounts of Pushkin, the oligarchs and mafia, starting an internecine war. Pavlik sends his compatriot, Natasha Levin, to assist Paul in Russia. She and Paul have worked together before and had an affair which the two of them look at with different sets of eyes.Russia faces a famine but Pushkin has no intention of groveling at the feet of Western countries to buy gain and make up the shortage. The honor of Russia is at stake and he believes humiliation will follow any such agreement. But while Pushkin and many in his government care little if there is mass starvation, one man does. General Konstatin Rozkov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, grew up on a farm and his parents still tend crops there.Pushkin is smitten by Natasha, which gives her access to the president's inner office, but leaves her vulnerable to his sexual advances. With that access, she searches Pushkin's files and confirms that he is planning to invade the East.Given the knowledge that General Rozkov's has argued against Russian invasions of Georgia, Ukraine and Crimea, Paul reaches out to Rozkov to join the opposition and attempt to unseat Pushkin.When Rozkov sees for himself the terrible conditions at the family farm and systemic crop failures throughout the country, he agrees to help overthrow the president.Should the opposition fail to unseat Pushkin, and he continues with his plan to invade the Baltic States, America is preparing for war by moving forces into position to counter any Russian advance.When Pushkin sees that General Rozkov stands with the oppositions, he realizes his position is untenable. He contemplates suicide, but surrenders to the opposition at the last moment. However, the attempt to bring Pushkin to trial is thwarted by a woman whose husband died due to Pushkin's lack of effort to rescue the sunken submarine the men were on. She shoots Pushkin as the ex-president is escorted out of the Kremlin.A new day has dawned in Russia, but the same sun does not shine on Paul. He fails in his efforts to further his relationship with Natasha, driving him back to the drinking that has almost ruined his military career before.