“That’s why you suspected a coup was coming?” asked Bennett.
“It was only a matter of time,” said Mordechai.
“So what does your crystal ball say is coming next?”
28
It would soon be daybreak.
Mordechai had a plane to catch. But Bennett’s question was the entire reason for his visit. There was just one problem: Bennett wasn’t ready to hear all that Mordechai had to say. Neither was Prime Minister Doron, for that matter. This wasn’t something you could just spring on people. You had to prepare them. You had to win their confidence and ease them into the pool. Or you ran the risk of losing them forever.
“You heard that Andrei Zyuganov is alive, right?”
“I did,” said Bennett. “Lucente told me. I couldn’t believe it. All I can figure is that at the last minute Jibril must have shot Ilyushkin instead of Zyuganov.”
“That is my guess, too,” said Mordechai. “So did you hear where Zyuganov showed up yesterday?”
“No, where?”
“Berlin.”
“Why?”
“Your friends over at Langley think Zyuganov was probably reassuring the Germans that Moscow was not about to send the Red Army to take over the Reichstag.”
“But you don’t buy it?”
“Not quite, Jonathan. Gogolov has something up his sleeve. And whatever it is, I suspect Zyuganov was there to get Chancellor Strauss and his government to sign on. As far as I can tell, Zyuganov has been working his way through each member of the Security Council — minus the U.S. and Great Britain, of course — harvesting the easy votes and buying the rest.”
“To what end?”
Mordechai hesitated. Bennett liked him, trusted him. He wasn’t ready for the full story — not yet — but Mordechai could at least point him in the right direction. He checked his watch. His plane left for Brussels in less than two hours.
“Jonathan, I believe Yuri Gogolov is trying to build Russia into a new global superpower. I think he is creating a strategic alliance with Iran through Jibril. And I think he is in the process of forcing most of Europe to get on board with his agenda.”
“What are you talking about? How?”
Mordechai had to tread carefully. He had to be honest with Bennett without saying too much too fast. “I am not sure what Gogolov’s next move is. Not exactly. But he is clearly trying to split the Europeans away from Washington. Just look at his moves over the past few weeks. Whatever his ultimate objective, he wants the Europeans on board. And behind the scenes he is playing hardball to make it happen.”
“I’m still not following you,” said Bennett, who had been exhausted five hours ago and was now almost completely out of gas.
“Let me put it this way, Jonathan,” said Mordechai. “How much oil and gas does Germany import every year?”
“What do you mean?”
“How much? You know the figures.”
“About ninety percent of her oil, and eighty percent of her natural gas,” said Bennett.
Three years of working on the Oil-for-Peace deal had made the man an expert, thought Mordechai. The numbers just rolled off Bennett’s tongue.
“And who is Germany’s number one supplier of natural gas?”
“Russia.”
“How much does Berlin import from the Russians?”
“Almost forty percent.”
“How about France?”
“The French get nearly a quarter of their natural gas from Russia.”
“Italy?”
“About the same.”
“Austria?”
“They get about two-thirds of their natural gas from Russia.”
“And Turkey?”
“With the new Blue Stream pipeline, they get almost eighty percent of their gas from Russia.”
“You see where I’m going with this?” Mordechai asked.
“You think Europe’s about to be blackmailed,” said Bennett.
“About to be?” Mordechai responded. “My friend, the die has already been cast. Moscow could shut down Europe’s economy in a matter of days if it wanted to. How long would it take for chaos to erupt from the moment Russia turned off the flow of gas into Europe? And think about it, Jonathan. What did Gogolov say to you in Moscow? ‘Russia no longer believes in the efficacy of an East-West conflict…. A new day has dawned, a day of unprecedented peace and prosperity for everyone of goodwill.’ ”
Bennett looked stunned. The press in recent weeks had reported Bennett’s release, but no one except the president and the NSC was supposed to know he’d met personally with Gogolov, much less the substance of those meetings. Yet Mordechai knew.
“How…”
“Jonathan, how I know is not your concern,” Mordechai responded. “What I know is. And I am telling you, that line is the key to deciphering Gogolov’s intentions.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning Yuri Gogolov wasn’t simply a disciple of Zhirinovsky. He was the man’s brain. Very few people know that Gogolov was the ghostwriter of many of Zhirinovsky’s speeches as well as Zhirinovsky’s 1993 autobiography, The Final Thrust to the South. Few in the West have ever read it. But I believe it is a road map to where Gogolov is about to take us. Gogolov believes what Zhirinovsky believed, that Russia’s last great imperial expansion will not be to the west but to the south. See for yourself.”
Mordechai handed Bennett a plain brown folder.
“Read it,” he said. “Then call me. I have a plane to catch.”
A moment later Mordechai was gone.
Bennett poured himself another cup of coffee and opened the folder. Inside was an English translation of Zhirinovksy’s book. Key pages were marked with yellow Post-it notes. Occasionally a note from Mordechai was scribbled in the margins. Key passages had been marked with a yellow highlighter. Bennett skimmed the highlighted sections.
All Russia’s troubles lie to the South…. Until we resolve this southern knot there will be no getting out of this extended crisis with its interminable exacerbations…. Russia reaching the shores of the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea is a task that will be the salvation of the Russian nation.
[I am proposing] a solution to a global problem, a solution with planetary implications…. We must permanently calm this [Middle Eastern] region. Resorts, youth camps, sanatoriums, and preventive health clinics will be established on the shores of the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Great spaces can be acquired for relaxation. The entire South can become one large zone of resorts and rest homes for the industrial north and all other peoples.
We must change our border. We must have an outlet on the Pacific and Indian Oceans, or set up a ‘wall of China’ to separate us from the South. But building a wall would interfere with our trade with Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. That would impoverish us. So we probably shouldn’t do that. So there is only once choice. The operation should be carried out using the code-name “Final Thrust to the South.”
All this will be a stimulus to the economy, transportation, and communications and provide raw materials for food production and light industry, cheap labor, and the possibility of establishing new rail lines to Delhi, Tehran, and Baghdad, new air routes, roads. The Silk Road should be reestablished, running from China and India into Europe. It will run through Russia. Russia will grow rich.