Archive: Opinions

Dateline: Moscow, The Kremlin

When: Spring, 2016

In a nondescript conference room, deep in the Kremlin, several men and women sit around a highly polished rectangular conference table. There are no decorative touches in the room, painted a medium, drab green; no windows, two doors. There are bottles of water and glasses in front of each of the waiting people, two of them in uniform. A few appear nervous, others nonchalant, several smoking cigarettes. The two women sit near, but not at, the table. One chair, somewhat more ornate and taller, sits empty at one end of the table.

The door at the far end of the room opens, and two muscular men enter, look around the room menacingly then part to admit a thin, confident-looking man who walks between them to the empty chair and sits down. He is Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Republic, instantly recognizable to millions around the world, and the men and women in the room have immediately risen upon his entry. With his nod, they return to their seats, perhaps a little more at attention and not taking their glances from his face. He is impeccably dressed in a gray suit, navy blue satin tie. His face is almost mask-like, lips tightly closed in a horizontal line. He seems to look at the table and those arrayed around it from under hooded, lowered eyes, taking in all of the participants in a glance with no visible emotion or even recognition. One of the bodyguards (for bodyguards they must be) steps to his side and pours a glass of water for the President, then steps back.

"So, gentlemen, you have gathered at my request and I assume you are all prepared to present me your ideas on this most interesting and important project. You have had ten days to prepare your presentation, and I must assume you are ready to proceed. Please do not waste my time with preliminary information which we already know. I am busy man."

While the Russian president spoke, the men and women he addressed sat smartly at attention, all eyes focused on their leader. When he finished, he moved his head ever so slightly, glancing at the man to his immediate left. Sergei Sashkavilli was a thirty year veteran of the KGB, had weathered many political storms and had served with Putin on many secretive missions prior to the president's political rise and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He had risen to the head of the North American division of the current spy agency. Sashkavilli cleared his throat, opened the folder that was placed in front of him, and began to speak, slowly and confidently.

"Honorable President Putin, as you know, the consistently confusing circumstances of the American political process seems more disrupted than in past years. We are fairly sure that with certain of our operations already in progress that we can interfere with the American presidential election. We have people already in place who are very good at, how do you say, 'hacking' computer systems, email servers and other critical systems. With these operatives we should be able to influence enough American people in such a way to put certain candidates of our choosing to win the elections in November. In addition to helping to release certain damaging information on any or all of the candidates (and this year, oh my Russion mother's memory, we have SO MUCH in hand about these candidates!!) and we also, as always, have certain news media organizations to help to publish, or perhaps ignore, at our bidding, certain items which can help or harm the candidate of our choosing."

The President interrupted: "And which candidate will we choose to help win, comrade Sergei?"

"That, Mister President, is totally up to your decision, obviously it will be who you could influence the most after the election. Obviously, it is all for the advancement and betterment of our Russian cause."

"And what", Putin queried, "are the so-called odds of your success in this proposed venture?"

"Esteemed Leader, we estimate our odds of success at about thirty to forty percent, which are very good considering the complexity of the operation, fifty ste election systems, multiple media outlets........" His confident voice suddenly trailed off into silence.

President Putin placed his elbows on the table, his pale, manicured fingers prayer-like to his chin, expressionless under the hooded blue eyes. He turned slightly, now, to his right, where Colonel Dmitri Zhukov was sitting quietly, attentively, large beefy hands upon a blue folder on the table in front of him. His features and name would seem familiar even to those who were not Russian, if you were aware of Soviet history. Zhukov was the grandson of the greatest Soviet military hero of the Second World War, the liberator of Leningrad, and he carried his legacy proudly.

Putin's glance gave him silent permission to speak while he opened the folder. "Mister President, my action group is also well aware of our potential ability to disrupt and influence the American presidential election. With many operatives in place in organizations like Yahoo, FaceBook and others in mainstream media, as well as in political headquarters, we are ready to accomplish much of what you wish. But, we do not believe that choosing candidates to either support or destroy is in the motherland's ultimate long range interests. That is something which we already have spent a great deal of money and time perfecting over the years, and there are many in American political system who do our bidding openly, or perhaps have been persuaded through blackmail and other means. Our input in the American system is well documented and need not be jeopardized by an attempt to blatantly oppose or support and individual candidate for President. After all, our research committees have proven that both of the probable candidates are extremely vulnerable to what we know of their private lives."

"So, what do you propose, Dmitri?" It appeared that the President was showing perhaps a bit of impatience in his demeanor and question.

"Sir, this is what we propose. That we proceed with the hacking of the American system as proposed, engineer leaks of emails and other documents, perhaps using WikiLeaks as a dupe, fake news, as they call it, and even American-style advertising through the internet. BUT, esteemed Leader, with one important variation on the plan: We instruct our operatives to leave clues as to their identity and their sources. In other words, let the Americans know who is doing the leaking and hacking. Nothing obvious, but clues that good American cyber sleuths, as they like to be called, can pick up and say 'Ah-hah!'. These so-called clues can continue to accumulate and even be left to be found after the election as well. The sleuths of the FBI, CIA and others will be proud to proclaim the Russian hacking to the news media. There will be no doubt, as they will say, that "The Russians did this", and "tried to interfere with our election!!!"

The room bust with loud but unintelligible murmurs, sputtered objections. President Putin silenced them with a raised hand while never relinquishing his gaze upon the grandson of the Russian hero.

"And, what is the point of this, Dmitri? Why would you possibly put our entire operation at risk by allowing them to know of our presence in their electoral system?"

"Honorable Leader, it does not matter who wins the American presidential election. Not to us. But the American people are already saying, for years, that they don't trust their media, they do not trust their Congress, they do not even trust their clergy or their big business. Trust is, shall we say, at a premium in the United States. The one thing they still arguably trust is their election system, what they call democracy. They not only honor it, they practically worship the ballot box. And, this is regardless of how often they have been told of vote fraud by some of their great leaders. Mister President, if we take away their TRUST of their beloved voting, we now begin the process of losing the belief in its legitimacy. Decay that can bring it all, perhaps in two or three electoral cycles, crashing down into the chaos that could mean the end of the American experiment. To question the legitimacy of their election is to question what it means to be an American. We are that sure: our timing and our methods are on the mark. We can be almost completely open in this regard, very little secrecy, and they will believe that the election has been stolen, that their vote is worthless, that the Electoral College is fixed, regardless of who wins on election night."

Putin looked even more intently at Zhukov, then slowly glanced around the table at the confused faces surrounding him. Putin returned to the man who had stunned them all.

"What do you estimate the odds of success are, in this blatant attempt to allow the Americans to be a part of their own eventual destruction, as you describe it?"

Zhukov, without hesitation, replied:" We think we have a ninety to ninety five percent chance of instilling fear, loathing and distrust in the American public, sir. Thus creating distrust and confusion, anger cries of fraud, without them realizing what the fraud really is."

With a wan smile, Putin stood up, nodded, and stated: "Proceed. I expect a full report from you, along with summaries of American media reactions, on the morning of November ninth. That concludes our meeting, comrades."

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