Russia (21st Century Crisis)

The Union of Sublime Soviet Republics (Russian: Союз возвышенных советских республик, Soyuz vozvyshennykh sovetskikh respublik), also known as the Soviet Union or the USSR as well as Vostochnoslavia (lit. "Land of the East Slavs" in Russian), is a country in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that consists of the Soviet Republics of Russia, Belarus, Chechnya, Crimea, Tajikistan, Karelia, Moldova and Kazakhstan.

Originally founded as a socialist and communist nation, the Soviet Union today is a capitalist and democratic country. In 1992, many of the Soviet republics, namely Ukraine, Kazakshtan, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia broke away from the Soviet Union. However, Russia and Belarus stayed together, and in 1994, was re-joined by Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajkistan; and after the Soviet involvement in the Crimea Crisis - a portion of Ukraine, as well as Crimea later on.

The Soviet Union borders Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the east, Ukraine and Romania to the south as well as the Black Sea.

The Soviet Union is currently one of the competing military powers of the world, boasting the largest tank, artillery and antiaircraft force, with a strong navy and air force that projects power in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In addition, the Soviet Union is also considered one of the oil and gas powers of the world, producing more oil than Saudi Arabia, and producing natural gas, to 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, the Soviet Union has many official languages, they are: Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Romanian, Finnish, Tajik, Chechen and Tatar as the 1992 Soviet Constitution recognizes the language of each Soviet state to be granted with official government recognition. Though, Russian is the required language while the other six languages are designated as optional languages.

History
In 1992, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would transition into a free market economy, among other major reforms. The name "socialist" was dropped from the Soviet Union's official name, and simply became the Union of Soviet Republics. In addition, Gorbachev allowed for the formation of political parties in the Soviet Union. As a result of Gorbachev's policies, he was elected as the first president of the Soviet Union, representing the Liberal Democratic Party. He defeated a coup attempt led by pro-weatern Boris Yeltsin, and had Yeltsin imprisoned.

For some time, the USSR was renamed as SFR Vostokslavia, an influence taken from Yugoslavia (lit. "Land of the South Slavs"), where Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were the "Land of the East Slavs".

The Soviet military's expidenture fell from $104 billion to just a mere $29.5 billion.

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

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.

In 1994, Kazakhstan and Moldova re-joined the Soviet Union amid favorable views of it.

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. NATO has even more alarmed when the Soviet military was seen by NATO spies helping construct a nuclear base in Belgrade. This is because Gorbachev and Slobodan Milošević had secretly signed a nuclear deal. NATO sent assassin squads after the Soviets, only to fail in their operations.

Thus, NATO and Soviet forces finally clashed in the Battle of Vukovar, the first such hot encounter between the two. Although thet joint Soviet-Yugoslav forces defeated the NATO forces on ground, they were crushed by the NATO airstrikes. The Soviet Air Force was helpless to send aerial aid, as Romania joined NATO, and an even bigger issue: the Soviet Air Force was powerless against the might of all NATO's air forces combined. The Soviets could not send aerial aid without Romania's permission.

A second hot encounter occurred, the Battle of Bosnia ended with a NATO victory, though a very costly one. Soviet and Yugoslav troops in Bosnia fought to the last blood, refusing to surrender.

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. 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.

The Soviet Stretegic Missile Troops also delivered loads of Ivan IV rockets to the JNA, which allowed them to effectively wipe out all opposition.

A renewed Soviet-backed Yugoslav offensive took back Bosnia.

The joint Yugoslav-Soviet effort against NATO succeeded, and ended with a Yugoslav victory in 1994, and the opposition fled to Greece. Hosever, 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 fundings 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 desparate diplomatic attempts for Yugoslavia to withdraw from its nuclear deal with the Soviet Union, including paying war reparations for damages. Yet, the government in Belgrade refused.

The base was completed in 1997, and in 1998, the first nuclear rockets were placed into the base. In 2001, the JNA tested the first Yugoslav-made nuclear rocket, the Tito I, named after Josip Broz Tito, at the Novaya Zemlya testing site in the Soviet Union.

In 1996, the independant 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 Secessions. The formation of the Soviet Republic of Tajkistan was finalized in 1997.

In 2002, Chinese troops were amassing near the Chinese-Manchurian border. The Manchurian government, fearing a Chinese military takeover, looked to the Soviet Union for military aid. By this time, the Soviet Union had begun to slightly recover, increasing its expidenture to $41.2 billion.

In 2008, Vladimir Putin was able to increase the expedinture by at least $20 billion. In addition, the Soviets emerged decisively victorious in the 2008 Soviet-Georgian War. In addition, Putin also increased fundings for the navy and air force.

In 2012, the Great Protests preceded what would be, the Iraq War for Independence, toppling the pro-American regime in Iraq. Sayid Fulani, the leader of the resistance called for Soviet aid. The Soviets supplied the Iraqi nationalists with vehicles, weapons and even advanced missiles. The Soviets also supplied the nationalists with T-72b tanks and antiaircraft artillery to fight off the American aerial might. When the nationalists siezed Baghdad, the Soviet Air Force airlifted troops into Iraq. Soviet general Gennady Bulganov warned American troops in Iraq that the Soviets and their Iraqi allies would continue the advance west. American forces retreated into North Syria. The Soviets provided armed protection for American diplomats stranded in Baghdad, and had them safely escorted to American forces stationed in eastern North Syria.

Putin's economic reform had begun to resemble that of Nazi Germany, which fell halfway between a free-market economy and a command economy. There were even talks of returning the name "Socialist" into the USSR's official legal name, only it would be governed by a right-wing to center-right Socialist regime.

In 2014, amid political unrest in Ukraine, militants in eastern Ukraine called for the region, including the Crimean Peninsula, to be under Soviet control. Vladimir Putin provided political asylum for Viktor Yanukovych and his family.

Ignoring western demands, Putin sent ground forces into eastern Ukraine. NATO and the western countries attempted to stop the Soviets by sending forces, however they were outgunned by the ferocious resistance from pro-Soviet Ukrainians and the Soviet forces themselves. As a result, the Soviets successfully occupied eastern Ukraine, and was established as the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, and the Soviet Republic of Crimea.

After Donald Trump was inaugarated as president, he ordered the United States to become uninvolved in the Ukrainian Conflict, and stated that he would allow Putin and the Soviets to carry forth with their wishes, and let them handle Eastern Europe's conflicts, unless the United States was called upon. Therefore, Putin's invasion of Ukraine continue was free to continue west. In a surprise move, Putin did not invade western Ukraine, stating that he only cared about those that called upon the Soviet government.

During the Syrian Civil War, and its successor, the Levantine War, the Soviet Union supported the Bashar al-Assad regime. The Soviet Air Force conducted massive airstrikes in Damascus to help route anti-Assad and North Syrian forces. After both Operation Salma and the 10-Day War, the Soviet 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.

The Soviet government enacted a massive recovery project, worth an estimated $3.1 billion to help Damascus recover from the war. Both military and civilian volunteers helped in this project. The Soviet Union's other allies, including Armenia, India, China and Vietnam also made large contributions, worth $342 million respectively.

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.

This had gained the Soviet Union as the most effective anti-terrorist force in the world, further causing embarrassment to the United States.

Military
Despite the fall of communism, which put the Soviet Armed Forces through a period of dormancy and mediocrecy, it still remains the "power in the East". Being one of the competing military powers of the world, the SAF boasts having the second largest overall military (second from China), with the world's largest land force. It currently contains the third-largest navy and second-largest air force. The Soviet Union currently has the world's third-largest military expidenture, at approximately $85.7 billion USD as of 2017, the world's third-largest military expidenture. Although having the image of a superpower, to which it is, military spending has been an issue for the Soviet Armed Forces. The expidenture was supposed to be $100 billion USD by 2016, however political pick-pocketing had taken place. In addition, much of the funding and strength is vested in the Soviet Army. There are many talks within the Soviet government of diminishing the size of the Soviet Army in favor of expanding the air force and navy.

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

The armed forces also contains the People's Army, the gandermarie force of the Soviet Armed Forces. The People's Army is divided into two battalions: the Civil Battalion and the Home Battalion. The Civil Battalion is the gandermarie force, and is organized like any military force. The Home Battalion consists of armed civilians, and functions as a partisan movement.

Army
The Soviet Army is currently the world's second-largest ground force, boasting a current count of 1,100,000 active personnel with an additional 2,000,024 reserve personnel. As part of the army, the Soviet Union possesses the world's largest tank force, as well as the most artillery. In order to fill in the gap for its subpar size air force (in comparison to the U.S. Air Force), the Soviet Army possesses the world's largest antiaircraft force. It is considered the world's best ground army, and has earned the Soviet Union as being the most defended land.

After the fall of communism, president Gorbachev changed the Soviet military doctrine, rather than conscripts, into a professional army. This greatly diminished the size of the Soviet Army. However, it showed very positive results, attested to by the Soviet Army's brilliant performance in the Yugoslav Wars, helping the JNA fight off the highly favored NATO forces.

Navy
The Soviet Union currently possesses the world's second largest navy, having 4 aircraft carriers and 382 ships in total. The Soviet Navy currently has active fleets in the Arctic, Baltic, Balkans, South China Sea, Sea of Okhostk and the Sea of Japan. Its Balkan and Baltic fleet is shared with fleets of the Yugoslav People's Navy and the Scandinavian Navy respectively.

The Soviet Navy also has the famous Navy Spetsnaz, comparable to the Navy SEALs of the U.S. Navy. In addition, the Soviet Navy also has its own aviation, possessing just over 304 aircraft.

Air Force
As of 2015, the Soviet Air Force is currently the world's second largest. Beginning in 2008, President Vladimir Putin began a rigorious attempt to update and expand the Soviet Union's aerial forces, seeing how rather behind it was against that of their American counterpart.

In 2008, the Soviet Air Force had about 1,200 aircraft, many of which were older and obselete. By the time 2013 rolled around, the Soviet Air Force's strength had come to about 2,500 aircraft, this time most of them being battle-tested and updated.

By the time 2014 came, the Soviet Union had 3,100 aircraft. President John McCain attempted to scare the Soviets into submission by carrying out Operation Show Them Who We Are, carrying out a bombing campaign on Afghanistan and a field testing show.

This did anything but scare Putin and the Soviets, who simply continued expanding the air force, and carrying out Operation Let Us See, doing their own field testing shows. In 2015, the Soviet Air Force had increased to 4,024 aircraft.

The Soviet Air Force is on the verge of unveiling the Sukhoi Su-57, slated to be the world's top stealthbomber.

Nuclear Weapons
Mikhail Gorbachev refused to get rid of the nuclear stockpile, and instead, continued the competition with the west.

The Soviet Union continues to posses world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, and has the most nuclear warheads in the world.

Politics
The politics of the Soviet Union 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.

Currently, the United Soviet Party is the ruling party in the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while still existent and running, has lost its power and influence ever since the collapse of communism in 1989 and the Great Secessions of 1992.