Chapter 1008 - Rubles and A Military Base (1/2)

When Jiang Chen went in, he noticed that at least ten pairs of eyes were focused on him. But he didn’t care and continued as if nothing had happened.

“Surprised?” Putin raised an eyebrow and gestured at him to sit with his empty hand.

“Indeed.” Jiang Chen shrugged and sat down across from him. Jiang Chen nodded to a waiter who handed some champagne to him then he looked at the leader of the fighters’ nation. “I heard the Minister of Foreign Affairs say that you were in the Crimean Peninsula inspecting the frontlines and wouldn’t return to Moscow for three days.”

Both of them spoke good English and didn’t need to communicate through translation.

Gently toasting with Jiang Chen, Putin drank the champagne in the cup and handed the goblet to the waiter.

“If you want to fool your enemies, you must first fool yourself.”

“Do you still need to be careful in Moscow?” Jiang Chen returned the goblet to the waiter as he joked.

“There’s no harm being careful. Russia’s territory is vast; it’s difficult to guarantee that no one will slip in.” Putin’s fingers crossed on his knees, his body leaned forward slightly, and his blue pupils looked straight at Jiang Chen. “So, time is tight. To not miss the party, let’s get straight to the topic.”

Putin eyed Nikolaev, who was standing behind Jiang Chen.

General Nikolaev immediately saluted, took a map from a bodyguard, and lay the map on the coffee table.

It was a topographic map covering the cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk, with contour lines depicting basins and mountains. In the middle of the two cities, there were also villages and towns. Three jagged black lines were drawn in the middle of the map. Three or four arrows pierced the hinterland of the Republic of Donetsk from the northwest like a sharp knife and divided the armed forces of Donetsk and Lugansk.

The map looked familiar to Jiang Chen. It wasn’t just European countries that were concerned about the civil war in Kane. However, the information disclosed on this map was slightly different from what Jiang Chen learned. Although he heard that the civilian armed forces were on the losing side in the end, he didn’t expect them to be in such terrible shape. The armed forces that had already been pushed to the Dnieper River were now forced back to their starting point.

Nikolaev’s next few words confirmed Jiang Chen’s speculations.

“Since last month, an illegal private armed force has entered Kane from Poland, and the situation has changed sharply. They claimed to be mercenaries and were employed by the President of Kane. The sources of funding were quite complex, including the National Foundation for Democracy which had a total of more than 20 North Americans, Europeans, and human rights institutions. Our intelligence personnel tried to investigate their behind-the-scenes shareholders, and eventually, all the clues point to an organization.”

“The Freemasonry?” Jiang Chen asked.

“You guessed it.” Nikolaev paused. “These aren’t regular mercenaries. They’re composed of retired veterans of NATO member states and refugees. They were trained in Finland. Their equipment isn’t limited to automatic weapons but also armored vehicles, tanks, and even helicopters…”

“Tanks? Helicopters? What’s the difference between this and an army?” Jiang Chen was stunned.

“This is an army, and the size is comparable to the 58th Army Group,” Nikolaev added.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Putin, who was silent, spoke up.

“So? Are you confident?”

“Confident?” Jiang Chen looked at him, and his expression was a bit strange.

Staring at Jiang Chen’s eyes, Putin continued: “This is about our cooperation, and we hope you will be their opponent.”

The room once again fell into silence.