I spotted the cover in a bookstore and, I instantly knew I had to read it. If you want to see the Russia-Ukraine war in a fictitious, yet near prophetic light, you should read it too.
By Nathaniel Bivan
I sit at the edge of my seat and listen (yes, listen) to two men who should, in reality, be enemies, converse secretly in a Moscow hotel. They are talking about ‘The Godfather’, a novel written by Mario Puzo and which was later adapted into a three-part movie (one of my all-time favourites) I have watched more than once – the second time, I don’t recall moving an inch until I was done wolfing down all three. That was how much I valued the movie and its characters. And yes…I still do.
So, here I am reading a book by Joel C. Rosenberg titled ‘The Kremlin Conspiracy’, and I am blown away by a particular dialogue – Marcus Ryker, an ex-US secret agent, whose last job in the service was protecting the president, was in the same room with Oleg Kraskin, the Russian president’s most trusted adviser and also (wait for this) his only son-in-law. It’s Sept. 25 2017 and Russia is planning a surprise war against its neighbours that will tip the scale of its political, economic, and even nuclear power beyond the world’s imagination, leaving NATO and the US in shock.
‘I remember how I happened upon Rosenberg’s ‘The Kremlin Conspiracy’. I wasn’t looking for it. I was in a bookstore and a carton of fresh deliveries just came in and sat at the feet of the bookseller. That was when I spotted the title, then quickly checked it out and realized it was timely. I mean, published in 2018, and here we are in 2022, the year Russia invades Ukraine.’
But, for now, this is all theory, detailed in a top-secret war plan. This is what makes me tense as Oleg and Markus finally meet.
Oleg has turned into a snitch, against his president and father-in-law. Against mother Russia! But there’s a good reason, apparently, or so he thinks. And so, he’s here to tell it all to the one man he respects the most, by reputation, in the entire United States of America. And, somehow, there’s a trend in their discussion that leads Oleg to try and explain the kind of man his president and father-in-law is:
Another Stalin? Markus asks.
No.
A Hitler then?
It’s another no from Oleg and then he says the words that will make me remember this book always.
“I believe the best way to think of him is as the head of a crime family.”
“Like the Godfather?” Markus asked. “You’re saying he’s Vito Corleone?”
“I’m saying he’s Sunny,” Oleg replied coldly. “Ambitious but rash, reckless – and he has a nuclear arsenal, and the willingness to use it.”
I remember how I happened upon Rosenberg’s ‘The Kremlin Conspiracy’. I wasn’t looking for it. I was in a bookstore and a carton of fresh deliveries just came in and sat at the feet of the bookseller. That was when I spotted the title, then quickly checked it out and realized it was timely. I mean, published in 2018, and here we are in 2022, the year Russia invades Ukraine in a war its president, Putin, seemed to have thought would be a walk in the park, wrapped up maybe in a matter of weeks.
Anyway, so long story short, I buy it and dig in with excitement. And there’s a page that amazes me, when Russia, in the guise of conducting an exercise, intimidates Ukraine by amassing troops and tankers and whatnot at its borders, prompts the Ukraine president to open up to a US senator on a visit. He sends the senator back with a message – to remind the US president that they, US and NATO, encouraged Ukraine, in what’s historically known as the Budapest Memorandum, to relinquish its nuclear arsenal, the world’s third-largest, inherited from the collapsed Soviet Union, and transfer all nuclear warheads to Russia for decommissioning.
‘I mean, it took this book to remind me that you can be advised, even pressured, to make a decision as a country and yet become an island when you’re under attack. Or when it backfires!’
I mean, it took this book to remind me that you can be advised, even pressured, to make a decision as a country and yet become an island when you’re under attack. Or when it backfires!
But just like what’s happening today, where the superpowers only watch from a distance and condemn Russia’s invasion of a weaker nation, so it is in Rosenberg’s 2018 offering.
I feel like I have already revealed too much about this novel, but…on second thought, my gist hasn’t scraped a fraction of what’s in store for readers. You will meet Luganov, a president that some may liken to today’s Putin, and then a ‘slow’ American president in the character Clark that you may liken to this day’s Biden. Then there’s, of course, the adventurous Marcus Ryker who will dare to save the day, and Oleg, the somewhat timid son-in-law turned powerful Russian government official and what I’ll dare to coin as a traitor-hero.
