The Plot to Kill Putin

by Max Karpov

  “And, of course, we fight the complicity at home every day, don’t we?” Turov said. “We are concerned about what you call”—he glanced at his notes—“the ‘politicized management of the war.’ As you know, his approval ratings top eighty percent now,” he continued, “but what are those polls really measuring? People do not realize how isolated, and paranoid, he has become.”

  Delkoff nodded but said nothing, knowing that they had just crossed a line. He saw in Turov’s reasonable face now what this “assignment” really was. Not a proxy op for the Kremlin, as he’d been led to believe when called back to Moscow. It was the opposite: he was being recruited by the right-wing elites within the government, a small cadre of interior ministers and military generals who understood that the current leadership, which had brought Russia to the brink of greatness again, had grown too reckless and unpredictable—too closely bound to the ego of one man—to survive.

  “Already he has put us in a dangerous game of brinksmanship, as you know,” Turov said. “There is no strategic plan anymore, except what is in his head.”

  “And that changes,” Delkoff said.

  “Yes, exactly. The developments in America, of course, have only emboldened him. But he is still the same man. A little man, puffed up with power. Too afraid of showing weakness to be a real leader.”

  Delkoff waited, stirred by Turov’s words. He did not know the finer details of history as Turov did, but he understood its basic lessons: oppression does not last, hubris does not win, popularity is a transitory business; men who lead repressive regimes leave terrible legacies.

  “The problem is, he will never step down on his own,” Turov said, speaking more softly, and Delkoff saw a flicker of regret in his face that he understood; it was possible to love the president’s intentions but disapprove of his methods. Delkoff thought of his son’s mother wailing in her theatrical voice, after learning their boy had been killed: “Putin did this. Putin killed my son.” Delkoff had scolded her to be quiet, although he had secretly shared some of that same feeling. “We find ourselves at a regrettable impasse,” Turov went on, showing the palm of his right hand. “We have no choice now but to open a new front.”

  Delkoff said nothing. Open a new front. It was a phrase that he himself had used, many times.

  In the span of seven minutes, Andrei Turov explained the operation that Delkoff had been chosen to carry out. The framework was already established. Delkoff’s role would be to recruit and train a small group of soldiers, and then to oversee the plan’s execution. The ordinary qualities of Turov’s manner seemed to fall away as he detailed the operation; Delkoff saw a hard inner shrewdness in him, an aptitude that he hadn’t imagined when he’d walked in the room.

  “We believe you are the only one who can do this successfully,” Turov said. Delkoff felt the hairs on his arms prickle. Of course, he could do it. It was the assignment he’d been preparing for all of his life. But at the same time, Delkoff understood that he wasn’t being asked. He was fairly certain that if he said no, he would not leave this house alive.

  But Delkoff had no intention of saying no.

  He listened to the terms and logistics. There was one connection he would have to make—a Ukrainian oligarch named Dmitro Hordiyenko, who would supply the arms and equipment. The rest would be up to him. Delkoff’s remuneration would be so substantial that there was no need to negotiate.

  “And what about afterward?”

  “For Russia?” Turov answered indirectly, assuring Delkoff that the motherland would be in capable hands. “I can’t give you names. But I can tell you that you would not have been chosen if we thought you would disapprove of the outcome in any way.” He nodded at the leather folder on his desk.

  “And what about me?” Delkoff said.

  “We’ll work with you. You won’t have to return to Russia if you’d prefer to start a new life elsewhere. That will be your choice.” And Turov explained this, too.

  By then, Delkoff was already beginning to think of the men he would hire: an eager Russian soldier named Alexander Zelenko, who’d fought with him in Luhansk and reminded Delkoff of his late son; Mikhail Kolchak, a corrupt Ukrainian missile commander, who would bring strong personal motives to the mission; and his own cousin, Dmitri, who would help him once it was over. “And the blame?” he said.

  “The blame will fall on the SBU,” Turov answered, meaning Ukraine’s security and intelligence agency. “But, ultimately, on the Americans. It’s their hypocrisy, as you call it, that has pushed us to this. As the Russian soul has awakened, the American soul—what passes for one—has been asleep. For too long, the Americans have been allowed to invade sovereign nations, indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of civilians in the name of ‘democracy.’ Then they condemn us for simply defending the ethnic Russian people of Ukraine against oppression, a matter that has nothing to do with them. We need to turn that around. And we will. This is something they will not see coming.”

  Delkoff nodded, careful not to show enthusiasm. “And how do I know I’m not being set up?”

  “You don’t,” Turov said. “But you know that I pursued you. You know that we have common concerns and can help each other. You’ll have to trust me.”

  Delkoff was silent. He did trust him, that was the strange part of this: there was something reassuring in Turov’s face, in his steady manner and physical ordinariness. It made you stop noticing what he looked like and enter into the realm of his thoughts and ideas. When they shook hands, Delkoff noticed that Turov was wearing a cheap off-the-rack jacket, the sleeves slightly long, and that assured him, too—as if, in a sense, they were wearing the same uniform.

  As the cargo van returned Delkoff to central Moscow, he felt as if some of Russia’s divinely inspired historical mission had just been handed to him. The same music played tinnily from the van’s speakers but it sounded different now: a triumphant Russian melody, which caused Delkoff’s eyes to sting with emotion. Betrayal out of loyalty to a higher cause is no longer betrayal, he thought, a line he knew from school days, although he couldn’t recall who’d said it. Gogol, perhaps. Or Tolstoy. Like many of his generation, Delkoff had been raised believing in Soviet greatness without ever actually having seen it. His father had made it seem tangible, like a place that he would visit someday, and he’d felt its proximity all of his life: in the country’s patriotic songs and ceremonies, in the monuments and brick ramparts of Red Square, in his own son’s decision to join the military; sometimes he heard it early in the morning now, just in the way the poplar trees rattled outside his apartment windows, a haunted sound that he thought of as the whispers of dead soldiers.

  Delkoff believed in Russia’s destiny as a great power, which would one day span East and West—a dream that still burned in many Russians. But there was a street-level battle under way now that had made his country’s greatness harder to see, particularly in Moscow, where new skyscrapers and construction cranes had stolen the skyline, and vulgar Western billboards overpowered the historical monuments. Perhaps this was what Turov meant by “complicity.”

  Still, Delkoff did not know for certain that this assignment was not some elaborate setup. He considered that as he rode the crowded Metro train back to his apartment in Troparevo. It was still possible that someone would surprise him in the hallway of his apartment house as he stepped from the elevator, as other Kremlin critics had been silenced on other Moscow evenings.

  Nothing happened to Ivan Delkoff that night, though. And nothing happened over the next fifteen weeks, as he discreetly implemented Turov’s plan, meeting with the arms supplier Hordiyenko in Kiev and hiring and training the five men who would carry out the mission.

  Nothing happened until that afternoon in August, when the world’s eyes suddenly turned again to Russia and history changed.

  August 13.

  By then, it wasn’t Turov’s operation anymore. By then, it was Ivan Delkoff’s operation.

  PART I

  THE CATALYST
r />   ONE

  Tuesday, August 10. Cyclades Islands, Greece.

  Christopher Niles stepped out of the sea into a perfect late-morning breeze. Crossing the narrow beach, he smelled flatbread cooking at the taverna next door. He saw Anna Carpenter sitting on a towel drying in the sun, her wet hair pulled back, and felt a tug of gratitude. The first two days of their vacation had been largely rained out, but Tuesday had dawned clear and balmy and there was no rain forecast again until the weekend. It would be a perfect day for their “conversation.”

  They had traveled to Greece at Anna’s insistence in order to disappear. To escape the demands of Washington and talk about their future. Disappearing was easier for Christopher now than for Anna, who was a public figure again, the recently elected US Senator from Maryland. In Greece, though, privacy hadn’t been an issue. She’d been recognized on the flight and once at Athens International Airport. But since arriving on the island, they’d been just what they wanted to be: two anonymous American tourists on summer holiday.

  Next month, they returned to their respective careers in D.C. Chris would begin a yearlong visiting lecture post at George Washington University, leading a seminar entitled “Russian Spy Craft in the 21st Century.” The class was spun off from a talk he’d given in the spring on the FSB and SVR, Russia’s domestic and overseas intelligence agencies. Next semester, he’d teach “War and Society,” exploring the impact of American politics and public opinion on warfare since World War II. Both drew nominally on his two-decade career as a government analyst and intelligence officer.

  If someone had told Christopher Niles three years ago, when he first met Anna, that he’d be teaching and lecturing now, he would have laughed. It wasn’t a life he had imagined for himself. But Christopher’s growing frustrations with his employer—the US government—and Anna’s gentle but persistent prodding had finally conspired to change his mind. What surprised him wasn’t just how easily he’d adapted to academia but also how little he missed intelligence work. All his life he’d harbored a tendency toward obsession, a need to fix big, sometimes unfixable problems. It was a trait passed on to him by his father, which had served him well in his work but often came at a personal cost. Anna had helped with that. Even his physical appearance had adapted, as she liked to say. Christopher still had the rangy build of a college athlete, which he’d been, but his blond hair was turning to gray and he’d taken to wearing glasses, which gave him a studious look more in line with his new job.

  They had been together now for two and a half years. But Chris and Anna’s careers, and their independent natures, had so far kept them from making a commitment. Greece was supposed to be about changing that. The plan was to spend six days at the beach, away from electronic distractions, and decide what to do with their life. But they still hadn’t had “the conversation,” deciding to wait until the weather turned. This morning, they no longer had that excuse.

  As Chris approached from the water, Anna sat up and watched, smiling faintly. The sand was bright and a little startling this morning after all the rain. Her skin felt warm as they kissed.

  “Something to drink?” he asked, drying off, knowing she’d want a strawberry Ouzito from the taverna next door. Anna looked good in the sun, her skin smooth, a small spray of freckles on her nose and cheeks.

  Chris walked across the warm sand to the taverna. Inside, two fans stirred the air. Greek folk music played from speakers, all violin and guitars. Waiting in line, he glanced across the screened terrace at Anna, reading her book in a circle of umbrella shade, and something closer caught his eye. On the other side of the screen: a small, slightly disheveled-looking man was pacing the concrete walkway, hands clasped behind him, scanning the beach like a military inspector; a tourist, perhaps, who’d become separated from his wife. But there was something familiar about him—the measured step and breezy wisps of white hair, the short-sleeved shirt, slacks and hard-soled shoes. Not the attire of a man on vacation. In fact, it almost looked like Chris’s old boss, Marty Lindgren.

  “Sir?”

  “Sorry,” Chris said. He stepped to the bar and ordered two Ouzito cocktails, watching the bartender as she nimbly sliced strawberries and squeezed in lime juice. When he glanced back toward the water, Christopher noticed the man outside looking in through the screen; he recalled a story children used to tell growing up: how everyone has a double somewhere in the world. It wasn’t really true, of course, although he’d often met people who shared the mannerisms of someone he knew.

  Chris paid for the drinks and carried them down the concrete passageway to the beach, invigorated by the sea air and the anticipation of his talk with Anna. When he looked up again, he saw the white-haired man coming his way, stepping with a familiar urgency.

  “Christopher? There you are. I almost didn’t recognize you with the glasses.”

  “Martin? What the hell?” Their first confused impulse was to shake hands, but Chris’s were full and there was no place to set the drinks. “I hope you’re not going to say you came here looking for me.”

  Martin flashed his old smile: thin-lipped and slightly reluctant, more pronounced on one side than the other.

  “Let me deliver this, I’ll be right back,” Christopher said, handing Martin his drink and walking onto the sand with Anna’s.

  Anna was sitting under the striped umbrella, reading the last pages of Eleni, the Greek novel she’d started two weeks ago to get in the mood for their trip.

  “You’ll never guess who I just ran into,” Chris said.

  “Should I?”

  “Probably not.” She took the drink and gazed up at him, her dark blond hair beginning to dry in the heat. Anna had classical features—“standard,” she’d called them—but a slightly mischievous tilt of the head that wasn’t standard at all. “In the interest of time,” he said, “I’ll tell you: Martin Lindgren.”

  “Oh.” Anna waited a moment before turning. She smiled at him and waved. Martin, on the edge of the sand, hesitated; then, as if on seven-second delay, his smile appeared and he waved back. “What in the world is Martin Lindgren doing here?”

  “He hasn’t explained that yet. I have a feeling it’s not to see the archeological sites.”

  Chris felt a tightening in his chest as he returned to the taverna. Martin’s appearance on this idyllic morning could only be a bad sign. Why would he have flown eight hours to see him without even calling first?

  “I like her,” Martin said, nodding toward Anna as he handed over the drink. He led Chris onto the terrace, where he already had a table and a cup of coffee. There was a travel bag on one of the chairs, a Greek newspaper and rumpled copy of the Financial Times sticking out. “Sorry to do this unannounced,” he said as they sat.

  “I’m surprised you found me. We were trying to stay under the radar. I guess you couldn’t phone or email first,” Chris added diplomatically.

  Martin ducked his head to the side in that good-natured way he had, which always reminded him a little of Ronald Reagan. Martin had a handsome, angular face, dark blue eyes, and the elegant gestures of an earlier time.

  “I could have, I suppose. But I needed to do this face to face. You’re not scheduled to return until the end of the week. This, unfortunately, can’t wait.”

  “Okay,” Chris said. During his time as a CIA officer, he had worked several times for Martin, who ran a small independent branch of the Central Intelligence Agency known as the AS Division. His office gathered human intelligence, prepared analyses, and carried out small-scale black ops, mostly using private contractors. Where there was consensus on an issue in the intelligence community, Martin’s branch looked for alternate scenarios; hence its initials. AS Division was born out of the new emphasis at Langley on so-called “anticipatory intelligence,” although the weight the division carried these days wasn’t great. Chris, who’d left the government two and a half years ago, still moonlighted occasionally for AS.

  “Something’s going on and I need to enlist your help,�
� Martin said. “Something with Russia. Very time sensitive. If you’ll hear me out.” He paused as the waitress came over to top off his coffee. Martin thanked her in Greek. Chris observed the clean, square cut of Martin’s fingernails as he reached for the cup.

  “Something involving—?”

  “We don’t know. That’s the problem.” Martin set down his cup. “All sorts of stories are circulating. Some you’ve no doubt heard.”

  “I’ve heard the saber-rattling.”

  “Well, yes. But more than that.” Martin drew in a long breath, his version of sighing. Since leaving Moscow three years ago, Chris had followed the same stories as everyone else: Russia’s announcements of new weapons programs, exercises with nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in the Baltics, violations of US airspace off the coasts of California and Alaska; behavior calculated to test the limits of NATO and the US. “They’re running exercises right now—today—in the Baltics with forty thousand troops,” Martin said. “But there’s also chatter about something less orthodox. Including sponsorship of terror strikes within our borders.”

  “Russia wouldn’t be involved in anything like that,” Chris said.

  “No. Probably not.” Martin had an odd habit of periodically closing his eyes and nodding as if to a private conversation, revealing reptilian-like eyelids. “Actually, I think they’re planning something else entirely,” he said, “something that we’re not even considering.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  Martin leaned forward and made a quick scan of the terrace. “Two reasons,” he said. “We’ve had some intel about a movement of dark money from St. Petersburg through a BVI company. Not a lot, nothing particularly out of the ordinary by Russian standards. Except that one of the accounts involved the Alkaev Group.”

  “Oh.” Chris felt the outside world close in momentarily: the Greek music, the voices and silverware from the kitchen became muted, as if he’d gone underwater. “That’s different.”