“What can I do for you, Mr. President?” SecState Adler said.
“Scott, I want you to set up an appointment with that new Russian ambassador ASAP.”
“You mean Christyakov? The one whose credentials you haven’t accepted yet?”
“Yeah. That one.” Ryan rolled his eyes. The chief of protocol had vetted the man. Christyakov was apparently no more odious or problematic than the other ambassadors in Yermilov’s diplomatic corps. Ryan wasn’t eager to accommodate yet another crony of the Russian president, even if he was Yermilov’s most important diplomatic officer.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why the change of heart? And why now?”
“I want his rear end in a chair across from the Resolute desk so I can get the measure of him. If the Russians really are up to something in the South Pacific, he might know something about it, and with any luck, I can shake it out of him.”
“Not literally, I hope.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
Yermilov had just appointed the nephew of Russia’s largest petroleum conglomerate, GazNeft, to the American post, a man with no diplomatic experience whatsoever. That was fine with Ryan. He was more than happy to steal candy from a spoiled Russian baby.
“My people on the Russia desk say there’s more to him than meets the eye. He might be harder to rattle than you suppose.”
“A diplomatic credential does not a diplomat make.”
“That’s just the thing. He’s not like most diplomats.”
“Then it should be an interesting conversation. If a Russian sub is behind all of this mess, I intend to find out, and convince him to tell Yermilov to back off. Frankly, Scott, I’m worried about the bigger picture here.”
“Are you referring to the Snow Dragon exercise next week?”
“Yeah. And that’s just one piece of a larger puzzle.”
Snow Dragon would be the largest joint Chinese-Russian naval exercise ever held, and it was taking place in the Bering Sea. Snow Dragon was part of an alarming trend of cooperation across the spectrum by both governments hostile to American interests. Snow Dragon in particular was aimed at the Sino-Russian drive to exploit Arctic natural resources and newly opened Arctic shipping lanes.
In the relationship—Ryan likened it to a shotgun wedding between the Hatfields and McCoys—Russia brought to bear its technological and engineering expertise in Arctic oil and gas production. China brought its enormous banking and credit reserves to fund those operations, including a GazNeft facility now pumping over sixteen million tons of super-cooled liquefied natural gas from beneath the polar ice.
The Chinese Politburo had released an official white paper six months earlier outlining their plan to create the “Polar Silk Road,” an extension of its global Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI was China’s grand strategic plan to bring about a Eurasian economic zone. This would ultimately lead to political and military integration of the Eurasian landmass, an existential threat not only to the United States but also the rest of the world.
The Polar Silk Road through the Arctic would shorten the sea route from Shanghai to Hamburg by more than three thousand miles. A major military exercise in the Bering Sea within shooting distance of Alaska gave a whole new meaning to the idea of a new “cold” war.
“Let’s get this Christyakov his papers, and then we’ll see what he’s made of.”
“I’ll get right on it, Mr. President. Any chance I can watch? I’ve never seen two scorpions in a bottle fight it out before.”
“It’s better if I handle this on my own. It won’t take long for either of us to find out who has the bigger stinger.”