Commander-in-Chief

81

The President of the United States sat at his desk with the complete dossier on Arkady Diburov lying open in front of him. The new Russian president had been in office only four hours, and already he was going to conduct his first red-phone call with the President.

Ryan thought it a little awkward that this man was under economic sanction by the U.S. Justice Department, but the dossier spoke for itself. As the director of Gazprom, he had been the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars that had been rerouted from oil receipts into shell companies around the world.

The guy was a crook, just like the man he replaced, Ryan knew. But Ryan did not yet know if the guy was a crook who would be willing to make a deal.

He’s siloviki, a billionaire, shadowy, but perhaps less so than Valeri Volodin.

I can work with that, Ryan said to himself.

And Ryan also didn’t know if he would be able to fool the man into thinking the Russian ballistic missile sub off the American coastline was currently being targeted by the Navy. The truth was he had no idea where it was, so Ryan felt his best option was to feign a position of authority with the new president, to negotiate America’s way from the brink of nuclear war.

He heard a sound through the phone in his ear and then a man speaking Russian. The translator conveyed a few words of introduction, and then Diburov said he hoped the two nations of Russia and the U.S. could have better relations.

Ryan said he felt the same way, but things would only improve when Russia obeyed international agreements and norms.

After a pause, Diburov said, “President Ryan, I am disappointed you think you can bully me in our first conversation.”

Ryan replied, “My intention is to state facts, because if we both understand the facts, our nations will be better off. Fact one… we know where the Knyaz Oleg is. We can destroy it right now if we want.”

Diburov said, “You said it is time for facts, but that is not a fact. That is a threat, Mr. President.”

Ryan replied, “If you aren’t interested in threats, President Diburov, what is that submarine doing off our coast? Why hasn’t it turned around and returned to Russia?”

There was no response from the Russian president.

Ryan said, “It would be an extremely helpful first step in reconciliation.”

“My feeling is we have nothing to reconcile. My administration is not the administration of Valeri Volodin.”

“No, it’s not. But your administration is the one with the ballistic missile submarine parked off the U.S., so you have to accept responsibility for any actions we might take. Things went bad for Volodin when the Kazan was destroyed. You won’t be able to wrap yourself in the excuse that it’s your predecessor’s fault when your other most advanced warship sinks.”

After a long pause Diburov said, “I will need significant concessions from you if that is to happen. Very significant, indeed.”

Ryan thought to himself that this clown wasn’t ready for prime time, but he was now in charge of the nuke codes in Russia, so by that factor alone he deserved some respect. “President Diburov, stop your attacks on all fronts, and then we’ll talk about a deal.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. President, but I refuse to be ordered around by America.”

The phone went dead.

Twenty-four hours after the acrimonious phone conversation, the Russian ambassador requested a meeting with the President of the United States.

That it took an entire day for this to happen worried President Ryan and his secretary of state. Diburov was shrewder than they’d given him credit for. He hadn’t folded like a cheap suitcase during the phone call with the President, nor had he waffled under the pressure of an impending American invasion for twenty-four hours. Ryan and Adler were beginning to think they had totally misjudged the man’s mettle, so they were hard at work on the next phase of prosecuting the diplomatic situation, planning ways they could crank up the statecraft nearly to the level of war.

The last thing Ryan wanted to do was to lose the Baltic. But the second-to-last thing he wanted to do was to invade the sovereign territory of the Russian Federation. He’d send troops over the border if he felt it was his only option, but he was acutely aware of the consequences.

Very quickly into their conversation, the Russian ambassador said, “I firmly believe there are agreements we can come to, Mr. President.”

Ryan knew where this was going, but he played dumb. “I’m very happy to hear you say that, Mr. Ambassador. I wonder if you have something in mind, something that would be to Russia’s benefit, but not jeopardize the security of other nations.”

The ambassador spoke as if this were just coming to him spontaneously, although Ryan knew the man’s script was well memorized. “I won’t go into detail about Russia’s economic fortunes of late.”

Here it comes, Ryan said to himself.

“The economic sanctions against prominent Russian businessmen are stifling the growth of our nation. We see it as illegal and against the norms of diplomacy. The president feels the West’s removing the holds on the finances of the nation’s top businessmen would go a long way to showing fraternity between East and West.” A slight smile from the portly man. “We don’t need to be fighting one another.”

Yep, Ryan thought. Diburov takes the reins of power in the Kremlin, and his first action is to send his ambassador to tell America he will stop a war if America gives him all his money back.

Humans, despite all the artifice around them, could be such simple creatures at their core.

Ryan played his part in the little game now. As the ambassador had pretended to just think of this, Ryan pretended to just mull over the consequences of the request. He took thirty seconds before he responded.

“Mr. Ambassador, do I understand you to say a loosening of international sanctions would result in Russia moving its forces in Lithuania back to their barracks in Kaliningrad and their forces in Belarus back to sovereign Russian Federation territory?”

The ambassador nodded. “Simply put, Mr. President, we need to get our economy flowing again. This is more important now than the crimes perpetrated by the West against Russia.”

No, Ryan thought. Diburov needs to get his personal assets flowing again. Diburov and the other men under sanction kept all their money in offshore accounts. Releasing every cent of this would help the economies of Luxembourg, Cyprus, Monaco, and Singapore more than it would Russia.

But Jack Ryan’s objective at the moment wasn’t about Russia’s domestic prospects, it was about Russia’s international expansion. And it looked like there might be a way out of this.

No, Ryan thought, he and Adler had not misjudged Diburov’s character. He was exactly what they took him for. The twenty-four-hour delay had nothing to do with the man’s resolve to continue the fight with the West. It was probably just the time it took for the new leader to figure out how to ask for what he really wanted, access to his piggy bank, without looking like what he really was.

Another kleptocrat.