Robert Tanenbaum - Counterplay

Karp put his cigar down, it was making him queasy. “You fought these Chechen nationalists, but now you sound more like you’re on their side. Why is that?”

“Why?” Yvgeny repeated, looking over at his father who had seemed to be nodding off but suddenly perked up. “Because I am a Russian patriot. I do not like what has been done and what is being done in the name of the Russian republic to a people who want only independence. What’s more, I am a former Russian officer who led good, young men into battle and watched them get killed. But it is one thing to die for your country, and another to die for a lie. Myself and some like-minded others think that the Russian government is actually in…how is the expression? In cahoots?…with the Islamic extremists to prevent the Chechen nationalists from forming a legitimately elected democratic republic. They want chaos and instability, even if it costs Russian lives.”

“But why?” Marlene asked.

“From the Russian government’s point of view, it’s easy,” Yvgeny replied. “If there was a stable, independent Chechnya, they would no longer have an excuse to station troops there to ensure that the oil pipelines kept delivering. Access to the warm water ports is also important. And, not unimportantly, if the corrupt government in Chechnya was replaced, the graft and bribes, as well as the proceeds from criminal enterprises, would stop coming to Moscow to line the pockets of government officials and gangsters.”

“But why would Islamic extremists cooperate with the Russian government?” Karp asked, feeling a bit slow. “Don’t they want the Russians out of Chechnya, too, so that they can establish their caliphate?”

“Yes and no,” Yvgeny replied. “Eventually, they want the Russians to leave. However, there are several reasons they are willing to delay that fight. One, every time they strike a blow at infidels, in this case Russian civilians and soldiers, it is a wonderful recruiting and money-raising event. Without Russians to attack in Chechnya, they’d be left to fight other Muslims, the Chechen nationalists, which wouldn’t go over as well in other parts of the Muslim world, which is part of why the hard-liners publicly are careful to align themselves with their ‘Muslim brothers’ within the nationalist movement.

“Another reason is that a foreign infidel government is not nearly the threat to the Islamic caliphate as a single Islamic democracy. Once even Muslims taste freedom and get used to the concept of self-determination, they are not going to want to turn everything over to a single man to make decisions for all the rest. And if there is one such democracy, there will be more-the concept of a caliphate would be shattered by the formation of separate states based on national and even ethnic, but not religious, identities. Why else do you think they are fighting so desperately in Iraq and Afghanistan, killing Muslims by the thousands in direct violation of the Quran, to prevent the establishment of stable democracies? It is the democracies, not you Americans, which are the real threat to their plans. So in Chechnya, they are willing to work in an unholy alliance with their enemies the Russians to first defeat the nationalists.”

Karp cleared his throat, privately swearing off cigars and booze. “I don’t mean to be dense,” he said, “but what has this got to do with Kane? If it still does.”

Yvgeny looked at Karp quizzically, as if to tell him that he was on to him. “I am taking it that by now you have heard that a woman called Samira Azzam was instrumental in Kane’s escape and that she is a member of al Qaeda,” he said. When Karp didn’t answer, he nodded and said, “I understand you have probably been sworn to secrecy, so let me tell you what you already know and, perhaps, add a little to it.”

The tall Russian picked up a sheet of paper from the desk and handed it to Karp, who gave it to Marlene. It was a fuzzy photograph of a young, dark-haired woman walking down a sidewalk, looking back over her shoulder. Marlene noted the large mole on her cheek.

“That is the only known photograph of Azzam, whose real name is Nathalie Habibi. It was taken accidentally in 1999 by a tourist as Azzam walked away from an Israeli shopping mall. Moments later, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the mall, killing thirteen people, including a new mother with an infant. As you may already know, she was also behind the seizing of hostages at a musical theater in Moscow that ended with more than one hundred deaths, as well as the slaughter of more than three hundred innocent people, mostly children, at a school in Beslan. In both instances, the theater and the school, nearly all the terrorists were killed along with their victims, but Azzam always walked away unscathed and undetected by authorities even though the scenes were cordoned off.”

Marlene frowned. “You’re saying the Russian government allowed her to escape to fight again another day. And that means they’re allowing terrorists to murder their own people.”

“Exactly,” Yvgeny said, “though it should come as no surprise. We Russians have always been good at killing our own people. Stalin killed millions more than Hitler ever dreamed of.”

“But all those children,” Marlene said.

Yvgeny nodded sadly. “Yes, I know. It is a cold thing to contemplate. But you also have to understand that after all this time, Western journalists were beginning to actually look into complaints by the main nationalist party about Russian atrocities, including the bombardment of noncombatant towns and cities, and examples of ethnic cleansing-sometimes the population of entire villages wiped out-by the OSNAZ. The press was beginning to lend a sympathetic ear to the cries for independence and human rights abuses. A few brave journalists were even writing stories about the corruption and organized crime that dominates the Chechen puppet government. But then Beslan happened and good-bye sympathetic press. Despite denials by the main body of Chechen nationalists that they were involved at all, the Russian government went to great lengths to link Chechen nationalism to Islamic extremism for the massacre; for all intents and purposes, they were one and the same. Of course, any mention of a connection to Islamic terrorists to the Western press sets off their alarm bells. The Chechen nationalists went from being called freedom fighters to Islamic terrorists, thugs, and murderers.”

“Which brings us to why Azzam is in the United States helping Kane,” Karp said.

“Yes, my impatient cousin, forgive the lengthy discourse,” Yvgeny said. “As effective as Beslan was at discrediting the nationalist movement, it wasn’t enough. It was too far away and would be soon forgotten in the United States. They needed something here, something so horrific and international that any sympathy for an independent Chechnya would evaporate forever.”

“So what do you think they are going to do?” Karp asked.

Yvgeny paused and looked at the fire. “We are concerned that it has something to do with the Russian president’s speech to the United Nations in September. He is supposed to talk about the situation in Chechnya and the continued Russian presence there.”

“But I thought you said the Russian government was in on this,” Marlene said. “Are they willing to assassinate Putin, not to mention blowing up the United Nations?”

Yvgeny shrugged. “In some ways it does not make sense. You’ll remember that Putin is an ex-colonel in the KGB, the secret police that is now the Federal Security Service, which runs OSNAZ. It was our feeling at first glance that this conspiracy against the Chechen nationalists might go to the very top of Russian government and that he might be involved. After all, a leopard does not change its spots and this leopard was under pressure to withdraw from Chechnya both at home and abroad.