Battlefield Taiwan

Operation Strawman

The snow was beginning to fall more heavily in the Bibirevo district of Moscow, where Alexei Kasyanov remained under house arrest.

“Why in the world would a reporter want to meet with me on a day like this?” thought Alexei as he prepared a fresh kettle of water on the stove. His guest would be arriving within the next ten minutes, and he wanted to make sure he had something warm to offer him to drink. The cold of the Russian winter had finally settled in across the country.

A couple of months ago, a reporter from Der Spiegel in Germany had reached out to him, asking if he could write a biographical piece on him and his political opposition party. Of course, Alexei had jumped at the chance, but he had to be incredibly careful about how he communicated with Gunther. He was still technically under house arrest; however, with the war with NATO consuming so much of the Petrov government’s focus and resources, Kasyanov felt this was the right time to connect with an outside journalist, especially in light of President Petrov suspension of the next election, which had been scheduled to take place in March, until the end of the war.

So far, Gunther Brinkbaumer had written two exceptional pieces about Alexei’s efforts to lead the People’s Freedom Party or PARNAS against Petrov’s United Russia party. Gunther had done a superb job thus far in conveying the struggle faced by any political party other than the ruling party and how the opposition parties often found themselves the target of any number of government charges and allegations just prior to each election cycle. Satisfied with Brinkbaumer’s reporting up to this point, Kasyanov had agreed to his first sit-down with the reporter. Since Alexei’s wife and two children were temporarily living with friends in Sweden, he was not as worried as he normally would have been to have Gunther meet him at his home.

Alexei thought wistfully, “This year is supposed to be the year reformers like myself bring an end to the Petrov regime. We need to reassert Russia as a country ruled by law and the constitution and not by the politically connected oligarch class.”

Looking out his apartment window, Alexei saw a taxi pull up to a building down the road from him. A single figure got out of the vehicle and slowly walked away from the cab. As Kasyanov watched the cab turn down another street and disappear out of sight, the passenger crossed the street and headed towards his building.

“Good, just as I instructed,” thought Alexei. “Always have the taxi drop you at one point, wait for him to leave, and then walk down to your true destination.”

He buzzed the reporter into the building. After a soft knock at the door, Alexei walked over and opened the door.

“Alexei?” the reporter verified.

“Yes,” Kasyanov confirmed.

“I’m Gunther Brinkbaumer from Der Spiegel. It is good to finally meet you,” he said, extending his hand.

“Please come in. It’s cold out there. I have a fresh kettle on the stove. Would you care for some tea?” Alexei offered.

Gunther smiled and nodded as he took his jacket off, hanging it on the hook on the wall next to the door. The two of them sat down at his kitchen table.

Gunther began the interview by asking Alexei a lot of questions about his political beliefs, how he felt Russia could prosper under a different leader, and how he would govern Russia if he were elected president of the country. About an hour into the interview, the conversation started to turn more serious, almost as if it were a job interview. Alexei could sense the difference in the tone of the questions and grew suspicious.

“Alexei,” Gunther said as he leaned forward in his chair, placing a small device on the table between them, switching it on.

“What is this? What are you up to?” Alexei demanded as he sat back in his chair, ready to defend himself should he need to.

Gunther held up his hands and explained, “I have activated an electronic scrambler in case anyone is listening to our conversation. I need to ask you some serious questions, and I need a sincere response.” He searched Alexei’s eyes and facial features to make sure he understood what he had just been told.

When Alexei simply nodded, he proceeded. “My name is Gunther Brinkbaumer, and I do work for Der Spiegel. But I also work for the BND, which I am sure you already know is the German intelligence branch. We have a plan. We would like to replace President Petrov with a new leader, and the Allied nations believe that you, Alexei Kasyanov, leader of the People’s Freedom Party, may just be our best hope.”

A smile spread across Alexei’s face. “It’s about time the Allies looked for someone to replace Petrov,” he thought.

Inside, Alexei was giddy with joy. This offer was beyond his wildest dreams.

The two of them talked for many more hours and went over how the BND, CIA, and MI6 were going to break him out of his house arrest and establish a series of safe houses and underground networks in Russia for him to operate within. Their goal was to provide him with a secure means of communicating with his supporters to organize peaceful rallies across Russia and begin garnering public support. As that support grew, they would look to find ways to erode Petrov’s backing and eventually replace him as the leader of Russia.