Information is a commodity, and quality exclusive information is a valuable and expensive commodity.
The vegetable storage has a cool, motionless silence all year round, egg cartons on the walls, echo vanishing instantly. I checked the light and sound. Today was a rare occasion: a guest over whom people will argue under the streams. He held his cup of coffee somehow familiarly, domestically. I shook my head: imagination. My father drank coffee the same way, but habits aren’t proof.…
Until recently I was called “Your Imperial Majesty.” By the latest documents: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Among the doubles I was Ivan Vasilievich Shpak, a.k.a. Cosmic. To society and family I died long ago: conveniently, silently, officially. I came here because I liked your channel. Having ended up abroad, I decided a confession before my former subjects should start right here.
We donated: ten thousand, another ten, another. Some wrote that a madman had been brought on air, others that this was the perfect double. Five hundred and forty-two donations, almost half a million.
The sum is raised, the hint dropped. But when the cameras went dark, the host was left with a question he couldn’t ask aloud: “Wife and son… Do I know them?” And the guest thought about his outburst on live air: who is he now, a retired double or an emperor called to a duel?
Read the complete story in “Putin’s Double Exposes.” This page contains only a short excerpt; the book has the rest.
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