My Meeting With Putin
— A Novel by Lyle J Greenfield

I'm not into a political history lesson — is this actually an entertaining read? Yes. This isn't a history lecture — it's a ‘What if’ story of possibility. The real people and headlines are only the backdrop; at its heart it's the story of one ordinary man, an impossible meeting, and the chain reaction it sets off. Sometimes the most interesting ideas come from the least expected places.

Is My Meeting With Putin based on a true story? It's based on my assumption that the so-called summit between President Trump and President Putin would produce no plan and no peace. From there I imagined a radically different way of approaching this complicated war — and how it might actually be brought to fruition, beginning far outside the political arena, with a proposal from an ordinary citizen. In one sense it is based on a true story: the real war continues to this day.

What is the peace plan the protagonist proposes — and could it actually work? The plan is to create a new, neutral state from the embattled territories of Ukraine, including Crimea — one that preserves the integrity of both Russian and Ukrainian culture for all time, and opens the new country and its borders to East and West, as an ally of both nations. Could it work? Switzerland worked, and this could too. But it would take inspired leadership and real vision for the future from all the stakeholders.

Why does Trump get furious, and what role does the FBI play? A week after his meeting with Putin, the protagonist posts a video claiming he met with the Russian president just after Trump's summit in Alaska. He never expected to hear back about his plan, so he decides to promote it through social media. Local press — and ultimately FOX — pick it up as newsworthy. The FBI, seeing word of an unauthorized meeting with Putin, opens an investigation. And Trump, learning of it when almost no one in his circle knew anything about it, demands a subpoena. How could some nobody get a meeting with Putin?

Isn't this just a fantasy? Even Putin, in the book, calls it "one man's fairy tale." It is a fairy tale — unless you're willing to make it reality. Sometimes the most interesting ideas come from the least expected places, not from negotiations that go round in circles, always returning to the so-called "deal" of who wins what and who gives up what. The premise of the book is that a true outsider gets a "Hail Mary" meeting, and it sets a chain reaction in motion.

You're not a politician, a lawyer, or a professor of geopolitics — what qualifies you to imagine how this war could end? The only thing that qualifies me is that I care deeply about this, I have a vivid imagination, and I'm relentless in pursuing the attention of the people who can actually control the outcome. I have nothing to lose — I can't be fired, and I can't be convicted of a crime I didn't commit.

What inspired you to write this book — and why now? My deep frustration and sadness over the situation in Ukraine — and the absence of any real, positive negotiations — inspired me to write it. As I worked, I told myself I'd stop the moment the war ended. Four years later, the war continues, with no apparent solution other than more destruction and death.

Is there a sequel planned? No sequel is planned. Perhaps, if there's an honorable conclusion to the war, there will be an Op-Ed–style epilogue.