As “The Kremlin Conspiracy” releases today, new headline out of Washington seems ripped from the novel: “Baltic leaders warn U.S. not to underestimate Russia threat.” Here’s the latest.

March 6, 2018 By in Epicenter

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(Virginia Beach, Virginia) — I’m excited to announce that my new political thriller, The Kremlin Conspiracy, releases today in hardcover in North America. It also releases worldwide today in e-book and audio formats. 

In the novel, the fictional President of the Russian Federation is plotting a lightning-fast military attack to reconquer the three Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — once enslaved by Moscow during the Soviet era. Given that all three countries have been NATO members since 2004, the move risks triggering not only a war, but a nuclear war, with the U.S. and NATO alliance. But the Kremlin is gambling that Western leaders will flinch and be unwilling to really go to war to save our heroic and faithful Baltic allies. 

In the novel, Marcus Ryker — a former U.S. Marine and now retired U.S. Secret Service agent — is visiting Moscow as all Hell prepares to break loose. Working closely with a mole positioned at the highest levels of the Russian government, he finds himself at the vortex of the conspiracy, with one chance, and a slim one at that, to protect his country from imminent war.

In the days ahead, I’ll be doing a range of interviews about the plot, the characters, and why I wrote the book. But I couldn’t help notice a major headline in today’s papers that feels ripped from the novel itself: “BALTIC NATIONS WARN U.S. NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE RUSSIA THREAT.”

As it happens, the foreign ministers of all three Baltic nations are in Washington, laying the groundwork for an April 3rd summit between President Trump and the presidents of the Baltic States to discuss the Russian threat and urge the U.S. to pre-position more troops and equipment in the region to create a credible deterrence to Putin.

Interesting timing, to say the least.

I’m in Virginia Beach to launch the novel on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Later today, I head to Washington for more interviews and meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss the Russia threat. For the latest, please follow my updates on Twitter.

I do hope you’ll pick up and read a copy of my novel. I also encourage you to read excerpts from this important article published by Agence France Presse:

  • Sven Mikser of Estonia, Edgars Rinkevics of Latvia and Linas Linkevicius of Lithuania were careful to thank President Donald Trump’s administration for its support for NATO. But, in an interview with AFP after their joint meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the foreign ministers shared their concerns about Russia’s “hybrid” threat to the West.
  • “I think what we have seen in the past four or three years is the community of democratic nations is under the attack,” Rinkevics said of Russian interference and interventions. The very basis of our democratic institutions are under attack through social media by fake news, and also through the influence of money, and it is very important that we stick together.”
  • The Baltic republics will be able to reinforce this message once more on April 3, when their presidents come to Washington for a White House summit with Trump they hope will send a message to Moscow.
  • Rinkevics dubbed the threat “unprecedented since the 1930s and 40s” — the period during which the young Baltic republics fell under the control first of Nazi Germany then the Soviet Union.
  • Since the fall of the Soviets, the three have thrown their lot in with the West, turning away from Moscow’s orbit by joining NATO’s mutual defense pact and the European Union.
  • Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, has never made any secret that he resents this and regards former Soviet republics as belonging in Moscow’s zone of influence. As recently as last week, when asked which single historical event he would most like to reverse, Putin replied: “The collapse of the Soviet Union.”
  • To many, such a statement might seem like electoral bravado designed to play on Russian nationalism three weeks before an election that is expected to confirm Putin in office until 2024. But the Baltic states cannot afford to be complacent….
  • The visiting trio urged Washington to look the threat to their own and to European institutions in the face. “We’re always suggesting to our colleagues in the United States and Europe to be more realistic, not to be naive. Dialogue is important as long as it doesn’t serve as a smokescreen to do nothing,” Linkevicius said.
  • The Lithuanian envoy noted Putin’s recent belligerent speech in which he boasted that Russia had developed a new generation of nuclear arms to bypass missile defenses.
  • “That type of dialogue is not acceptable. And that’s military power, it’s not dialogue, it’s something else,” Linkevicius argued.
  • All three ministers agreed that they would like to see US troops based more permanently in the Baltics, alongside their British, Canadian and German allies.
  • “We really should act, and do this visibly with tangible means,” the Lithuanian said.
  • “NATO will never escalate. NATO will never be aggressive, but nobody should be in any doubt that we will do whatever necessary to protect our territories.”

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