The Devil's Handshake by Michael Reagan

most
problems because the President, although a good and honest person,
certainly wasn’t a wolf despite the traditional role of his tribe
to be so in the region. This meant Thomas needed to ensure that the
Minister was kept happy as he controlled the capital’s security.
That meant money and lots of it was needed to change hands.
    He was not new to this, as ever since he had
arrived in Russia, twenty-seven years old, flush with money from
U.S. Private equity and fresh from the hairiest experience of his
life in Iraq in 1991, Thomas had carved his own way free and away
from his father’s influence, doing deals including a couple
involving the use of the gun. It was because this unique business
experience and having had done his fair share of deals with the
devil that Thomas understood the problem the young President was
facing.
    One such a deal for Thomas was in 1996 and
involved a meeting with the ‘Mayor’ of St Petersburg otherwise
known as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
    At the time, the future President of Russia
was foolishly considered by some as a mere bag carrier for Yeltsin
and as such was dismissed by the new oligarchs “carpet-bagging” the
country being fuelled with U.S. finance as being of limited
importance in Russian politics.
    However when Thomas met him he immediately
grasped that sitting across him was a man of the principle who only
cared about one thing, Russia, and was determined to do this
through his newly promoted “National Champions” political
concept.
    This ideology was born out of Putin’s
education and experience from the ashes of communism, his idea, was
simple in design—the largest corporations in strategic sectors of
Russia’s economy are expected to not only to seek profit, but also
to “advance the interests of the nation.”
    Yet for all of Thomas’s initial skepticism
his basic instinct told him that he would be foolish to attempt to
discredit him, or worse, ignore him at his peril, so instead Thomas
offered the hand of friendship and support for Putin’s ideas.
    It was a move that would bind Thomas to his
fate forever.
    At the time, The ‘Mayor’ suspiciously had
taken his hand and money with a mere nod then a sip of his black
tea without a flicker of emotion.
    Over the four years that followed as both of
their mutual fortunes rose, Thomas had watched the Mayor rise first
to the top of the FSB, Russia’s replacement for the KGB and then to
Deputy Prime Minister before finally taking the Presidency from his
mentor six months later on the 31st December 1999 and in one night
ruthlessly take out those who stood in the way of his vision of a
new Russia for the twenty-first century.
    “ We have three years,”
Thomas had said to Mikhail at the time as they watched the Mayor’s
handover speech whilst celebrating the New Year in Haifa over a
traditional Jewish feast with Nara and Hanna, his wife.
    “ Three years?” Mikhail had
replied confused.
    “ Before he comes to take
back Russia’s rights!” Thomas had grimly answered.
    The exit strategy Thomas planned was simple
in design and required the diversification of the group’s assets
quickly, the taking on debt to fund it, whilst spreading his wings
in the process, so absolutely sure in his assessment that someday
the Mayor would come “calling.”
    In the early days of 2003, the Mayor did just
that. By that time the international influence of TLH had grown to
make him one of largest privately owned natural resources companies
in the world, its power extended well beyond that of owning yachts
or the football clubs like some of his contemporaries. Knighted in
his own right by the Queen for his business acumen, Thomas had
become a man who influenced the political elite of the World.
    However, he stilled faced one problem: the
lifeblood of the company depended on the cash flow from the oil and
gas revenues of the assets of its Russian companies.
    Sensing the changing mood correctly with the
way the state oligarchs were