Kristina: A Novel

By John Sager

Kristina Mikhailovna Fedorova, or simply ‘Kristina,’ as she is known to her many friends. She’s beautiful, she’s talented and as the Russian embassy’s Cultural Attaché, she is the CIA’s best-kept secret.

The story follows her from childhood, through a marriage cut short by her husband’s demise, to one of Russia’s most-admired performers, all the while increasing her know-how and talent. Toward the end, she becomes the performer most sought after by the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Washington, D.C.’s most prestigious venue for art and music.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665555142

John Sager

John Sager is a retired United States Intelligence officer whose services for the CIA, in various capacities, spanned more than a half-century. A widower, he makes his home in the Covenant Shores retirement community, on Mercer Island, Washington.

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© 2022 John Sager. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction, the names a characters of which are products of the author’s imagination. Where real persons or events are evident, they are used fictitiously.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/17/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5515-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5513-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5514-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022905096

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Introduction

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Epilogue

About the author

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Kristina Mikhailovna Fedorova

Russia, a riddle wrapped in an enigma

AUTHOR’S NOTE

March, 2022

This novel is being written contemporaneously with Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. In the view of many observers, including those of this author, this action places him on a par with his long-ago predecessor Joseph Stalin, China’s Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Osama bin Laden, four of history’s most evil men. I mention this because the principal focus of this novel is on modern-day Russia, its people and customs. It should be a reminder for readers that Putin is and will likely remain such, the evil man that he is. That is why I have included much of his biography, available from several online sources.

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Putina. Spiridon Putin, Vladimir Putin’s grandfather, was a personal cook for Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Putin’s birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers, Viktor and Albert, born in the mid-1930s. Albert died in infancy and Viktor died of diphtheria during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany’s forces in World War II.

Putin’s mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Putin’s maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of the Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared on the Eastern Front during World War II

On 1 September 1960, Putin started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, near his home. He was one of a few in the class of approximately 45 pupils who were not yet members of the Young Pioneer organization. At age 12, he began to practice sambo and judo. In his free time he enjoyed reading on Marx, Engels and Lenin. Putin studied German at Saint Petersburg High School 281 and speaks German.

Putin studied law at Leningrad State University and graduated in 1975. His thesis was on The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law. While there, he was required to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and remained a member until it ceased to exist. Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught business law and later became the co-author of the Russian constitution. Putin would be influential in Sobchak’s career in Saint Petersburg. Sobchak would be influential in Putin’s career in Moscow.

In 1975, Putin joined the KGB and trained at the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad. After training, he worked in the counter-intelligence directorate, before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate where he monitored foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad. In September 1984, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute. From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany, using a cover identity as a translator. This period in his career is mostly unclear.

Masha Gessen, a Russian-American who has authored a biography about Putin, claims Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB. Putin’s work was also downplayed by former East German Intelligence Service spy chief Markus Wolf and Putin’s former KGB colleague Vladimir Usoltsev. According to journalist Catherine Belton, this downplaying was actually cover for Putin’s involvement in KGB coordination and