The Kremlin Insider - Paul Decker Assignments, #16

SYNOPSIS OF "THE KREMLIN INSIDER" - 116, 253 WORDS. Russia is on the verge of fracturing after twenty years of government corruption, patronage, and incompetenceA nascent protest movement is gathering momentum.  And even as the attacks at the rallies, by ministry police with their truncheons, grow in intensity, the number of dissidents continues to rise.  With every arrest the movement coalesces and supporters become more committed, willing to risk their freedom, even their lives, to unseat the president.
VLADIM PUSHKIN, president of Russia, along with the OLIGARCHS and MAFIA, have bled the country dry by their unbounded greed.  And while millions live in 3rd world conditions and are subjected to threats, imprisonment, and one-way passage to Siberia, the president and his cronies live like emperors of yore. With little left to steal, Pushkin plans to invade Eastern Europe and take control of the Baltic States.
 He is counting on the element of surprise and believes America has no fight left in it for another war. American President JAMES HARDESSY sends code 6 agent CAPTAIN PAUL DECKER to learn the Russian plans and also work with the opposition to overthrow the Pushkin régime.  The task is made even more difficult since the leader of the opposition, YEVGENI NOVAKOFF, is being held in the notorious Lubyanka Prison.
Paul enlists the help of his ever-present computer hacker PAVLIK LASKY, in Talas Kyrgyzstan, who will create havoc by siphoning money out of the accounts of Pushkin, the oligarchs and mafia, starting an internecine war.  Pavlik sends his compatriot, NATASHA LEVIN, to assist Paul in Russia.  She and Paul have worked together before and had an affair which the two of them look at with different sets of eyes.
Russia faces a famine but Pushkin has no intention of groveling at the feet of Western countries to buy gain and make up the shortage. But while Pushkin and many in his government care little if there is mass starvation, one man does.  GENERAL KONSTATIN ROZKOV, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, grew up on a farm and his parents still tend crops there. Given the knowledge that General Rozkov's has argued against Russian invasions of Georgia, Ukraine and Crimea, Paul reaches out to Rozkov to join the opposition and attempt to unseat Pushkin.
When Rozkov sees for himself the terrible conditions at the family farm and systemic crop failures throughout the country, he agrees to help overthrow the president. Paul and Natasha coordinate with General Rozkov and Yevgeni Novakoff on a massive march to the Russian Parliament to confront Pushkin and force him to step down. All this while various factions of the Russian Secret Services attempt to kill Paul and the opposition leaders.
Natasha is poisoned by Pushkin (but survives) for not continuing to accept his sexual advances. Should the opposition fail to unseat Pushkin, and he continues with his plan to invade the Baltic States, America is preparing for war by moving forces into position to counter any Russian advance. When Pushkin sees that General Rozkov stands with the oppositions, he realizes his position is untenable.  He contemplates suicide, but surrenders to the opposition at the last moment.   However, the attempt to bring Pushkin to trial is thwarted by a woman whose husband died due to Pushkin's lack of effort to rescue the sunken submarine the men were on.  She shoots Pushkin as the ex-president is escorted out of the Kremlin.
A new day has dawned in Russia, but the same sun does not shine on Paul.  He fails in his efforts to further his relationship with Natasha, driving him back to the drinking that has almost ruined his military career before.