A recently leaked e-mail from the Broccoli desk of EON Productions reveals a new James Bond adventure in the pipeline. As soon as 'The Rhythm section' hits the theaters coming November, recordings will start for another great James Bond spectacle. It will be some sort of a sequel on "From Russia with Love". A different story, however, with real life facts from Putin's struggle for Russian world dominance again.
In the email, Barbara speaks very excitedly of 'Mister P' having agreed to play the opponent of James Bond, suggesting Putin himself is eager to play this famous 'bad guy' role. On one condition only: the Brexit break between Europe and UK should be finalised by the time the film comes out.
Reading between the lines of an attachment to the e-mail shows the basic outlines of the story. It will be about Putin's attempt to resurrect Russia as a world power again by historic 'divide and conquer' tactics. At the background, there is the threat of highly sophisticated Sarmat missiles and nuclear submarine drones, but the real fight is fought with old-fashioned disinformation strategies. With proven KGB propaganda instruments such as "lying, cheating and denying", and extensive use of social media fake news, he succeeds in influencing and disrupting politics in the US, UK and EU, thus confusing and destabilising those powerful societies. Old Cold War 'Sleepers' have an important role to play in this version of "Stratego". The smart and patient use of those 'sleepers' on the spot - supported by sneaky funding - helps to convince voters that their democratic rights are respected and well protected.
In the film, it is up to James Bond to expose and eliminate the sleepers to save the Western alliance and freedom.