Empire of the Ring

Chapter 756: Siphoning Off (1)

The Kazakh royal family’s taking over Azerbaijan’s government-owned gold mines was a smooth sail.

At first glance, it could be seen as coercive, but there was no procedural problem as there was a precedent for selling gold mines to the private sector before.

When the royal family said it would manage gold mines as foreign exchange reserves, ministers who were able to keep their posts because of their minimal irregularities welcomed it.

It was because even the central bank, which had been in such a mess to the point of causing the foreign exchange crisis, could not be trusted.

And there was no justification to oppose it knowing that royal funds were the foundation of Kazakhstan’s spectacular economic growth.

It was a time when Azerbaijan’s real power moved to the royal family, so whatever it was, politicians were in favor of the royal family as the public sentiment leaned toward the royal family.

As the investigation into the private sector gold mine owners progressed, hidden gold bars came to a bright light one after another.

It was processed in an extremely secret manner, so the police bureaucrats did not even notice.

The gold miners hid about 3 tons of gold, but the gold hidden by the powerful, who received it from the miners, amounted to as much as 15 tons.

Even the central banks of underdeveloped countries would not have this much gold.

A huge amount of gold was found, but considering the output so far, the whereabouts of more than 30 tons of gold bars were still unknown.

When the shocking amount of gold poured out, Youngho urged the intelligence service to find the rest quickly.

“Search all of their in-laws’ assets, too.”

“What if we get caught? If ordinary people or bureaucrats find out, we have no choice but to hand it over to the central bank.”

“What are they going to do when we say we’re looking at the hidden gold collected in a dishonest way? The Azerbaijani government has so far neglected such irregularities. I won’t give them in.”

“According to our intelligence service, private miners have been mining without anyone’s interference for 10 years and have paid a certain amount of money to power elites. Strictly speaking, it’s like the government officials shared state-owned gold mines with the private sector. In principle, the owner of the gold mines is the country. They say they bought and sold mining rights, but there’s no evidence of how much they paid for such rights. They can’t say anything even if we take them away for the reason of unauthorized mining. The state abandoned the supervision of mine management a long time ago.”

The Aliyev regime and his aides, who suddenly took power after the collapse of the Soviet Union, were blinded by self-interest and recklessly disposed of the people’s property.

This would not be limited to the gold mines only.

It was safe to say that all the projects implemented by the state were marked by black transactions.

“If you dig up the roots, there will be no more public officials left.”

“Almost all public officials, big or small, were involved in corruption.”

It was right to change everything, but that would paralyze state affairs and shake the economy.

Even so, it was time for special measures to break the rampant corruption and the link to bribery.

***

It was the Queen of the Federal Kingdom of Kazakhstan who could confer a letter of appointment to the president under the authority set by Azerbaijan’s Constitution.

It could be said that it was the only official authority of the royal family. So, the prime minister was immediately appointed as the person acting for the President as the position was vacant.

When the acting president was appointed, the appointment of ministers from various ministries was completed and a full-fledged democratic government was born.

It was 29 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Of course, there would be a constitutional amendment and a vote for a presidential election soon, but unless there was an unusual situation, the chances were high that the current president, named by the royal family, would be elected.

Despite his hectic schedule in Azerbaijan, Youngho also did not forget to urge Park Jong-il to find the whereabouts of the rest of the gold bars quickly.

Jong-il began not showing up at all in front of Youngho who was so eager. Finding gold bars was also important, but there was a lot of work to be done before that.

One of them was to track down the Aliyev family.

“Your Grace, the Intelligence Service has found a clue.”

Suh Min-seok came into Youngho’s office and breathed heavily.

As Baku’s presidential palace was way bigger than the royal palace in Kazakhstan, it felt like he was working out all the time.

“Walk slowly. You’re out of breath. By the way, what kind of clue did it find?”

“The Aliev family is in Tallinn, the port city of Estonia.”

The city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, was located in the Baltic Sea. It was a historic city with a distance of only 80 kilometers from Helsinki, Finland.

As a country that gained independence from the Soviet Union, bureaucrats were appropriately corrupt, so even criminals could live like normal people if they had money.

It was a place where one could go anywhere in the world with a ship.

In other words, there would be traces left if traveling by plane, but one could disappear without a trace if traveling by ship.

In addition to minimizing exposure, using a ship had the advantage of transferring a lot of cargo such as heavy gold bars.

“Put Director Park on the line.”

Youngho complimented Jong-il for his effort when he was connected after a moment.

“Jong-il, you’ve done a great job.”

-Don’t even get me started. The paperwork I’ve been through to figure it out will be a truckload. He bought a super-sized yacht under the name of his close associate recently.

Park Jong-il’s excited voice was heard through the phone.

He went all the way to Estonia and was leading the investigation himself.

“Then there’s a good chance that his family had already escaped Estonia.”

-I haven’t confirmed that yet. We’ll find that out if we keep a close eye on big yachts.

“Do you want me to support the navy?”

If the Aliyev family moved, chances were high that they would use a ship.

Youngho proposed to mobilize the navy because it would be less problematic to raid Aliyev’s ship when he comes out to international waters, not at a port of Estonia.

-That’s a good idea. I’ll seize the yacht and take it to the Caspian Sea directly.

After calling Park Jong-il, Youngho contacted Admiral Jun of the Navy to prepare for the operation.

***

Captain Dmitry, the leader of the North Sea Fleet of the Kazakh Navy, was carefully studying how to seize the yacht while repeatedly reading the order issued by the fleet command.

It had been a month since he returned to the Port of Copenhagen, Denmark, after the Indian Ocean naval battle. He was about to get bored when a new order was issued.

It was an operation to seize the yacht that belonged to President Aliyev’s family who fled from Azerbaijan.

The mission of the Kazakh Navy’s North Sea Fleet was to protect the safety of the Arctic route, but there was nothing much to do as the Russian Navy was looking over the Arctic route.

Since Russia was an ally, the Kazakh Navy did not have to go to the Arctic route often.

The order to capture a yacht was like a children’s joke, so he felt like going on a picnic.

However, he would have to be careful as it would be problematic if the captain of the yacht sent a rescue signal during the capture process. It was because the Kazakh Navy could not be exposed during this process.

In order to seize the yacht, the naval ships would have to get close, overpower it with force, and then forcibly drag it. However, if a warship was near, who would stay still?

After suffering alone, he called in his staff for deliberation.

“Captain, if the warship can’t get close, we’ll have to fly the Lynx helicopter to approach it. I think we’ll be able to capture the yacht by dispatching only a few special agents on board the Aegis destroyer.”

Although it was an innovative proposal, it was also a dangerous operation that could lead to casualties because the armed forces of the former president’s security guards were also not to be overlooked.

“It’s a good idea, but there’s a risk of casualties. Think of another way. It might be troublesome if both parties get hurt.”

While everyone was thinking about it with their heads wrapped up, Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr, the captain of frigates, came up with a brilliant idea.

“Captain, you’re saying if the captain of the yacht sends a rescue signal, we’ll be exposed and be in trouble, right? Then why don’t we let neighboring countries know we’re on the move as a rescuer?”

As the Kazakh Navy was dispatched in the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean, fugitive Aliyev would think of Kazakhstan just by looking at a warship.

His yacht was bound to flee if the warship came up for inspection.

Of course, he would send a rescue signal, but it would be a different story if that warship suddenly turned into a rescuer.

“That means we have to tell the neighboring countries that we’ve dispatched our force.”

“Yes. Who would suspect our warships? Would they believe a private yacht or the internationally trusted Royal Kazakh Navy?”

“Of course they’ll believe us.”

“So let’s not worry about it and go with the standard rule. It’s about catching federal criminals, so what’s the concern?”

His answer was so simple, but would not the higher-ups have thought about it as well?

When being asked to refrain from exposure as much as possible, it meant that the yacht was as important as Aliyev.

“There’s a reason when you’re told to be extremely careful by the higher-ups.”

“I’m telling you this is being extremely careful. This is the best way to operate without loss of life. Or we can use a helicopter to capture the yacht.”

When the results of the operation meeting were notified to the fleet command, an order was issued to operate in a flexible manner according to how the situation unfolded at the scene.

In any case, the decision was made to seize the yacht early by threatening it with a Lynx helicopter and warships.

As they were in a hurry to prepare for the dispatch, intelligence agents in Estonia reported that the yacht was about to leave the port.

Two frigates and a supply ship were put into operation.

If a yacht was seized, it shall be towed to the Caspian Sea, so a supply ship was essential.

Although the naval officers expressed reluctance to have two frigates dispatched over just one yacht, the fleet command in the royal territory strictly said that two ships should escort it unconditionally.

“What the hell is on the yacht?”

If 30 tons of gold were loaded, it would be worth 1.6 billion dollars, and if more was loaded, it would be an amount to build a new light aircraft carrier.

The amount was estimated by roughly calculating the gold production volume. So, of course, it was a yacht that had to be strictly protected.