If it only takes half an hour to sway ministers, what else could one learn here?
They brought me to the Department of Energy, and I offered the Americans something odd: buy our oil and LNG. Not instead of green energy, but for when the wind drops and the sun hides. “Insurance, not opposition.” All three stayed silent; no one said no. At the break I asked John to get everything on them. Photos and numbers only.…
I smiled the way one should on camera and talked about 2035. Then I was shown a folder, and steel, I suppose, flashed in my eyes. I said: “In their place, I’d support any initiative you proposed.” And then I advised him to apply for our grant. Habit.
I twirled my pen and pointed out the weak spot: batteries. He answered with a reserve. I said that politically our relations with Russia are complicated. Then I said too much: about Crimea and Donbas, “let those without sin do the condemning.” I don’t know why.
The deal is sealed before anyone says the word “blackmail.” But the double notices the first crack in America’s image and asks himself a question he hadn’t planned to: what are her sins? And that evening, in a list of universities, he finds a name he has already heard from his wife.
Read the complete story in “Putin’s Double in USA.” This page contains only a short excerpt; the book has the rest.
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