Brent Colton is a retired CIA operations officer now in the employ of the Creighton Corporation, a privately owned think tank that advocates various opinions on world issues, but it’s his clandestine job to solve the dirty problems for their private clients for a million dollar fee with no questions asked. When recovering stolen technology from a Vietnamese industrialist, Colton obtains evidence that he secretly partnered with a U.S. Senatorto rig the recent presidential election and elect him to the nation’s highest office.

WILL THE SOVIET BEAR RISE AGAIN?
by Terry Heath, 2007

There is no such thing as a former KGB man.
--Vladimir Putin

Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected President of Russia, has died and was buried a few weeks back with mixed degrees of sorrow shown of his passing by the very people he once led. That is because he is left with a legacy that is so contradictory to those who preach the virtues of a democratic republic it will be hard for the historians of the future to properly interpret what he actually stood for and what he will be remembered for doing as the first popularly chosen leader of that nation which was our superpower rival for world influence for five decades.

Yeltsin’s tenure as Russia’s first chosen chief executive took it toll, both on him and on that country as it went through a massively fundamental economic, social and political change in the eight years he held office which ended up alienating many in that nation who felt Russia was going the wrong direction in the post-Communist years.

The Soviet Union had splintered and broke up the alliance of their states in 1991 when Russia and the other republics went their separate ways once Communism collapsed with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev going into forced retirement. The people of those many lands then embraced the best they believed democracy could offer to satisfy their long repressed yearning for freedom.

Or could it be that break-up was just a ruse to lull the West into a false sense of complacency for a number of years until the Communists were ready and some future point in time to strike back once and for all and take over the world?

An obscure 1984 book called ‘New Lies For Old’ by Anatoliy Golitsyn, a former KGB staff officer who had defected to the West in 1961 and was condemned to death in absentia by the then Soviet authorities, made the claim that the Soviets would, at some point in the future, pretend to drop Communism and aspire to be capitalists, then eventually conquer the world when the rest of the planet put its guard down some many decades from now after years of peace.

Golitsyn first wrote the manuscript in 1982 for the Central Intelligence Agency and published it in a book form two years later, just one year before Gorbachev came to power and started perestroika to supposedly improve relations with the West and strengthen his own country’s economy. But within a few short years the Berlin Wall came down, to be followed by the destruction of the Soviet Union itself. Were those events part of some secretive grand scheme or did such happenings merely spiral out of control once the people were given some liberties and demanded more?

Twenty-five years after that initial hypothesis was formulated, what can be made of Golitsyn’s prediction which appear to have been unique because no one in our numerous intelligence agencies ever postulated the potential break-up of our then only Cold War enemy, even in the weeks before the Soviet Union collapsed?

We’ve been told that from 1945 to 1991 the United States and the Soviet Union were supposedly in an epic struggle for control of the world. Proxy wars between the sides took place in such diverse hot spots as Greece, Korea, Vietnam, Angola and Afghanistan with the occasional skirmish potentially involving nuclear weapons occurring in places like Cuba, Germany and the Middle East when both players attempted to spread their particular political viewpoints to the people of the seven continents.

What was the point of such incidents for those many years? To keep the military industrial complex for both countries in full operational mode so the greatest amount of profits could be attained? But at what price did these minor wars inhibit the social progress of each nation’s civilian population?

The August, 1991 Soviet Union coup to stop Gorbachev’s ever growing economic and social reforms was poorly planned and half-hearted at best, and seemed that it was almost expected to fail. So why was it attempted? Was it to fool the West into thinking the Russians were truly changing their political beliefs while they regrouped for a half-century of a new strategy with the Communists going underground for that time until the momentum was right to make a comeback?

Russia has since went from that initial attempt at democracy once Communism ended there on the last day of 1991 to where it’s become an oligarchic style of government with a clique of former KGB officials turned billionaires running the country and having Vladimir Putin as their chief operating officer turned enforcer of the rules they selectively determine where might triumphs justice for all the rest.

Yeltsin’s handpicked the ex-KGB man to be his successor when he resigned in 1999 for health reasons. And he dumped all of Russia’s problems of succeeding as a democracy into the new man’s lap. But it appears Putin is more interested in maintaining law and order than allowing freedoms which could get in the way of the monetary profits of his allies. Putin was a KGB man before becoming Russia’s leader, as will most assuredly be the next president of Russia when chosen next year if he declines a third term as head of their government.

That’s why many have lamented that Russia under Putin has turned into KGB, Inc., with numerous former senior intelligence bureaucrats having aligned themselves with various sundry business interests, some legitimate while others are not, to plunder that nation’s resources for as much short-term profit that can be made.

So what is the long-term prognosis for Russia’s survival as a nation? They are starting to ally with China on many military and scientific endeavors while distancing themselves from the United States since the closeness between both countries following the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack against America have long since diminished and Russia’s finances have greatly improved because of higher oil prices these last few years.

But the Russian military still feels a threat by potential invaders from central Europe, with their worst fears being a revitalized Germany under another fascist dictator seeking territory for a growing empire of its own and looking east for living space.

Russia also has to worry about the looming invasion from China along their respective border in Asia. Russia’s population is declining while the Chinese need more and more resources for its 1.3 billion and still growing population of citizens seeking new lands for its multitude of people.

And what of Russia’s relationship with the United States? George W. Bush once proclaimed he could look into Putin’s eyes and see his soul. But the cooperation of both nations in the fight against terrorism and other mutual concerns has long since passed with Putin deciding to go his own way on what’s best for what he believes to be Russia’s survival as a country and race.

While Russia is presently not as menacing as the old Soviet Union was, they still possess 10,000 nuclear weapons. But will they remain an oligarchy where the elite selects who shall govern the nation while the masses remain poor and ignorant of what’s going on or shall those downtrodden people finally rise up to claim their own destiny?

Russia wants to re-assert itself as an important player in world events. But who is pulling the strings? Those still advocating full democracy for the Russian people, a select group of the super rich who exploit the resources of that country for their own greedy needs or is there a secret cadre of Communists who are ready to resume control when the time is right for their return as one lone voice warned everyone two decades ago?

So is it inevitable that the Soviet Bear will wake itself up from its long hibernation someday and re-introduce its presence to the world?

Terry Heath California E-Mail readermail@terryheathbooks.com