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 and North America.

Russia borders a large plethora of nations, including Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Scandinavia ____ tank, artillery, anti-aircraft and nuclear force, with a strong navy and air force that projects power in Europe, Asia, North America 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 (mostly Eastern Orthodox, followed by Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic), 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 deceive 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 casualty 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 overthrows the DPR, and becomes a rather prosperous nation with its rich natural minerals and oil. It aids Pakistan in its 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. 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 ruled that ".....no aircraft is to remain anywhere outside the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan or Manchuria" and stated, "They can fend for themselves".

For some time, the USSR was renamed the "United Slavic Soviet 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.

It is in 1991 that the Soviet Union for the first time in its history, close all public facilities on Orthodox Christmas, it would, once-more became one of the Soviet Union's many national holidays.

However, the Soviet military's expenditure fell from $300 billion to $102.7 billion 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 a market economy. Gorbachev appointed Ruslan Khasbulatov as the Head of Economic Affairs of the Soviet Union to guide the country's gradual shift to a market economy.

Still, the press received some points of suppression, anything seen as detrimental to Russia and the Soviet Union was suppressed.

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.

From 1992 to 1994, the President Gorbachev aided Yugoslavia in battling the NATO invasion, in one of the Soviet Union's largest offensives in Europe since World War II. Soviets also sided with Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and ended Azerbaijan's independence by forcefully re-annexing it.

However, the Soviets had another huge issue: Ukrainian separatists. The Soviets faced 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 1994, 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.

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 made bids to 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 Kazakhstan meant that naming conventions became an issue once more. The name "Slavic" was dropped, and the USSR reverted to its original pre-1992 name.

In 1995, in his final speech as president, Mikhail Gorbachev reflected on the Soviet Union's "underdog succcesses", stating that the spirit of the Soviet can resist any odds. Alexander Rutskoy 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. However, most Soviets, who at this point, embraced Slavic European nationalism, were against it. Eurasianists however supported it.

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 Kazakhstan were continually rejected. In addition, Moscow transported ethnic Russians en masse to Kazakhstan for land development purposes, this trend continues today in the Republic of Turkestan, and there are fears that the native Kazakh and Uzbek population will be the minority. However, Orthodox and Muslim holidays once more received official recognition, Orthodox literature and studies were promoted, and Moscow allowed Kazakhstan, Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia 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".

From 2000 to 2003, Zhirinosky led a Christian Fascist-like rule in Russia. Moscow re-named Kazakhstan the Central Asian Republic, and removed Kazakh from its status as a co-official to Russian.

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, and restoring Russian military influence abroad, 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. Sergei Skripal, an ex-Soviet spy and Russian intelligence officer who worked for the Zhirinovsky Administration was behind the leaks, and along with his daughter, Yulia, fled to the United Kingdom as political refugees, where he now lives as a political activist to have Russia become a European Union and NATO-friendly state.

While many Russian nationalists were fond of Zhirinovsky's views, the majority of Russians, even nationalists, viewed his goal as reckless and unrealistic.

Post Zhirinovsky Era 2003-present
In 2003, fearing that Zhirinovsky's policies would cause the Muslim-dominated republics to secede, as well as seeing the recklessness of his war plans, the Russian Supreme Court voted to impeach Zhirinovsky, who was replaced by the more moderate but still conservative nationalist Vladimir Putin. Putin re-instated Kazakh as a secondary official to Russian in the Central Asian Republic, and re-permitted the government of the Central Asian Republic, as well as the other predominantly Muslim republics to promote Islam.

Putin signed the Ukrainian Partition, allowing Ukraine to be divided into an independent Republic of Ukraine to the east, and a Russian republic of East Ukraine. The Republic of Ukraine with Dnipro as its capital and the Russian East Ukraine with Kiev as its capital.

Most major cities, such as Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Nikolayev and Sevastopol remained under Russian control. Ukrainian nationalists were outraged, seeing this as an unfair deal, and arguing that Ukraine was severely disadvantaged. Nonetheless, it still went through.

In 2007, Dmitry Medvedev succeeded Putin. Under Medvedev, Russia began to develop oil-drilling technology that would be able withstand the hostile Siberian climate, known as Project Breadbasket Siberia.

In 2012, Russia was dealt a major blow when the Hague awarded Kiev status as Ukrainian territory. Putin stated that while he disagrees with th decision, he will respect and honor it. East Ukraine's capital was moved to Kharkiv. Russia made a new deal with Ukraine, to extend Ukrainian control 500 km west of the Dneiper, in which Russia ceded the cities of Poltava, Kremenchuk and Dnipropetrovsk in exchange for Nikolayev and Odessa. Ukraine agreed to the deal, and thus, the modern-day borders of Russia and Ukraine were finalized. This would finish a period in modern Russian history known as the Russia-Ukraine Border Crisis.

In addition, Ukrainian Orthodox within the Republic of Ukraine, under the leadership of Patriarch Filaret, proclaimed independene from the Moscow Patriarchate. The GOF stated that they would respect the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. In 2014, the decision went through, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church emerged as a separate  autocephalous church from Moscow Patriarchate. Fiilaret became the Patriarch of Kiev. Patriarch Kiril of Moscow initially disagreed, but nonetheless, reluctantly recognized the separation, not wanting to damage the relations with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The separation was also recognized by the patriarchs of the Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Romanian and Greek Orthodox churches. However, those in Wallachi and Banat did not recognize it.

Succeeding president Vladimir Putin (later in 2014) was asked about his opinion, stating, "You asked the wrong person. Personally, I disagree with it, but I'm not gonna try to stop it, that would be up to the clergy of the church. If anyone wanted to effectively object, leave it up to Patriarch Kiril, I can't do anything about that. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople made his decision, and I respect that. I have more important matters to address as the leader of Russia, and don't have time to go around telling people what church they should follow."

Those in the Russian republic of East Ukraine were more-less mixed, with 47% opposed and 41% accepting of the decision. Those who opposed stated they wished to remain under the Moscow Patriarchate.

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.

Russia also embarked on a serious global attempt to dethrone the Persian Gulf states as the leading producer and exporter of oil, thanks to Russia's ginormous oil fields, beginning an oil trade war between Russia and the Persian Gulf states.

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 market economy 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 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 attacks, 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. Putin also stated that Wallachi separatists living Russian political asylum will continue to be protected by Moscow. Russia also increased backing for the breakaway Republic of Wallachia.

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

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-controlled 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 crisis, 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. Project Breadbasket Siberia became a success, in which the Russians invented the "Ice-Breaker Drill" method of oil drilling, In which the frozen oil fields in Siberia could easily be detected and liquified. This practically destroyed the Persian Gulf oil monopoly.

Russia's national Agricultural Programme revitalized the Russian economy, and unemployment saw a huge decrease in Russia's warmer republics, including East Ukraine, Caucasus, Central Asia 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. Duda stated that while Poland will remain part of NATO, that he seeks further economic cooperation and ties with Russia. Duda sparked some heat in Poland, with many worrying that Duda would enter Poland back into Russia's sphere of influence.

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, overtaking Japan as the third-largest economy. In addition, due to the economic influence that Russia was able to achieve not just in Eurasia, but also the Middle East and Africa, Russia was finally re-classified from a great power to a superpower once more.

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 pursued them further, 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 integrated into the Central Asian Republic, 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 protester attacks.

By 2017, most European Union had ceased buying oil from Saudi Arabia, buying oil from Russia instead, with some countries switching to the Russian ruble as their petro-currency. The largest blow to Saudi Arabia's economy came when President Donald Trump decided to increase oil purchases from Russia, due the convenience afforded by Russian proximity to Alaska (then a disputed state, today a Russian republic). This only helped Russian economy grow, by nearly $3.15 trillion.

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. However, Putin's constant refusal to hand over members of the Communist Party of Turkey, banned in Turkey and operating in Russian exile, only heightened these fears.

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 in between a command economy and a free-market economy. While it leans toward a capital economy where citizens enjoy a wage and private property, the government retains control over certain sectors of the economy. In addition, oligarchs are heavily taxed to where their taxed money goes to funding healthcare, education and the military. The only ones exempt are those who prove a necessity to hoard more than $5 billion, are those who have a proven need for it, such as business investments or independent charity.

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 energy, gas, leather products, education and electricity are some of Russia's exports, leading it to become one of the powerhouses of the world. As for education, Russia contains some of the world's largest global university partnerships and foreign exchange programs. Russia the most popular study abroad country in Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Scandinavia, Manchuria, Turkey and Egypt, and the second-most popular in China, India, Ukraine, France, Brazil and Japan, second from the United States. As of the United States itself, Russia is also a popular destination, with President Donald Trump pushing for higher ties with Russia. The same can be said of Canada, where Russian culture is highly esteemed, sharing a border with Alaska, once a disputed Russian-speaking state and now a Russian republic.

The Russian oil economy currently competes with that of the Persian Gulf states, Russia is currently the world's largest producer of oil, having overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer. 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 (including the autonomous Moldovan and Belarusian Orthodox Churches), followed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (both Kiev and Moscow patriarchates) and Georgian Orthodox Church. There are also large numbers of Roman Catholics in Belarus and Ukraine (whom many tend to be ethnic Poles), 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, Central Asia, Azerbaijan 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, Kuznetsov 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 second-largest military expenditure, at approximately $275 billion as of 2018. The Russian military is a global superpower, has been able to, once more, project itself globally, having allies in Europe, Africa, Asia. Russia has the most military alliances in Asia. 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 Ksenia Sobchak. This party dominates much of Ukraine, and is the dominant party in Azerbaijan and Georgia with considerable influence in Chechnya, Central Asia and East Ukraine. 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 Central Asia, 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 and Azerbaijan, 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, ethnic Russians live in separate communities from the indigenous Finnic population. Researchers report the communities inhabited by native Karelians 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 Vladimir the Great'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.

However, in 2010, the Order of Tsar Simeon Sain-Bulat (Russian: Орден царя Симеон Саин Булат, Arabic: وسام القيصر سيمون بولات) was established at Russia's first Muslim Royal Club.

The Order of Prince Pyotr Bagration (Russian: Орден Кня́зь Петр Багратион) is a new Caucusus-based club, notorious for supporting Russian annexation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

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

News Bulletin
10/25/15 - Russia again, defended the Czech Republic after it became prone to harsh attacks by the European Union for encouraging and training citizens to own firearms for self-defense, in response to terrorist attacks that have occurred in several places across the globe.

Russia, like the United States, is one of the only countries that has a Right to Bear Arms, as per a 1991 Constitutional Amendment, known as the "People's Protection of the Motherland Law".

Vladimir Putin criticized the attacks, stating, "So, the European Union would rather see Prague, and the great Czech people defenseless? How absurd."

Recently, the the Czech Republic has been at huge odds with the European Union. In 2015 of May, the United States pressured the Czech Republic not to send foreign contingents to the Victory Day Parade in Moscow. However, the Czech Republic went ahead with it, while its neighbor, Slovakia, has left NATO to go join the Russia-led CSTO. So we can definitely expect to see Slovakian troops in Moscow for years to come.

President Miloš Zeman even went so far as to challenge European Union leaders to come to Prague and explain what authority they have to tell him how to run his nation.

Putin paid Zeman a visit this past week, many fear that the Czech Republic may end up leaving NATO.

Zeman stated during a state visit to Moscow, "If the West wants a war with Russia, trust me, Prague isn't partaking in such a thing.

11/15/15 - Czech nationalists all over the Czech Republic have been carrying Russian flags, as both NATO and the European Union have expressed grievances with Miloš Zeman for his visits to Moscow and meetings with Vladimir Putin.

Relations have turned full swing between Russia and the Czech Republic, with both countries sharing many points of view.

Last month, Miloš Zeman basically told NATO that he would not help them if NATO wanted to go to war against Russia.

11/6/18 - Russian military attachés have been dispatched to both India and Belgium, the latter being home to NATO's headquarters. President Vladimir Putin was not bluffing when he stated that he would temporarily cooperate and work with both India and NATO if China did not stop its aggressive actions.

India is a former ally of Russia, but Russia cut ties with India in 2010 due to India's support of North Syria.

Via political speaker Alina Kabaeva, the Kremlin has warned Beijing that the SCO would surely lose a war, against the combined strength of NATO and the CSTO, the top two most powerful military alliances in the world, with the CSTO being nearly twice as powerful as the old Warsaw Pact.

Russia has much more tanks, artillery, aircraft and nukes than China, while the United States has more warships, aircraft, and nukes than China. When it comes to aerial, naval and nuclear weapons strength, the United States and Russia are the top two dogs.

Lavrov warned that China would, in the long-run, get decimated by a combined strength of CSTO, NATO and partners of either such as India, Japan, East Turkestan and Persia.

While the former three are NATO partners, East Turkestan and Japan have agreed to perform joint-drills with both Russia and the United States to counter Chinese aggression.

11/7/18 - Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that she would aid the Russians if China ever attacked Russia, in one of the biggest surprise moves and twist of events.

Germany fought Russia in two World Wars, and Germany aiding Russia would sure greatly improve Russo-German relations.

A spokesperson for the Bundesrat stated, "Germany will have Russia's back, in this century, Germany and Russia have grown very close to one another."

Germany is a member of NATO, and if NATO and the CSTO do forge a temporary World War II-esque alliance against a common enemy like China's, Germany would be obliged to help Russia.

11/10/18 - More hostilities in the Eastern Hemisphere, Indian troops open fire on Chinese military outpost in Tibet.

Alina Kabaeva, on behalf of Sergey Lavrov, announced Russia was going to aid neither nation. This has practically sealed Russia's intention to cut ties with China, a former ally. Now, both China and India are former Russian allies.

Kabaeva stated, "We are not getting ourselves in this mess between India and China, we do not care about India, we do not care about China. They can go clean up their mess."

Russia is due to perform joint-military exercises with Japan and the United States, two traditional adversaries. It is to perform more exercises with East Turkestan, another enemy of China.

Russia is also due to perform exercises with Mongolia, as the Mongolian government has requested both Russian, Manchurian and American presence to curtail the growing Chinese threat. Ultranationalists in Mongolia, who have Sinophobic views, hailed the move by the Mongolian government.

China on the other hand, is to perform extended exercises with Pakistan.

The Mongolian Parliament released a statement, stating that a Chinese incursion into Mongolian lands is dangerous and undoubted.

President Donald Trump hailed Russia and Vladimir Putin as "key instigators of peace, balance and security" in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Meanwhile Turkish officials have gone to China, to establish an allyship, with President Erdogan, feeling betrayed by NATO and the United States, and rejected by Russia and the CSTO, stated he had no other option.

Xi Jinping capitalized on the situation, stating he is more-than willing to accept Turkey as an ally.

11/11/18 - Meanwhile, Russian companies are purchasing Greek assets, to help Greece dig itself out of the hole it is in right now.

Yuri Bagrov, the owner of Bagrov Companies, recently signed a hefty $4.7 billion deal to purchase bankrupt Greek companies, not yet disclosed.

Bagrov told reporters, "We want to help our brothers in Athens."

Bagrov is a devout Russian Orthodox, and says that helping his Orthodox brethren in other countries is a top priority.

But Bagrov isn't the only Russian trying to purchase Greek assets, Garry Vorobyov-Chorovich, the owner of one of Russia's largest technology companies also bought the assets of bankrupt Greek companies. Garry also owns property in the neighboring Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, Garry's mother is from the former, and Garry can speak fluent Serbo-Croatian, holding dual citizenship in both Russia and Yugoslavia.

11/12/18 - Moscow has announced to ethnic Chinese residing in Russia that they have two options: either become exclusively a Russian citizen, or leave Russia.

Russia is home to some 570,000 Chinese, many of whom, are dual citizens of both Russia and China, most live in Central Asia and the Far East, particularly in Astana and Tashkent.

This is concurrent with news that Russia is ending dual citizenship with the People's Republic of China.

Japan and East Turkestan have hailed Moscow's position.

Moments after Russia banned dual citizenship with China, Chinese troops entered Kyrgyzstan, with the goal of seizing Russian military equipment. Kyrgyz and Russian missile forces decimated the attempt, as Russia had already fortified its defenses in Kyrgyzstan. Contingents of Bulgarian, Romanian and Yugoslav forces were also present in Kyrgyzstan.

The Kremlin sent another message to Beijing: one more strike and it is war.

Vladimir Putin assessed Russian citizens and he world, in which he stated, "It is proven that the People's Republic of China, simply can't be trusted. They could not be trusted during the First Cold War, and they can't be trusted today. Apparently Beijing has not gotten the message. We have made defense agreements with Japan, South Korea, East Turkestan, the Republic of China, and pending agreements with India, and we have also made agreements with another country, the United States. You have two superpowers, a couple regional powers and an emerging superpower to answer to. It's very simple, if China makes one more idiotic move, one more missile strike, one more incursion into our territory, it's war."

President Donald Trump will be meeting with his advisors on how to handle the issue.

11/13/18 - President Donald Trump stated in a public speech that the United States will be ready to aid Russia if China commits a major act of aggression.

In addition, Moscow has announced that it has spiked its military spending, the details are to be released the end of this month.

Russia has grown and become a superpower once more. Its last reported military spending was $275 billion, one can simply imagine what it will be then.

In the meanwhile, Turkey has become the newest member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Today, Turkey and China signed the Turkish-Chinese Defense Agreement, as well as the SCO's referendum on the acceptance of Turkey as an SCO member state.

President Erdogan appeared before Xi Jinping, in Beijing. also present were members of the Turkish embassies and general consulates in China, as well as Turkish military attachés in Beijing.

Jinping stated, "We at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation would like to welcome with open arms, our newest member state in the Republic of Turkey."

Turkey now joins obviously China, but also Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Libya, Cambodia, Mindanao and Sulu, and Somalia as part of the SCO, which currently stands as one of three global superpower alliances, the others being NATO and the CSTO, who are now finding a common ground against China.

China will now sell weapons to Turkey.

11/15/18 - Today, Georgian economists have revealed that being under Russian influence has helped their economy.

Georgian president Irma Inashvili stated, "Tourism to Georgia has increased - because of the influence of Russia, the presence of Russian military advisers to military and law enforcement of Georgia has increased, Russian businessmen helping create businesses, purchasing long-bankrupt businesses and creating new productivity, it has bettered our nation. Our nation did not benefit under the wings of NATO or the European Union. Relations with Russia have simply never been better."

Each year, Russian officials visit Georgia, as well as the Russian Embassy in Georgia, to commemorate when the Russian Empire fought off a Persian invasion to help protect the Kingdom of Georgia.

Many Georgians have seen an increased presence in Russia, coming to Russia for work and education purposes, and in turn, Russian media has prompted tourism to Georgia and its neighbor Armenia.

While Georgian is the national language, Russian is a state official language in the country.

But many pro-European Union Georgians have reminded Tbilisi of Russia's invasion in 2008.

President Inashvili doesn't seem to care, "I'm sure they had a rationale behind it, if Russia really wanted to invade and destroy Georgia, their troops would have been in Tbilisi in weeks. But thanks to Russian influence, we have a military capable of properly defending itself. I mean, we obviously have had our downs with Russia, who hasn't? It has enabled Russia to become very powerful, which enables us to become strong due to our ties with a neighboring superpower."

11/16/18 - Chinese forces send massive military incursion into Kyrgyzstan.

Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping: "Let the games begin. It's on."