Earlier today, it was announced that Former Prime Minister Asta Dahn has agreed to write a book about her time and rise as a politician.
The former Centrist Party leader, who resigned in 2020, after just less than two years in power, has signed terms with Viktor Sepols’ new Landmark publishing house for a self-penned autobiography – the first of its kind in the country. Sepols is a close friend and former teammate of Dahn’s husband, now Simininya Karasicena head coach, Dimi Alenichev, and is thought to want to rival Dmitri Trediakovsky’s media empire – already establishing the new publishing arm early last year, with the aspiring businessman also expected to launch his own newspaper to rival The Republic sometime in the next few months. The deal with Dahn will propel his venture to the front of the public’s consciousness, and political conversation – with the former Prime Minister expected to ‘tell all’ about how she came to leave frontline politics.
While Dahn resigned, citing being pregnant with her second child, she was thought to have been pushed out after an escalating confrontation with Trediakovsky saw her private life come into question, alongside her professional judgement. Former Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Lebedev was thought to have been part of a concerted move to remove Dahn from her role, himself resigning, alongside other key government allies in the wake of the disastrous 2019 presidential election for the party and what was seen as Dahn’s poor response to the devastating 2020 New Year’s Day bombing attacks. Quickly succeeded by now Prime Minister Krill Serbin, Dahn was suspicious of what she called a ‘cabal’ around the Defence Minister who she now believes plotted her downfall. Serbin’s office is therefore already highly concerned that she may make accusations against the Prime Minister and other senior figures in revenge.
“What quite a lot of people around the former Prime Minister now believe is that a group of actually somewhat unlikely allies – what they call an ‘unholy alliance’ between the then Defence Minister Krill Serbin and the Gruaman-aligned former Deputy Prime Minister Lebedev – plotted to oust her. They say politically damaging stories were placed with the help of key allies within the media, from Serbin’s time as Communications Minister, with senior party officials believing Dahn could be blamed for the poor performance of the party since she took office, despite having won a convincing victory in the 2018 elections. The idea was to “incubate” the party, by blaming Dahn for a series of failures, and then move on with a new party leader. While there was disagreement within the camp as to who that would be, they were aligned on the fact that Dahn needed to go”, broadcaster and political commentator Alexander Tavorsky explains.
“What they are now all concerned about however, and this is even starker in Karasicena today, is that she now seeks revenge and could make accusations that damage the Prime Minister and other senior officials who already face challenging political circumstances in the Executive and more broadly in the country following the fallout from the 2023 elections. A draft report into the New Year’s Day bombings has already criticised Serbin, and there is some feeling that Dahn may go further in her book – potentially accusing the Prime Minister of using the attacks to oust her. That would be very damaging, but could also start a new civil war in the party.”
With her husband only just being announced in his new role as Simininya manager last week, the timing of the book deal seems designed to bring maximum coverage to the couple, who many see as trying to once again increase their influence at the top of Polasciana’s society. The Union’s cultural correspondent Emilie Khabarov says this feels only natural, “Dahn and her husband have been out of the spotlight for a year or so now after she was finally sacked fully from the government, leaving her role as Chair of the Foreign Executive once the new administration was put in place. Money is probably running tighter without her salary, and Alenichev had largely been out of work since retiring very young. They’re probably thinking about the future – and this seems like a logical next step for both of them in their careers. Football is a hard sport, and it was unlikely Dahn would play the doting housewife. Celebrity culture is relatively new in Polasciana, but it feels like both already know how to use it to their advantage. They are likely to become the best known couple in the country – that brings a lot of power.”
Landmark has already signalled international interest in the book, which is currently untitled, and is unlikely to be released until at least the summer.
