Black Sea Affair (26 page)

Fabulous. Another emergency. That's all Giorgy Alexeevich Popkov needed before meeting with an angry president. "Send him in, Olga."

The general, tall and lean with high cheekbones and white hair, wearing his crisp green Air Force uniform with a multitude of medals, stepped into the spacious office.

"Ah, General Ivanov. To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise?"

"I am afraid there is bad news."

Popkov stood and ripped off his glasses. "Spit it out, General."

"We have lost two of our Fulcrums. One of our pilots is presumed dead. The other has been captured by the Americans."

"The Americans!" Popkov slammed his fist on his desk. "Explain this!"

"Two of our jets delivered their rockets against ground targets in Chechnya. They wound up in Georgian airspace. American F-15s engaged them. One was shot down over Tbilisi. The other was shot down over the Turkish border."

"Do our pilots not know the president's orders? Our instructions were specific. No planes over Georgia. And now you are telling me that our planes are not only over Georgia, but also over Turkey?"

"Yes, our radar tapes are showing that, Comrade Minister." The general spoke in a stoic voice.

"You are aware, are you not, that Turkey is a member of NATO?"

"Of course, Comrade Minister."

"And you are aware, are you not, that the motto of NATO is that an attack against one is an attack against all? And that a Russian jet over Turkey is at least, in theory, the equivalent of a Russian jet over Britain or America?"

"Of course, Comrade Minister, I am aware of this. But our jet was not attacking Turkey. And reviewing the radar tapes, I am convinced that the incursion of Turkish airspace was inadvertent."

"
Inadvertent
?" Popkov wanted to fire his air boss on the spot. "And are our pilots so incompetent that one of them would
inadvertently
violate Turkish airspace, General?"

"Minister, in reviewing the tapes, three things are clear. First, our jets were over Georgia, but they were on a direct course for Armenia. We do not understand why. We did not attack anyone or anything in Georgia. Our incursion of Georgian airspace appears to have been accidental.

"Second, the American F-15s fired on our planes first. Not the other way around. The Americans were the aggressors here. Our planes fired back in an attempt to defend themselves.

"Third, our MiG was engaged in a dogfight with an American F-15 when it crossed over into Turkish airspace. When you are engaged in a dogfight for your life, you pay no attention to the borders below you. I believe that our pilot did not intentionally fly across the Turkish border."

"General, I remind you that our objective here is to recover plutonium, not to start World War Three with the Americans!"

"And I would remind the minister that the
Army
, and not the Air Force, lost our plutonium to begin with."

"You're out of line, General!" Popkov slammed his fist on the desk again. "You expect me to tell the president that both our Army and our Air Force are incompetent?"

"My apologies, Minister."

"I should fire both you and your Army counterpart on the spot right now!"

"Please, Minister."

Popkov ran his hand through his hair. "Sit down, General. I must think."

The general complied.

"Listen, General. This plutonium ordeal has caused great consternation in Moscow in the highest levels of the Russian government. There are those who would, shall we say, replace the upper leadership in the Defense Ministry." The general did not respond. "And if upper level leadership in the ministry is replaced, that would ordinarily not only include the minister of defense, but also the chief of the Russian Army, and the chief of the Russian Air Force, the position which you currently occupy. Do you understand me, General?"

The air general sat erect with his cover in his lap, an unemotional rock. "Yes, Minister. I believe that I understand you."

Popkov tapped a pen on his desk. "Well, if there is any ambiguity about what I mean, then what I mean is this. This incident did not happen as you say it did. Now you understand me?"

Enlightened recognition crossed the general's face. His steely eyes lit up, at least to the extent that such cold black eyes were capable of lighting up. "I understand perfectly, Minister."

"This means, of course, that whatever happened up there will need to be supported by the paperwork."

"Of course, Minister."

"Radar tapes, transmission recordings, whatever -- will need to back the report I give the president. Will that be a problem?"

"No problem whatsoever, Minister."

"Good. I meet with the president in one hour. To the extent that you can provide supporting information for my report, that would be very helpful. You do understand the importance of all this, no?"

"Consider it done, sir!"

"Very well, General. You are dismissed."

Office of the president of the Russian Republic
Staraya Square, Moscow

Three hours later

President Vitaly Sergeivich Evtimov sat behind his large desk, discussing the Chechen and Georgian situations with Foreign Minister Kotenkov.

"I believe the solution, Vitaly Sergeivich, is oil."

"And just like that, you believe Georgia will return to her native Soviet roots?"

"Ukraine seems to be leaning that way."

"Ukraine is different, Alexander Alexeyvich, " Evtimov said. "Ukraine is stronger than Georgia. And whether Ukraine breaks its fascination with America will depend upon President Butrin. Ukraine's size and independence gives it the luxury of playing footsie with both east and west." He walked over to the wet bar to pour a glass of imported Georgian red wine. "Care for a drink?"

"Please, Comrade President." The president handed his defense minister a glass of vodka. The defense minister took a sip and spoke again. "Your point about Ukraine is valid. Their economic independence lets them play both sides of the fence. Just the opposite is true of Georgia."

"I do not follow you, " the president said.

"The Georgians, like so many other nations, are cash-strapped. Unlike Ukraine, they are totally dependent on outside resources to survive. That's where we have an opportunity with Georgia."

"Go on, " the president said.

"Our petroleum resources in Siberia, Comrade President, could change the entire economy of that tiny country. Perhaps we offer to open a pipeline."

The president pondered that. "But does that break this insatiable desire for all things Western that we have been fighting with in so many of our former republics?"

"I think it gives us an opportunity, yes."

"I hope you are right. But if we do not find this plutonium, it may not matter. Besides, I am bothered much by this NATO overflight request. Do you know what that means, Alexander Alexeyvich?" Vitaly Evtimov glared at his foreign minister as he swilled down vodka. "That means that we have United States warplanes buzzing the skies on our southern border!" The president drained his glass. "How would Mack Williams like it if we had armed MiG-29s buzzing along the Rio Grande River or making armed flights over Tijuana?"

The president's intercom sounded.

"
Dah.
What is it?"

The voice of the president's chief of staff, Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin, boomed through the box. "Comrade President. The defense minister is here for you, sir. He knows that he is early, but he says that the matter is urgent."

The president exchanged glances with his foreign minister. "Very well. Send him in."

The double doors to the presidential office swung open. In a charcoal grey suit, the defense minister walked in. Giorgy Alexeevich Pop-kov always had an ashen look about him, but this time, his face signaled disaster.

"What is it, Giorgy Alexeevich?"

"Comrade President, I am afraid there is disturbing news from the front."

"Let me guess, Giorgy Alexeevich. The Chechens have already made a thermonuclear device with our plutonium."

"It is not the Chechens. It is the Americans."

"The Americans?"

"They have shot down two of our planes."

"How . . . what planes?"

"Two MiG-29 Fulcrums, sir."

The president looked at his foreign affairs minister, whose mouth was agape at this point. He looked back at Popkov. "Comrade Minister, the MiG-29 is the most maneuverable fighter in the world. At least that is what
your
office has told us. I demand an explanation!"

The defense minister brushed his hand through his hair, shifting his beady eyes between the president and the foreign minister.

"You are right, Comrade President, that the MiG-29 is the world's finest fighter plane. But even the greatest fighter plane in the history of mankind is vulnerable when ambushed."

"Ambushed? Are you saying that our planes were bombed by the Americans while they were sitting on the ground?"

"No, sir. Not bombed."

"Then what?"

"Our planes were operating over Chechnya, as you instructed, sir. They had dropped their bombs successfully on targets in Grozny. On their way back to Erebuni Air Base outside Yerevan in Armenia, they were flying near the Georgian border.

"Two United States Air Force F-15s were operating just inside the Georgian border, flying roughly parallel to our planes. The American planes were less than five miles from our planes.

"For whatever reason, the American planes launched a missile attack on our planes at point-blank range. We do not know if the American pilots panicked or what. But because they attacked at point-blank range, even the Fulcrums had a difficult time escaping."

"Our MiGs got off no shots in defense? I gave our pilots instructions to defend themselves, did I not?" the Russian president said.

"Yes, you did, sir. The problem here is the rules of engagement."

"What is wrong with the rules of engagement?"

"Our pilots may fire at the Americans only if fired upon. This leaves them with little option in a point-blank attack. Our pilots had no reason to believe that the Americans would fire their missiles across the borders into Chechnya at close range. Had the rules of engagement been different, the Fulcrums would have prevailed."

The Russian president let that sink in. "Are you telling me that the American planes fired their missiles from Georgian airspace into our airspace?"

"
Dah.
Their Sidewinder missiles do not understand international boundaries, Comrade President."

"But that makes no sense, " the foreign minister interjected. "If they attacked our planes in Chechnya, how do they have one of our pilots? Did they send their 82nd Airborne across the border to capture our flyer?"

"A good question, Minister, " the defense minister said. "Their missile exploded near one of our planes. Our pilot heroically ejected before his MiG went down. But because he was so close to the border, and because of strong wind currents, he was blown across the border into Turkey. Naturally, I would expect the Americans to concoct some other version of the events to save face."

"Naturally, " the foreign minister said.

The Russian president detected skepticism in the foreign minister's voice. "It is amazing, " Evtimov said, "that our pilot could bail out of a plane struck by a Sidewinder missile, is it not, Giorgy Alexeevich?"

The defense minister squirmed. But then again, Giorgy Alexeevich Popkov always squirmed.

"Yes, it is amazing that our pilot survived. But that is a testament to the strength of the MiG-29, that it could withstand a direct missile attack, and yet, our pilot could survive!"

President Evtimov's eyes locked with his foreign minister's. An awkward moment of silence ensued. "Sit down, Giorgy Alexeevich."

Evitmov was still fuming about the fact that American warplanes were over Georgia. Had they kept their planes away, this would have never happened.

Yet something about the defense minister's version of the events was tempering his anger. He looked at his trusted friend and advisor, the foreign minister.

"What is your take on all this, Alexander Alexeyvich?"

The foreign minister pondered for a moment. "If what we are hearing from the battlefield is accurate, then technically, the Americans have committed an act of war. Great wars started over lesser things. The assassination of the Archduke of Serbia, as you will recall, plunged the world into the First World War.

"While this is technically an act of war, at this point, there is at least a plausible explanation. Perhaps their pilots panicked, believing that our planes were about to enter Georgian airspace.

"Comrade President, I would urge measured restraint. Two planes are not worth a possible nuclear exchange."

"Then what are your recommendations, Alexander Alexeyvich?"

"That we take four steps. First, that we call for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, seeking to condemn the Americans for their hostile acts. Second, we demand the immediate release of our pilot. Third, we demand monetary reparations from the Americans for the family of the dead pilot. And finally, we issue a stern warning that any further attacks against Russia or its interests will result in war."