It is 1999 and Russia is around the edge of total implosion. Public and moral purchase has collapsed and what small semblance of control there is, is being enforced by mafia-like criminal gangs. While public opinion in the Western is largely indifferent, the politics analysts are much less sanguine – Russian meltdown can make the disintegration of the Balkans appear to be the collapse of the cup-cake. Out of the chaos, however, a single charismatic voice is definitely getting to be heard – that of Igor Komarov, a visionary about Icon patriot who claims he can restore Russia’s greatness and bring prosperity to the masses. He actually woos Western political leaders with a fairly more realistic evaluation of the way forwards for Russia. Komarov is defined to win the next election whenever a document is smuggled in to the British Embassy in Moscow. It’s known as The Dark Manifesto and it seems to show Komarov’s secret plan – his political blueprint is actually Mein Kampf, the rebirth of Russia will end up being as a New Third Reich with Komarov as Fuhrer. But can the record end up being authenticated? And what can the Western Alliance’s most magic formula Trilateral Commission do about it if it is? They have to discover another tone of voice the people will pay attention to and obey instead of Komarov – an icon they are able to cleave to and trust. Once, not that way back when, he was called the Tsar.

Therefore develops a thrilling and increasingly frightening adventure – Jason Monk, ex-CIA, who used to run agents into the Soviet Union, is recruited and slips back into Russia, in to the desperate Moscow world of poverty, high end, gangsters and prostitutes and underneath it all, the titanic power battle to ensure the results from the forthcoming elections.