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A book of Yekaterinburg journalist Ksenia Kirillova, who was written together with the author of spy novels, Michael Davidson , was published in the United States. The book is called the "successor". The plot is based on a story about an attempt by Russia to deceive to establish relations with the West.
The book has incorporated the events that really took place: for example, the US president’s adviser has ties with Russia, and one of the main characters, a Ukrainian intelligence officer, is faced with a fracture - a high -ranking FSB officer, says Ksenia Kirillova :
- The book is called the "successor". This refers to a person who will replace the current president of Russia. Why right now you and your co -author decided to write about it?
- On the one hand, this is a reflection of rumors that circulate in the Russian media space, which allegedly seek the successor to Vladimir Putin. On the other hand (I don’t know whether it is possible to believe these rumors), I am worried about the degree of compromise with the authorities, to which some members of the opposition movement in Russia go and can go. It is clear that they need to survive and come to power, somehow win the sympathies of the population, but at the same time very serious risks arise here, because portraits can change, but the system will not change. And now, probably, here this refers not so much a specific successor as this is the problem.
Ksenia Kirillova
- You are talking about compromises that the Russian opposition is going on. What exactly do you mean?
- I would not want to call specific names, because it is clear that there is no clear evidence of the connection of a particular opposition leader with a particular “Kremlin tower”. There are only compromises that a person goes to, but we do not know motives. We all know the position of some opposition leaders in the Crimea. Yes, we saw the articles of Andrei Piontkovsky, where he is surprised how some people get a dossier, obviously based on the materials of the Lubyanka.
- In the liberal book, the “successor” comes to power, but it turns out that he is going to continue the current policy. In your opinion, it is possible that Russian society, which now supports the Kremlin’s policy, eventually votes in the election for a candidate with democratic views?
- The idea of the successor is when the sanctions from the West become so rigid that the confrontation is absolutely unprofitable for the regime. And the regime itself selects a candidate with a “democratic” role, because this is the only way to formal establishing relations with the West, and relieve sanctions. But democratic role is visibility. And the receiver is waiting for the moment when it will be possible to start revenge, because it is very much connected with the system. This is the plot. I do not predict that a democratic candidate will come to power, because a popular mood will change. A person will come to power if it will be beneficial if the regime itself summarizes this.
The book is fixed. This is not a prediction of the political situation in Russia. This is one version. Such a version is possible? Yes, it is possible with a combination of several conditions: the strict foreign policy of the West, the growth of popular discontent in socio-economic, not political, reasons when, due to the economic situation that arose as a result of the conflict with the West, the authorities will not be able to suppress popular discontent. And then a change in portraits according to this scenario may occur. Now it is really unlikely.
Between agent and corruption ties, the difference is very small
- One of the storylines of the narrative concerns Russian contacts with the advisers of the American president, which, apparently, is based largely on real events. This information and what these contacts ultimately lead to, the description of events in Ukraine is perceived as a warning. Did you think about it when the book wrote?
- Undoubtedly. Because here, in the USA, these scandals began before the elections, and we wrote the book before the election of the American president. And the risks were obvious. Because we, using the example of Ukraine, just see that the difference between agent and corruption ties is very small. If we do not even have evidence of an agent conspiracy, which reaches almost the degree of Stateisms, then any conflict of interests, the financial interest that is hidden can lead to the same results - moreover, the conspiracy, to the same unspoken agreements and so on.
Unfortunately, the Americans only now begin to understand that in the corruption network that Putin created both abroad and within the country, there are very different nuances of cooperation, when a person himself does not understand how he has been drawn into a system of relations (financial, contractual and others) for many years. And at some point it turns out that it is very seriously connected: once at some reception they reached oral agreements, received a lot of money, it seems to be in the framework of business ... I give this example not only the United States, but also in Europe. The entire Putin network is something like this.
- Models of corruption ties that you describe, along with other reasons, influenced what is happening in Ukraine now. And in your book, Ukraine, along with the USA and Russia, is present, one of the main characters is a Ukrainian intelligence officer. How is it all connected together?
- The connection with the United States is quite simple. The image of the president, of course, is fictional: this is not Clinton, not Trump. This is no one. This president from the book is very abstract. And the abstract attitude of the abstract president towards Russia - he is strict towards Russia. And Ukraine is the cause of sanctions against Russia. If the sanctions are tightened, then any new information about Russian crimes in Ukraine will force to respond to such a president: an abstract, honest one who reacts not to his own personal relations with Russia, but to real events. And any new information about Russian crimes in Ukraine may affect the tightening of sanctions. Here is such a bunch with the United States. We still have a spy romance, so it has defectors. Any defectors prefer to escape to America, and not to Ukraine, because it is unsafe in Ukraine. We see this on the case of Voronenkov, which is shot in Ukraine. And if it is more profitable for someone to offer information in Ukraine, it is more profitable to offer it to the CIA, and not the SBU. This is from here this ligament. As long as Russia's behavior in Ukraine affects the relations of Russia and the USA, Ukrainian themes are present.
Cover of the book "Successor"
- Roman Spy, and the co -author of your book, Michael Davidson, worked in intelligence for many years. Did this determine the choice of one of the main characters ? About n, after all, a scout is also.
“Yes, yes, because Michael Davidson really knows these things.” Thanks to him, the book turned out to be very realistic. After all, there are a lot of books on spy themes are written by people who know nothing about it. And I don't know anything either. Therefore, completely fantastic things appear that a professional cannot read. Professionals say: it doesn’t happen! Michael Davidson in his early books also deliberately allowed things, which does not happen, but which the genre requires: for example, shootings. In our book, the scout Mikhailo is preparing an ambush, from which he manages to break free, although in fact, as Michael Davidson told me, the work of the scout is much more boring. At the same time, we tried to make the “tribute to the genre” minimize.
My co -author has not been working in the CIA for 25 years, he retired shortly after the end of the Cold War. Now he is writing his novels. Once he simply noticed my articles in social networks. Of course, he became interesting. We talked, began to communicate. He asked for advice on separate types for his book. The paradox is that many people, although they traveled half the world, for example, do not know what a real emigrant feels, a person who loses everything and remains without soil underfoot. Not everyone knows detailed details about life in Russia, life, which, of course, need to be described in the book. And now, at his request, I painted some kind of type in very detail, in fact as a director for the film. He really liked it because he saw a ready -made image. And I had the arrogance to offer to write together. Michael Davidson knows the Russian language (I, unfortunately, write only Russian so far), and he agreed to translate my chapters.
Since I am engaged in Ukrainian theme as an international journalist, I immediately had an idea, what else can be told. After all, it is impossible to write about modern events in Russia without showing the Ukrainian war, the factor that has changed Russia so much. If we are talking about the Kremlin organizations, and I see how they act in the USA, why not show this fact, if it is true? In other words, our cooperation began with the fact that my co -author laconically set the topic, and I added that one can say on this topic, ”said Ksenia Kirillova, one of the authors of the book“ The successor ”of Radio Liberty.