A party in Hanoi
Immediately after Igor Ruskin had closed the meeting in his office and given the appropriate orders, Russia’s foreign minister Aleksei Bogomolov called the Russian ambassador in Vietnam on a secure line. He didn’t know what time it would be there, but he didn’t care. The matter was top priority.
It was clear from the ambassador’s voice that he had got him out of bed. That was probably why he used a tone that forced the diplomat to wake up with a start and pay close attention to what his immediate superior was telling him. He faithfully relayed the president’s orders and made it clear to his ambassador that these instructions came from the top. His mission, he stressed, was to do whatever was necessary to ensure that the shipment would not encounter the slightest obstacl
