INTRODUCTION
The Kremlin Conspiracy is a gripping novel about how power, arrogance, and the desire for more propel countries into war. It’s a high-octane tale with a blistering pace that shows how wars are politically engineered in the interest of the upper echelons.
It’s also a tale of patriotism, love, loss, and the morality of a soldier’s role—killing to protect.
Joel C. Rosenberg didn’t only build riveting scenes, but carefully wove tension with absolute suspense that leaves the reader breathless. This made The Kremlin Conspiracy an irresistible page-turner.
Politics is war and war is politics. Disinformation is a deliberate political stratagem to conquer.
BLURB
Aleksandr Ivanovich Luganov, the President of Russia, is an ambitious, forward-looking and militarily inclined person who aims at restoring the lost glory of Russia.
Luganov rose to fame after a high-stakes military crackdown on the country’s most ruthless terrorist group. This major counteroffensive action positioned him among the people as a strong leader.
With a strong resolve, the Russian military modernised its military intelligence, and arsenal—massive nuclear warheads, ICBM—Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and others. As Russia’s power surged under his leadership, Luganov became insatiable. He wants the annexation of other neighbouring countries through brutal force. Ukraine, a non-NATO country is attacked.
Now, through a well-elaborated war plan, Luganov is set to attack three NATO nations—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
Oleg Kraskin, the son-in-law of the Luganov leaked a highly classified Russian military secret to Agent Marcus Ryker, an American.
When Marcus was tipped off about the thumbnail sketch of the war plan against the Baltic countries, he alerted Senator Dayton about it.
As the news of the war heightened to a breaking point, the United States, in conjunction with NATO has to do everything in their military power to forestall a full-blown war as the Luganov is a button away to ignite the world in a thermonuclear war.
ANALYSIS
Aleksandr Ivanovich Luganov represented a power-obsessed leader. This attitude with time morphed into arrogance and insatiability. He was a leader who would go to any length to claim what he thinks it’s rightful his. It was speculated that his major crackdown on the terrorist group was a stage-managed show to win the Russians’ approval from a then Prime Minister to a President.
He conspired with his men to riddle buildings with explosives to blow people into kingdom come and blame it on the Chechens. This notion was plausible because after forensic experts scoured the crime scene, it was revealed that the bombs were military-grade explosives made specifically for the Russian Military. We asked, how did the terrorist accessed such weapons? Readers might argue the authenticity of this speculation but Luganov was a cold-blooded man who would do everything to be in power including massacre. Remember he plotted the assassination of the Journalist, Malenchenko and her husband.
Rosenberg used Luganov to explore the ruthless nature of modern political figures. Many of our political men and women who are to represent the ordinary citizens work contrary to their statutory duties. They shriek their greatest responsibilities and neglect accountability. However, they are obsessed with power, and a jet-setting lifestyle. Their greediness lacks a borderline.
Moreover, He was a manipulator. As a highbrow military man, he leveraged disinformation as a strategy to fulfill his evil purpose. He mastered the divide and conquer stratagem. He hid behind the smoke screen of lies, preached virtue and practiced vice.
He met the North Koreans in a peace treaty for them to destroy all their nuclear weapons or hand them over to Russia, but he was secretly plotting an inroad on Ukraine; he marched his infantry to her borders under the disguise of a military exercise.
Oleg Kraskin, the President’s son-in-law was a man plagued with indecision on the onset. After gaining his father-in-law’s goodwill and being inducted into the inner circle of Luganov as the senior aide, he soon discovered that the President’s actions belie his promises made to the Russians at his inauguration as the President. He couldn’t confront him squarely. This discovery became a curse
He worked, watched and noted daily what had been an obsession of the President matured into pure evil. Readers ask: could Oleg have actually convinced his in-laws to surrender his nuclear weapons? The answer is no. Luganov will risk nuclear war to his benefit. And my defense is that after Oleg mustered his resolve to question the President on Dmitri Nimkov—the head of FSB profiling of Clarke, (POTUS) and Nimkov’s assessment of the plan to invade the Baltic, he defended the plan, ignoring the obvious.
He quoted Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag of Archipelago “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.’ ”
After this, Oleg did the unthinkable.
When he realised there wasn’t going to be anything to stop Luganov from going to war even after giving Marcus classified info, he came up with a contingency plan to assassinate the President, his father-in-law.
Was he right to assassinate? How would the assassination prevent the burgeoning nuclear war? Wasn’t there any better plan to commit tyrannicide?
This point brought readers to the crossroads of morality. It was difficult to justify or condemn. What do you think?
To all intents and purposes, his actions were justifiable. Kill one to save a million. Oleg argues he didn’t want his wife and child to die in the crackling heat of nuclear war.
Marcus Ryker showed remarkable skill and leadership in the story. He abandoned himself in all aspects of his life—family, marriage and work. He embodied sincerity, discipline and patriotism—the fight with the Taliban and joining the Secret Service of the US
He was awarded a Purple Heart badge because he risked his life for the president.
He suffered losses—he lost his wife and only child, however, it did break him but he recovered. His collaboration with Oleg helped build the tension and suspense needed to drive the novel. He orchestrated all the plans Oleg needed to write off Luganov and the escape plan.
He was riddled with the morality of Oleg’s action. And question if Oleg has surrendered his life to the saviour.
If Oleg dies where will his soul go?
CONCLUSION
The Kremlin Conspiracy is more than a Political thriller. It is a narrative of major importance in modern warfare. It transcends beyond a mere entertaining thriller to a morally provocative narrative.
Its strength lies in the dynamics of characters and the question of morality. It’s a wonderful thriller with a dazzling use of language.
Written by Einstein Asante
