Russia (21st Century Crisis)

The United Russian Republics (Russian: Объединенные Pеспублики России Ob"yedinennyye Respubliki Rossii) also known as Russia, is a country in Eastern Europe, Central and North Asia that consists of 140 republics.

Originally founded as a confederation of East Slavic nations, what is today Russia experienced a surge in history with the formation of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, both of which, form a basis for modern-day Russia. In 1992, many of the Soviet republics, namely Kazakhstan, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia broke away from the Soviet Union. However, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine stayed together, and in 1994, were re-joined by Kazakhstan, Moldova and Tajikistan. In 2008, Russia invaded and annexed Azerbaijan, and Georgia in 2018.

in 2000, with the rise of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Soviet Union was officially re-named "Russia".

Russia borders a large plethora of nations, including Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Scandinavia to the northwest, Turkey to the southwest, Manchuria to the south of its northeastern republics, Mongolia, China and Romania to the south as well as the Black Sea.

Russia is currently one of the competing military superpowers of the world, boasting the largest tank, artillery, anti-aircraft and nuclear force, with a strong navy and air force that projects power in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In addition, the Russia is also considered one of the oil and gas powers of the world, producing more oil than Saudi Arabia, and producing natural gas, which all of Europe and even Asia relies on.

The major religions are Christianity - which the majority follows (Russian Orthodox and Ukrainian Orthodox Church), followed by Islam, Buddhism and Shamanism. While Russian is designated as the national language, Russia has many regional official languages, as the country is multi-ethnic.

Communist Era 1917-1991
After the Red Army defeated the White forces, the Whites fled to Alaska. The Whites took with them books, artwork and other Russian cultural artifacts that would have otherwise perished under the new communist regime in Russia. Alaska became the abode of White Russian culture, and was backed by the British and American forces in case the communists ever tried to attack them. After the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, Stalin initiated the Winter War and the Scandinavian-Soviet War, both of which inflicted serious damages to the Soviets and exposed flaws within Soviet military leadership. This led to the bloody coup against Joseph Stalin, which Hitler used as a basis for his latter invasion of the Soviet Union, calling the Soviet system corrupt and a failure. However, the following leader, Sergey Sedov, re-established order and hope in the Soviet Union. His reforms included reparations to the Ukrainian SSR. Military leadership improved, creating a huge dilemma for Hitler as Sedov knew exactly that Hitler had plans to invade the Soviet Union. However, Sedov kept the Soviet stability a secret, and made the Soviet Union out to be an ailing nation to decieve the future German invaders. Operation Barbarossa ends up twice as disastrous, the Battle of Stalingrad never happens, although Turkey joins the Axis and cooperates with Germany on its invasion of the Soviet Union, the Red Army still sustains a large casuality rate, it is less worse than in our OT, and the German invasion of the Soviet Union ends earlier, in 1943, by the time D-Day commences, the Soviets have already reached Hungary. Soviets have so much manpower, they send large numbers of Soviet troops to partake in D-Day. They emerge as the world's paramount military rival to the United States. Soviet Union never invades Afghanistan, although continued to support the Democratic Afghan Republic. Both the Soviets and Americans agreed to led Afghanistan take its route. Like Scandinavia and Yugoslavia, Afghanistan first becomes non-aligned, but joins the Chinese bloc (up to today, is still a Chinese ally). Afghanistan becomes, a rather prosperous nation with its rich natural minerals and oil. It aids Pakistan in their war against India.

During the Cold War, Ronald Reagan is murdered. Therefore, the collapse of the Soviet Union, was a minimal fluke at best. Without Reagan's policies, the collapse of the Soviet Union was harder to achieve, and the Soviets continued to exist well throughout the late 20th century.

However, Democratic revolutions still rage Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall still falls. Yet, the efforts achieve little, and while the Warsaw Pact is effectively dissolved and Soviet military and political control of the former Warsaw Pact disappears, Eastern European nations are still forced to trade with the Soviet Union. Soviet GDP decreases from approx. $5 trillion to $3.2 trillion.

In 1987, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would allow some privatization, using the Chinese tactic of rise to power. He initiated the Red Square Incident, similar to the Tiananmen Square Incident in China. Gorbachev kept the Communist Party in power the Soviet Union.

However, Gorbachev gradually introduced capitalism, though it was kept an open secret, much like China, and transitioned into a communist-in-name-only state.

He defeated a coup attempt led by pro-western Boris Yeltsin, and had Yeltsin imprisoned, and later decided to have him shot, fearing that Yeltsin would become a "Yankee puppet".

Modern Era 1991-present
Soviet forces removed as much of their militaries from the new republics, especially the Baltics and Central Asia. All of the ethnic Russian soldiers left, and members of the former Soviet air force flew all aircraft back into Russia. Gorbachev rules that ".....no aircraft is to remain anywhere outside Russia" and stated, "They can fend for themselves".

For some time, the USSR was renamed the "United Slavic Socialist Republics", thus, keeping the acronym the "USSR" and the Cyrillic acronym "CCCP", an influence taken from Yugoslavia (lit. "Land of the South Slavs"), where Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were the "Land of the East Slavs". In this new Soviet Union, Orthodoxy and the pre-1922 Russian culture was revived.

However, the Soviet military's expenditure fell from $300 billion to $102.7 billion in USD in order to make way for the spending towards healthcare and education. Gorbachev also kept communism as the economy, but adopted Deng Xiaoping's strategy, slowly moving toward free-market capitalism. Gorbachev appointed Grigorii Khanin as the Head of Economic Affairs of the Soviet Union to guide the country's gradual shift to a capitalist-like economy.

In order to enhance Soviet liberalization, the Gorbachev Administration funded many recreational movements, increasing the number of arcades as evidenced by increased trade with Japan. It also led to the creation of the Vremya video game console, co-created by Soviet computer scientist Alexey Pajitnov (creator of Tetris) and Andrey Dovshenko, the first major console released by the Soviet Union. The Vremya was very successful in western nations, in which the United Kingdom, France, two of the Soviet Union's traditional enemies. The Vremya competed with other major world consoles, including that of the NES, SNES and the Sega Genesis.

Gorbachev also mended broken relations with Israel, opening the Soviet economy to the Israeli market.

Gorbachev rejected Chechen independence, but he allowed Chechnya to exist as a Soviet republic rather than become part of the Russian SFSR.

However, the Soviets had another huge issue: Ukrainian separatists. The Soviets faces the Ukrainian National Army, a far-right isolationist paramilitary, and the Ukrainian Democratic Front, a center-right group wanting Ukraine to become a NATO and European Union-aligned state. Both paramilitaries fought not only the Soviets, but also against each other.

In 1995, after an all-out offensive in the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet forces emerged victorious over the Ukrainian nationalists, thus ending the Ukrainian War of Independence. The United States condemned the Soviet Union for such a thing.

In addition, Gorbachev kept the Soviet Union's world power status by keeping all of the nuclear forces active, using nuclear deterrence to evict foreign invaders.

Seeing that the Soviet Union simply would not collapse, and seeing it in its weakened state, some NATO leaders called for a hot war against the Soviet Union, bringing into mind Operation Unthinkable. Others objected due to the continued Soviet possession of nukes.

In 1994, seeing that life was even more miserable in the post-Soviet era, Kazakhstan and Moldova re-joined the Soviet Union amid favorable views of it. However, the majority of the Slavic population did not support it, and the re-acquisition of Moldova and Kazakhstan meant that naming conventions became an issue once more. The name "Slavic" was dropped, and the the USSR reverted to its original pre-1992 name.

During the Yugoslav Wars, the Soviet government sent forces to help the People's Yugoslav Army get rid of ethnic nationalist paramilitary groups in 1992.

Thus, NATO and the Soviets conducted air strikes against their designated targets, avoiding direct confrontation.

This resulted in NATO preparing for a naval and aerial assault on the Soviet Union. Gorbachev ordered all forces in the homeland to make their preparations. However, NATO pulled back on their invasion plan, seeing as to how a hot war with the Soviet Union would result in massive devastation, and a possible nuclear retaliation. Instead, NATO funded the Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish forces and pro-western Ukrainians to invade the Soviet Union. However, they too, pulled back, preventing what potentially could have become, World War III.

With a large force of over 6.3 million troops, Gorbachev sent 2.2 million to Yugoslavia to help battle the NATO siege. The Soviet Strategic Missile Troops also delivered loads of SAM systems and missile weapons to the JNA, which allowed them to effectively wipe out all opposition.

A renewed Soviet-backed Yugoslav offensive took back Bosnia from pro-NATO forces.

The joint Yugoslav-Soviet effort against NATO succeeded, and ended with a Yugoslav victory in 1994, and the opposition fled to Greece. However, the battered Soviet forces took a serious blow against the aerial and naval might of NATO. Some Soviet leaders had suggested that Stavka remove some funding for the ground forces, and put some real efforts into building and improving the Navy and the Air Force.

The Belgrade Nuclear Base finally began to see rapid progress. The West had made desperate diplomatic attempts for Yugoslavia to withdraw from its military alliance with the Soviet Union, including paying war reparations for damages. Yet, the government refused.

Nikolai Ryzhkov succeeded Gorbachev as the President of the Soviet Union.

In 1996, the independent government of Tajikistan collapsed, and made a bid for a re-entry into the Soviet Union, seeing how well the Soviet government held itself together after the Great Secession. Tajikistan's re-transformation as the Tajik SSR was finalized in 1997.

In the time period between 1997 up to now, the Soviet government worked mostly on restoring the country's culture and internal infrastructure. Still, discrimination against non-Slavs became rampant, while the historical Russian rulers became national heroes, proposals to have those from Moldova and Kazakhstan were continually rejected. However, Orthodox and Muslim holidays once more received official recognition, and in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Crimea and Moldova, Orthodox literature and studies was promoted, and Moscow allowed Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to promote Islam.

Zhirinovsky Era - "Soviet Union" Renamed Back to "Russia"
In 2000, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky became president. A member of the Christian right, Zhirinovsky introduced many Christian right laws, his stated goal was "re-transform Russia back into an abode of Christianity".

The Traditional Family Law introduced a minimum of four years in prison for homosexual activity, enacting mandatory conversion therapy for homosexuals. This triggered a large exodus of homosexuals out of Russia and into Canada, a gay-friendly country.

Zhirinovsky would often avoid all erred to thereferences to the term "Soviet" (associating that term with communists) in favor of "Russian". He often ref Soviet Union exclusively as "Russia" and even had "Russia" added to its list of legal names.

Zhirinovsky also used the flag of the pre-1922 tri-color Russian flag in most photo shoots, and tried to avoid the flag of the USSR as much as possible. Zhirinovsky made the tri-color a variant flag of the Soviet Union, and popularized it.

Zhirinovsky also attempted to install Christians as the heads of the governments of all the republics and federal subjects, even the ones inhabited predominantly by Muslims, and encouraged impoverished Russians to settle in predominantly Muslim lands to outnumber the Muslims. He promoted Orthodox clergy to be the heads and leaders of these communities. An avid anti-Islam politician, Zhirinovsky also attempted to have Ablaï Khan's national figure of importance status removed.

Zhirinovsky also funded Russian Orthodox paramilitary groups to harass the indigenous Muslims of the country, leading to a quasi-civil war in Central Asia, causing the formation of Islamist groups, causing large-scale disturbances, unrest and clashing between Orthodox and Muslims in Central Asia, Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.

In 2002, Chinese troops were amassing near the Chinese-Manchurian border. The Manchurian government, a long-time ally of Russia and the preceding Soviet Union, fearing a Chinese military takeover, looked to Moscow for military aid. By this time, Russian military had begun to slightly recover, increasing its expenditure to $72.4 billion. Worried about the fate of the Russian Manchurian community, Zhirinovsky sent Russian military personnel to northern Manchuria, home to the Russian Manchurian community. Beijing released a statement stating that China was partaking in "no invasion drill of any sort", and invited Russian leaders to have a peaceful dialogue in Jakarta.

However, it is his prime minister Vladimir Putin that worked to improve the financial situation of Russia. While Zhirinovsky concerned more about restoring the Russian Empire, Putin worked to ensure that Russians had jobs, and that the impoverished were housed and fed. As a result, Putin is considered the true hero of modern-day Russia.

Despite being friendly to George W. Bush, Zhirinovsky opposed the invasion of Iraq. In addition, outrage ensued when leaks of Zhirinovsky's plans to re-conquer the former Russian Empire, which would include Finland, Poland, Georgia and Central Asia were released, ultimately leading to his downfall.

Medvedev Era
In 2005, fearing that Zhirinovsky's policies would cause the Muslim-dominated republics to secede, the Russian Supreme Court voted to impeach Zhirinovsky, who was replaced by the more moderate Dmitry Medvedev. Still, Medvedev was influenced by Putin, and Putin remained Russian prime minister, and for the most part, remained the true influential figure in Russian politics.

But Medvedev also worked to restore relations with the West, whilst still maintaining Russian territorial integrity. Medvedev signed the Railway Act into law, a system of railways that would connect Russia to several European and Asian nations, of these, included Scandinavia, Poland, Turkey, Romania, China and Manchuria.

So far, only the railway with Scandinavia is complete and the Manchuria Railway, in existence ever since the Soviet era, continues to operate, and the Poland and Romania railways are underway.

Medvedev also signed the Russia-Mongolia Gas Deal, and the Russia-Mongolia Economic Deal, in which, in an effort to settle its sparsely populated areas, the Mongolian government practically opened Mongolia to massive Russian investments. The Russia-Mongolia Economic Deal was part of the national Mongolian Urbanization Programme. This decision was ridiculed, as the United Nations claimed that it was an infringement on the rights of the Mongol nomads to roam their traditional lands.

Despite this, Zhirinovsky remained largely popular in all of Russia's Slavic and predominantly Christian republics. He is considered one of Russia's most well-liked politicians, along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin.

As life further deteriorated in many of the other ex-Soviet republics, they all made their bids to re-join Russia, something that was met with extreme hostility from NATO.

At this point, Russia's GDP saw a steady increase to $5.1 trillion. However, its military spending does not increase, since living under a capitalist society means the government could not afford to mass-spend on its military to Soviet-era levels.

In 2004, the Moldovan band O-Zone solidified the Russia's cultural ties with the west, with the boy band singing songs in both their native Romanian tongue, as well as Russian, becoming popular in both Russia and the west.

On April 2, 2006, Dmitry Medvedev paid a visit to Poland to issue an apologetic statement for the Katyn Massacre, stating that he wished to completely start in a new era in the history of relations between Poland and Russia.

Second Cold War 2008-present
Russia strengthened its economic trade with China, opening Siberia to the Chinese economy. Russia also signed an electricity deal with Mongolia and China, which will allow Russia to deliver electricity into Mongolia, Manchuria and northern China. As a result, Russia increased tobacco imports from Mongolia, and advised Mongolia to capitalize on its tobacco industry. In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was able to increase military expenditure by at least $20 billion. In addition, the Russians emerged decisively victorious in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, annexing Abkhazia and South Ossetia as Russian republics. In addition, Putin also increased funding for the navy and air force. Beginning with this war, Russia would once more, begin to enter global politics and rise to prominence as a challenge for the western powers, once more - beginning what some historians and analysts refer as the Second Cold War. Russia also sided with Armenia in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, invading and annexing Azerbaijan. In 2010, Vladimir Putin became president. In of May of 2010, Russia was put under hot water for the Sana'a Embassy Incident.

Rise Back to Military Superpower Status 2011-present
In 2011, Russia intervened in the Arab Spring, backing the established governments of Egypt, Libya and Syria against the Muslim Brotherhood. The Russians received permission to carry out airstrikes, something heavily condemned by the West for what was deemed an attack on civilians. The Libyan theater involved Chinese military as well, and via a $1.3 billion deal, Russia allowed Libya to essentially become a Chinese satellite state, in which China was to construct five military bases in Libya, while Russia established two bases.

Feeling threatened by Russia, Poland suspended all talks about the Russia-Poland Railway, and called for increased NATO presence.

During the Syrian Civil War, and its successor, the Levantine War, the Russia supported the Bashar al-Assad regime. The Russian Air Force conducted massive airstrikes in Damascus to help route anti-Assad and North Syrian forces. After both Operation Salma and the Ten-Day War, the Russian government warned North Syria that it would begin attacking them if they didn't withdraw their forces from South Syria. The Assyrian government soon joined the conflict, sending contingent forces into South Syria. As North Syrian forces entered South Syria, they were decimated by joint Russian and South Syrian forces, and retreated.

Russia's anti-Muslim Brotherhood views began to endanger relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Russia. The Progressive Party of Russia, based in Kiev, heavily criticized Moscow's position. At this point in time, many Muslims around the globe called for a jihad against Russia.

This eventually culminated into the Yemen Confrontation between Russia and Saudi Arabia, won militarily by Russia. As Saudi Arabia announced troop withdrawal, Russian influence was solidified in Yemen.

In 2012, the Great Protests preceded what would be, the Iraq War for Independence, in an attempt to topple the pro-American regime in Iraq. Sayid Fulani, the leader of the resistance called for Russian aid. The Russians supplied the Iraqi nationalists with vehicles, weapons and even advanced missiles. Russia also supplied the nationalists with T-72b tanks and anti-aircraft artillery to fight off the American aerial might. When the nationalists seized Baghdad, the Russian Air Force airlifted troops into Iraq. Russian General Gennady Bulganov warned American troops in Iraq that the Russians and their Iraqi allies would continue the advance west. Yugoslavia soon entered the scene, having shared special relations with Iraq, as Iraq is one of Yugoslavia's military exporters. Russia and Yugoslavia sent aerial strikes in Iraq, and guided Iraqi forces. Yugoslavia established its first overseas base in Iraq.

Although Russia failed to help topple the Masum government, the entire debacle led to the division of Iraq into an Coalition-constrolled and a Russian and Yugoslav-controlled zones. Unlike First Cold War-style divisions, Baghdad remained the undivided capital of Iraq, with both pro-Coalition and pro-Russia groups operating in Baghdad.

Russia's ability to gain control in Iraq cemented its return to military superpower status.

In addition, Moscow made a public decision that Russian forces were going to stay in Yemen and oversee the country's security. As a result, President Obama ordered massive sanctions against Russia.

President Obama began rigorous anti-Russian propaganda all over the United States.

Putin's economic reform had begun to resemble that of China and Nazi Germany, which fell halfway between a free-market economy and a command economy.

Scandinavia enacted more sanctions against Russia. Obama approved for stationing increased, but small numbers of contingents into Scandinavia and the Baltics. Russian paramilitary activity near the borders with Scandinavia heightened again.

In 2015, Russia supported a coup attempt against President Erdogen, which failed. Moscow offered the rebels political asylum in Moscow. As a result, over 1,203,400 Turks live in Russia as political refugees. President Erdogan enacted a forgiveness  policy for the dissenters. So far, most have accepted Russian citizenship, approximately 601,420 Turkish political refugees have registered with the Russian authorities to become nationalized Russian citizens.

Rise back to Global Superpower Status
After Donald Trump, of the isolationist-leaning Independence Party, was inaugurated as president, he ordered the United States to become uninvolved in the Ukrainian Uprising, and stated that he would allow Putin and Russia to carry forth with their wishes, and let them handle Eastern Europe's conflicts. Trump also lifted all Obama-era sanctions against Russia.

Russia's national Agricultural Programme revitalized the Russian economy, and unemployment saw a huge decrease in Russia's warmer republics, including Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, considered the "Agriculture Belt" of Russia.

In 2014, Russian Spetsnaz captured Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.

On April 2, 2015, Putin signed a law to make it a a Russian tradition to visit Poland in memoriam of the Katyn Massacre. This started even more warming of relations between Poland and Russia.

President Andrzej Duda became Polish president, and approved for the Russia-Poland Railway.

in 2016, Marine Le Pen, who emerged victorious in France, followed suit. Favoring isolationist policies like Trump, Le Pen pulled back all support for forces fighting against Russia. John Mannerheim, who has won the Scandinavian Elections a year earlier, also pulled back all forces from the Middle East. However, the Baltics issue continued, with Mannerheim continuing to use the military to monitor Russian activity. Trump and Le Pen kept troops stationed in Scandinavia, to maintain peaceful relations with Russia, stated that they were still committed to helping their co-NATO allies. However, both Trump and Le Pen strongly urged Scandinavia and Russia to solve their disputes, with both leaders stating that a war with Russia was the last of their goals.

Trump publicly announced that Putin and Mannerheim should resolve their disputes, with little involvement from foreign nations.

By the end of 2016, Russia's GDP had risen to $7.2 trillion.

By the end 2017, most of anti-Assad forces fled to North Syria or Turkey, or a NATO or NATO-friendly state. Muhsin el-Hussein further pursued them, causing most to flee to Turkey. This caused the Turkish North Syrian Riots, calling for El-Hussein's impeachment.

Despite the friendly modern relations, Russia and China have been involved in the race for Central Asia. Soviet (today Russian) leaders have questioned Chinese presence in Central Asia. Prior to re-joining the Soviet Union, China had urged Kazakhstan to become part of China.

Karimov, had actually contemplated on either becoming a Russian republic or Chinese autonomous province. Karimov decided to move with the former. In 2011, the Uzbek government under Islam Karimov passed a referendum to re-join Russia. This coincided with a bill that re-introduced Russian as a co-official to Uzbek. This was met with fierce opposition, and a NATO and Western-backed failed attempt to depose Karimov ensued. In 2016, the referendum passed. Under Shavkat Miryoyev, Karimov's successor, the referendum was signed. In addition, Karimov's daughter, Gulnara, was removed from house arrest. Miroyeyev simply decided that Uzbekistan could no longer exist as an independent nation, and hoped that being under the rule of Moscow would fix the corruption issue. Miryoyev stated that he is actually "saving" the Uzbek people, contrary to what others have thought.

Miryoyev agreed with Putin to allow for Uzbekistan to be split into Uzbek-speaking republics, much like the fate of Kazakhstan.

Russia also became involved in the Arab Spring, helping the established governments of Egypt, Libya and Syria (today South Syria) survive the wave of protestor attacks.

In 2018, Vladimir Putin approved the Anti-Traitor Law, requiring all oligarchs with a net worth of $5 billion or more to contribute 10% of their earnings toward the Russian military. An angered Putin explained that this was meant to combat the political pick-pocketing. In addition, Putin also claimed it an act of responsibility to pay back the troops that protect the Motherland. Many had begun to suspect that this was beginning of a resurgence of communism in Russia, something that Putin vehemently rejected.

In Azerbaijan, the Russian military and paramilitary quashed an attempted rebellion. Fearing Russian aggression into their nations, Scandinavia sent forces into Finland near the Russian borders.

In 2018, under the heat of protests, the Armenian government requested to be re-annexed by Moscow. After NATO-backed Georgian troops conducted harassing attacks against Russian forces, both Armenia and Russia attacked Georgia, In which, the entirety of Georgia became a Russian republic.

Russia is an active player in the Indochinese Peace Process, a military peace between China and India. Once completed, this would play a major and crucial step in the complete formation of the Eurasian Alliance, which in many respects - is expected to succeed the Warsaw Pact as being the chief rival to NATO.

On June 1, 2018, Alaska and Armenia both officially signed into becoming Russian republics. Both now exist as protectorates of Moscow.

In June 26, 2018, Russia finally returned all of the Romanian Treasure back to Romania. On July 25, the Romanian government finally agreed to the Odessa-Bucharest Railway, which would likely see completion around 2021.

Economy
Russia currently runs on an economic system similar to China and Nazi Germany. While it leans toward a capital economy where citizens enjoy a wage, the government retains control over certain sectors of the economy. The Russian economy is currently the world's third largest, at $8.3 trillion, below China's $11.4 trillion and the United States' $16.8 trillion. Oil, precious metals, nuclear energy, natural gas, leather products and electricity are some of Russia's exports, leading it to become one of the powerhouses of the world. The Russian oil economy currently competes with that of the Persian Gulf states. Due to Russia's strong fashion industry, St Petersburg, Moscow, Astana and Baku are considered fashion capitals of the world. Russia in 2011, exported more makeup and fashion products. Russia also provides most of Europe, well as Mongolia and northern China with electricity.

Religion
Russia is a multi-religious nation. Eastern Orthodoxy forms the majority of religion in Russia, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church, followed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moldovan Orthodox Church and Georgian Orthodox Church. There are also some Finnish Orthodox and Lutherans in Karelia. Orthodoxy predominates Russian culture, and Orthodox holidays are considered national holidays in Russia, a stark contrast to its communist days. Even non-Christian republics, such as those predominated by Muslims, although in exchange, they are allowed to enact their own holidays within their republics. Over the decades after the Great Secession and the fall of the Communist Party, the Soviet/Russian government has consistently worked to promote, protect and revive the pre-1922 Orthodox culture of the country's Slavic republics. Moscow has promoted the historical culture of its Imperial Russia days. There was one point, when being Orthodox was required to be a Russian general, as per a law introduced by avid pan-Orthodox Vladimir Zhirinovsky. However, Dmitry Medvedev overturned the law.

The Orthodox Convention of Russia (Russian: Православная конвенция России) is a religious body of all the Orthodox churches operating in Russia, both the Russian Orthodox Church and other autonomous Orthodox churches.

Islam forms the second largest denomination, and is the majority practiced in Chechnya, Dagestan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Ingushetia. Like the Orthodox holidays, the Russian government currently gives the Muslim-majority republics to declare Islamic holidays as state holidays. The Russian government also recognizes the important heroes of its non-Slavic republics to be National Heroes and Figures of National and Historical Significance.

Judaism is Russia's third-most practiced, and also bears historical significance to the Russian nation. Like elsewhere, many of Russia's elite and major historical figures are Jews, such as billionaire Roman Abramovich. After the Soviet Union opened and warmed relations with Israel, this caused a large number of people getting dual citizenship for both Israel and the Soviet Union/Russia. The loose majority of Russian Jews live in either Belarus, Ukraine or the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. However, the rest are dispersed throughout Russia.

In the Russian Far East there are practitioners of Buddhism, Shamanism and Animism.

Military
Main article Russian Armed Forces

Despite the fall of communism, which put the Soviet Armed Forces through a period of dormancy and mediocracy, Russia still remains the "power in the East", although the rise of China contests this.

Russia contains its own fully-functioning indigenous arms industry, with the Soviet Union having produced the most respected and memorable military technology. Modern-day Russia continues this legacy. The T-72, T-90 and T-14 Armata main battle tanks, the Sukhoi Su-35, Su-57 fighter jets, Kuzsnetsov and Ulyanovsk-class  aircraft carriers are all indigenous Russian military technology. Russia also possesses the largest nuclear stockpile and also largest number of nuclear weapons in standby.

Russia also has a multi-layer air defense system, making it nearly-impossible to penetrate Russian air space.

Being one of the competing military powers of the world, the RAF boasts having the second largest overall military (second from China). It currently contains the second-largest navy and second-largest aerial force. Russia currently has the world's third-largest military expenditure, at approximately $188.3 billion as of 2018.

Despite the expenditure issues, the Russian military has been able to, once more, project itself globally, being able maintain Middle Eastern allies in South Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Assyria and Southeast Asian allies in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia and as of 2018 and major African allies in Angola, Ghana, Botswana and Ethiopia. This would project the Russian military as being ranked second in terms of global power projection. With Russia's new and improved relations with China, it now has a major global power as an ally. Together, the loose alliance between the Russian and Chinese militaries is often seen as NATO's biggest challenge.

The armed forces also contains the Civil Defence, the paramilitary component of the Russian Armed Forces.

Politics
The politics of Russia is a democratic one. The President is the Head of State, and the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. The President and Prime Minister currently have no term limit. Both the President and Vice President are elected separately.

The three largest parties in Russia are the United Russia Party, Progressive Party of Russia and the Communist Party.

Currently, the United Russia Party is the ruling party in the Russia. The Communist Party of Russia, the living descendant of the CPSU, while still existing and running, has lost its power and influence ever since the collapse of communism in 1989 and the Great Secession of 1992. However, it remains Russia's third largest political party.

The largest opposition party is the Progressive Party, headed by Petro Poroshenko, the current Head of Ukraine. This party dominates much of Ukraine, and is the dominant parties in Azerbaijan and Georgia. However, both of Azerbaijan and Georgia are not under Russian Progressive leadership, and are under leaderships of political parties loyal to the established regime.

Issues and Corruption
Despite being a multi-ethnic nation, racism and elitism has been an issue in Russia.

A 2014 research revealed that ethnic Russians are four times more likely to enjoy high standards of living. A 2015 study from that in the non-Christian republics, such as Kazakhstan, Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Ingushetia, ethnic Russian and Orthodox still comprise the wealthy and high classes, while the indigenous people form the working and blue collar class. Ethnic Russians still influence society even in republics where they comprise the minority.

In Russia's agricultural republics, such as the Central Asian republics, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Russians own over 71.5% of the farms, while those working on those farms, the "blue collar working class" tend to be the indigenous peoples.

As for the Christian republics, such as Karelia and Georgia, ethnic Russians live in separate communities from the indigenous Finnic and Georgian population. Researchers report the communities inhabited by native Karelians and Georgians to be sub-par compared to the those inhabited by ethnic Russians. Citizens reported that ethnic Russian communities living in republics where non-ethnic Russians are the majority are often discouraged from interacting with the indigenous peoples, or speaking the indigenous languages.

In order to combat this, Tanya Pozharova of the Department of domestic Affairs launched the Russia Inter-ethnic Dialogue, meant to foster positive relations between ethnic Russians and non-ethnic Russians. The formation, existence  and influence of Royal Clubs, similar to fraternities and sororities in the United States, makes the situation worse.

However, there are many skeptics against these allegations, both from Russian and non-Russian critics. Fyodor Kerensky, the Knyaz of the Order of St. Vladimir's Moscow Chapter stated that the royal club has many ethnic Georgian members.

Vladimir Putin argued that Russian Jews and those with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship tend to top all of the ethnic Russian oligarchs.

Many have attempted to create their own royal clubs. However, the National Board of all Royal and Holy Orders, the national governing body has rejected the creation of royal clubs based on historical Central Asian rulers, since they fought the Russian invaders, as per their rules, the club's influencing ruler must have either been part of the historical Rus' or the Russian Empire and served for them, not against them. This has prompted the Order of Tsar Nicholas I, named after the tsar that conquered Central Asia to create Russian Turkestan, to invite and encourage Central Asian Turkic peoples to join, by publishing Kazakh and Uzbek-language material. The Order of Bagrationi (Russian: Орден Багратиони, Georgian: ბაგრატიონის ორდენი) is a new Georgia-based royal club, notorious for supporting Russian annexation.

Sports
Football (soccer), basketball, wrestling, sport-shooting and hockey are currently the main sports in Russia.