United Russian Republics Единая Русские Pеспублики Yedinaya Rossiyskaya Respubliki |
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Motto: "Славный Kороль Севера" "Slavnyy Korol' Severa" ("Glorious King of the North") |
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Anthem: "Государственный гимн Объединенной Российской Республики" "Gosudarstvennyy gimn Ob"yedinennykh Rossiyskikh Respublik" ("State Anthem of the United Russian Republics") |
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Capital (and largest city) | Moscow | ||||
Official languages | Russian | ||||
Demonym | Russian | ||||
Government | Parliamentary Presidential Republic | ||||
- | President | Vladimir Putin | |||
- | Prime Minister | Dmitry Medvedev | |||
- | Political Speaker | Anya Vaschenka | |||
- | Upper House | Union Assembly | |||
- | Lower House | State Duma | |||
Formation | |||||
- | Re-unification of Mainland Russia and Russian America | ||||
Population | |||||
- | estimate | 233,473,938 | |||
GDP (nominal) | estimate | ||||
- | Total | $5.3 trillion | |||
Currency | Ruble (SUR ) |
The United Russian Republics (Russian: Единая Русские Pеспублики, Yedinaya Rossiyskaya Respubliki) also known as Russia, is a country in Eastern Europe, North Asia and North America.
Russia borders a large plethora of nations, including Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Scandinavia and Canada. Russia traces its origins to the Kievan Rus', which, during the rule of monarchs such as Peter the Great, Ivan III, Ivan IV and Catherine the Great, emerged to become a world empire with global aspirations, a golden age of arts, music and innovation.
The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The medieval state of Rus' arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states, until it was finally reunified by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which became a major European power, and the third-largest empire in history.
Following the Russian Revolution, Alexander Kerensky established the Russian Republic in the American territories of the former Russian Empire, while Vladimir Lenin established the Russian SFSR in the mainland, which would became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state.
The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and emerged as a superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. However, the Russian Republic combated the Soviet Union as the center of Russian influence across the globe. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first human in space. Following the downfall of the Communist Party in 1989, the Reunification Movement was formed and supported by the peoples of both the Soviet Union and the Russian Republic, and was finally achieved in 1998 when the two re-united to form the modern-day United Russian Republics.
Russia is described as a superpower; with the world's second-most powerful military, and the second-highest military expenditure. It is ranked very high in the Human Development Index, with a universal healthcare system and a free university education. Russia's economy is the world's second-largest by nominal GDP and the third-largest by PPP.
It is a recognised nuclear-weapon state, possessing the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the world's largest, and it is one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, the SCO, the Council of Europe, the APEC, the OSCE, the IIB and the WTO, as well as the leading member of the CIS, the CSTO, and the EAEU. Russia also hosts the ninth-greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
History[]
Expansion into North America (PoD)[]
Communist Era/Divided Era 1917-1991[]
Russian Republic[]
Main article: Russian Republic
The remnant of the White Movement was expelled to Russian America following the civil war. The Whites took with them books, artwork and other Russian cultural artifacts that would have otherwise perished under the new communist regime in Russia.
In this PoD, the Romanovs in the mainland are still captured by the Bolsheviks, and nearly executed at the Ipatiev House. Local Bolshevik leaders ordered their fighters not to make any moves without Moscow's guidance. However, the Bolshevik fighters responsible for delivering the order from Moscow to execute the Romanovs is ambushed and killed in a White Army attack. By the time that the order reached Yeketarinburg Bolsheviks to execute the Romanovs, the city was already under siege by the Czechoslovak Legion. Therefore, in a successful ambush against the Bolsheviks, the Czechoslovak Legion and White Army forces seize the Ipatiev House and rescue the Romanovs.
Instead of the Romanovs, the Bolsheviks of Yeketarinburg are executed by Czechoslovak Legion and White Army forces (in the same way the Bolsheviks tortured the Romanovs of our OT) in the Ipatiev House. Afterwards, the coalition suspected that the Bolsheviks would stage another offensive, they decided on a fighting retreat, and escorted the Romanovs to the safe havens of Russian America in a fighting retreat, culminating in the survival of the Romanovs as one of the largest royal families alive in the alternate modern world.
Bolshevik and fringe communist groups made several attempts to conquer Russian America from within, however thanks to Kiril's strong leadership in uniting the White Movement, the Bolsheviks failed miserably in conquering Russian America, therefore it becomes a White Russian stronghold.
In this PoD, not only do the Romanovs survive, but also the White prominent such as Alexander Kolchak, Pyotr Wrangel, Georgy Lvov, Anton Denikin, Lavr Kornilov and Roman von Ungern-Sternberg survive, forming the strong backbone of the united White forces. Many of the prominent White forces, such as the South Russia Army, Czechoslovak Legions, Asiatic Cavalry and the Cascadia Army of this AT, form the become of a strong breakaway armed forces of the Russian Republic.
Russian America became the abode of White Russian, Old Believer and anti-communist socialist, or "White socialist" culture, with the latter historically considering themselves distinct and different from the White Movement, and was backed by the British and American forces in case the communists ever tried to attack them. Alexander Kerensky established the Russian Republic, however, was overthrow by the rest of the White Movement, who suspected him of being a communist and an ally of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
Therefore, Victor Chernov took over the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
However, the Red Terror in Mainland Russia and the White Terror in the Russian Republic continued. While the Russian Republic remained backed by the Western powers, Soviet Russia under Vladimir Lenin took an independent course, isolated from the West.
Bolshevik rule in Mainland Russia, Russian SFSR[]
Main article: Soviet Union
The events in Mainland Russia are pretty much the same as our OT, Stalin still becomes Soviet leader after Lenin, the Holodomor, Great Purge and Red Terror still commence in Mainland Russia.
It is, during the leader of Joseph Stalin that Soviet Russia began to resurface as the major power of the East, driving the Japanese out of Mongolia. However, Soviet military power was challenged by their failure to decisively conquer Scandinavia in the Scandinavian-Soviet war, in which the Russian Republic aided Scandinavia.
Seeing as to how the Scandinavians defeated and exhausted a larger and more technologically-advanced Red Army, White Russia prepared its forces using Scandinavian-style war preparations, in response to threats by Stalin.
However, the Soviet invasion of Alaska never commenced, thanks to the bloody coup against Joseph Stalin, by Viktor Baburin. Despite claiming to be communist, Baburin claimed that Russia needed to be ruled by a Russian, and was considered the first to mix communism and Russian nationalism.
Baburin re-introduced large elements of Russian and Slavic nationalism into Soviet domestic policy, and re-ralled the Red Army for war against Nazi Germany and Imperatorluk Turkey. Baburin openly knowledged Stalin's genocide against the Ukrainians. He acknowledged the value of the Ukrainian people to the Soviet cause, and promoted ethnic Ukrainians to lead the forces of the Ukrainian SSR.
Baburin was infamous for sending a telegraph to Hitler himself, stating that he knew exactly when, and where he was planning to invade.
Therefore Hitler's plans for invading the Soviet Union was exposed, therefore, Hitler turned to Turkey, but Baburin wasn't stupid, and had already reinforced the Red Army in the Caucusus, as well as in the southern Ukrainian SSR bordering northern Romania.
Baburin re-established order and hope in the Soviet Union, which forced Hitler to turn to the Third Turkish Empire for help. In this timeline, despite the Soviet Union having to bear the brunt of a joint German-Turkish invasion, the Soviets were much more prepared under Baburin's leadership and the Soviet victory over the Axis is a lot more decisive.
The Eastern Front isn't as dramatic as in our OT, a complete opposite of World War I, and life inside the Soviet Union remains fairly a lot more quiet than the war-torn hellhole of our OT.
Turkey becomes divided much like Germany. Manchuria comes under Soviet rule, and the Manchurian SSR is established. Soviet linguists and historiographers help revive the Manchu language, though it became heavily Russian-influenced.
In the post-war years, Viktor Baburin continued to focus on fixing the damages caused by Stalin's Great Purges, and uniting the peoples of the Soviet Union. He allowed exclusively Ukrainian and Belarusian-language Pravda copies and CPSU propaganda in their respective SSRs.
In the Russian Republic, Mikhail Romanovich, the son of Roman Ungern-Sternberg, was the president. It during the leaderships of Viktor Baburin and Mikhail Romanovich that the peoples of the Russian Mainland and Alaska would re-establish ties.
After Baburin however, relations between the Soviet Union and the Russian Republic continued to go down a cold path. The two nations competed for being accredited as the ones to spread Russian culture and influence throughout the globe.
Nonetheless, the Russian Republic joined Scandinavia, Indonesia and India in forming the Non-Aligned Movement, despite being NATO-backed, was not part of NATO or SEATO. During the Cold War, the navies of both the Soviet Union and the Russian Republic engaged in near-clashes in the Bering Strait, home to a hotbed of activity between Soviet and White Russian naval forces.
Despite being non-aligned on paper, White Russia cemented its ties to the West. Eventually, many White Russian leaders in the Cold War lost interest in re-conquering the mainland. President Evgeny Chervyakov adopted the "emigre tactic", instead putting focus away from re-conquering the Mainland, and dominating the Russian-speaking world via the White emigre community worldwide.
President Chervyakov stated that the Russian Empire was already alive and well, and ready to combat the Bolsheviks.
Chervyakov was considered Kruschev's "arch-nemesis", sending White Russian opposition everywhere the Soviets sent their forces. He also united the various Emigre communitites throughout the world, to help strengthen the Russian Republic as a credible power.
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.
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[]
The late 1980s was full of demonstrations throughout the Soviet Union. However, Ronald Reagan is murdered by an unknown assailant, therefore, the events leading to the Soviet collapse never happen, and the transition from the Soviet Union back to "Russia" is a lot different in this timeline.
With the exception of Yugoslavia however, the post-communist Soviet Union loses much of its global military influence as it does in our OT. Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Poland and the Baltic states all make their bids to join NATO.
The Russian SFSR, as well as the Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian SSRs remained loyal to Moscow. This led to the downfall of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the rise of the Liberal Socialists led by Mikhail Gorbachev. The Liberal Socialists embraced the concept of Perestroika, Glasnost and Russian nationalism and made efforts to try and re-unite Alaska with the Russian Mainland. However, Russian Republic (Alaskan) president Feodor Khovansky, as well as the peoples and leaders of the breakaway Russian state, who despite being open to talks of re-unification via visits to Moscow, were not keen on re-joining a socialist state.
Nonetheless, President Gorbachev made serious efforts to mend broken relations with the Russian Republic, even convincing the Patriarch of Moscow to recognize the Patriarch of New Archangel as legitimate. This did prompt a movement, by both Soviet and Alaskan Russians known as the "Reunification Movement" (Движение за воссоединение), and President Gorbachev allowed for the formation of the Reunite Russia Party, a single-issue party dedicated towards this cause.
Civil unrest broke out in the Ukrainian SSR, between those loyal to the Ukrainian SSR and those wanting complete and total Ukrainian independence. The majority of those in the Belarusian and Kazakh Soviet republics wished to remain under the control of Moscow.

A large Christmas tree at Red Square, December 1991, the tree was paid for by the government, indication of the Soviet Union dropping State Atheism
Despite still proclaiming State Atheism and State Secularism, 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 become one of the Soviet Union's many national holidays.
However, in respecting the other religions, such as Islam, Buddhism and Judaism - also considered "heritage religions" of the Soviet Union, their holidays were publicly honored as well.
The Soviet military quietly receded from the global scene, leading the United States to overtake the world in terms of global influence, and the Soviet Armed Forces underwent both progress and decline.
Military's expenditure fell from $368 billion to $150.7 billion in order to make way for the spending towards healthcare, education and veterans welfare. Gorbachev shrunk the size of the Soviet military, wanting to modernize the Soviet military from a conscript force into a professional force. Gorbachev adopted Deng Xiaoping's strategy, slowly moving toward a market economy, favoring market socialism. 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 Soviet Union retained its status as a socialist state. Billionaires were forebidden from accumulating massive wealth, and the idea of a "Soviet billionare" was considered taboo in the nation. President Gorbachev re-iterated his support for the distribution of wealth.
Still, the press received some points of suppression, anything seen as detrimental to Russia and the Soviet Union was suppressed.

The Vladivostok Arcade, today the world's third-largest arcade, and at the time of its completion, the world's largest
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, and crushed the Chechens in the Chechen War.
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.

Soviet troops in Ukraine, 1994
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, and soon issued sanctions against the Soviet Union.
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.
Soviet Union National Anthem 1994-1995 New Year
New Year celebration in 1995, Soviet anthem played as a result of the Soviet Union's victories, beginning with the execution of Boris Yeltsin, the victory over nationalists in Yugoslavia and Ukraine
In 1995, in his final speech as president, Mikhail Gorbachev reflected on the Soviet Union's "underdog successes", stating that the spirit of the Soviet can resist any odds. Alexander Rutskoy succeeded Gorbachev as the President of the Soviet Union.
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 Autonomous Republic of Central Asia, and there are fears that the native Kazakh and Uyghur population will be the minority.
However, President Rutskoy allowed Kazakh to be taught in Central Asian schools alongside Russian.
Boris Pokrovsky presidency, 1998-2004, Mainland Re-Unites With Russian America, Soviet Union renamed to Russia[]
At the end of 1995, Boris Pokrovsky, a former Liberal Socialist and leader of the Social Democrats became President of the Soviet Union. During this time, the Reunification Movement was gaining momentum. A staunch Russian Orthodox, President Pokrovsky finally re-introduce Orthodox culture into Soviet domestic policy, something opposed by hardcore socialists and communists.
One of the biggest surprise moves of President Pokrovsky was working with the other predominantly-Eastern Orthodox nations to form the Orthodox Commonwealth.
Pokrovksy also wanted to re-unite the Russian Mainland with Russian America.. Unlike President Gorbachev, President Pokrovsky had no goals of preserving Soviet culture, and shared Belinsky's hatred of Bolsheviks and Leninists.
Vasily Belinsky worked closely with Pokrovsky for the creation of the new Russian republic, and the two formed the Transitionary Council (Переходный совет) in which Belinsky gave the Kremlin the idea to revert the tricolor as the national flag of Russia. Canada and the rest of NATO made their efforts to hinder a re-unification between Russian America and the Mainland.
Via the 1997 Moscow Conference, the leaders of Russian America and the former Soviet non-Russian republics agreed to exist as Autonomous Republics. Pokrovsky and Belinsky successfully announced their intention to unite Alaska with the Russian Mainland, and eventually changed the flag back to the tri-color, and renamed and re-structured the country as the United Russian Republics. Alaska and the former Soviet republics were allowed to continue as Autonomous Republics.
On December 31, 1997, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, headed by Boris Pokrovksy announced the cessation of the Soviet Union, as well as the Constituent Assembly of the Russian Republic, headed by Vasily Belinsky announced the cessation of the Russian Republic, and on January 1, 1998, the United Russian Republic was announced as the legal Russian state with the six-year Transitionary Council as the governing body, a reminiscent of the post-revolutionary 1921 Constituent Assembly.
The Reunification was a major national event and global news, and is celebrated as a major National Holiday every year in the country. The "Bering Blockade" was a blockade filled with civilian ships and boats full of celebrating observers, which has now become a festivity annually to commemorate the event.
One of the first moves President Pokrovsky made was returning properties to the Russian Orthodox Church, which had confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and later Soviet authorities. The Russian government gave back control of St. Basil's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church. Clergymen were given access to what is known as the Great Red Vault, or Brezhnev's Vault, a secretive vault which had contained all of the relics that Bolshevik and Soviet authorities confiscated from the Orthodox church.
In 1999, the Romanovs were finally able to return to the Russian Mainland, marking the first time the Romanovs ever step foot inside Mainland Russia. They were invited to the Kremlin, where they signed a series of agreements with the Russian government to re-transfer their respective palaces and historical properties back to them, a symbolic gesture of the Reunified Russian state's anti-communist nature.
However, half of the Autonomous Ukrainian Republic did not feel content being referred to as Russians, and having Russian take precedence over Ukrainian. The final line was drawn when in 1999, the Kremlin labeled Kiev as one of the "cultural capitals" of Russia and Russian history and heritage. The entire western half of Ukraine once-again, flared up with nationalists and clashes in Kiev fell out of control.
In addition, ethnic Russian politicians in power in the Autonomous Ukrainian Republic were subject to threats and harassments from Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.
Not all of NATO supported the Reunification, with the United States, Canada and United Kingdom suspecting Soviet meddling in Vasily Belinsky's choice. This created a huge rift in relations between the former White Russia (now an autonomous Russian republic), with the NATO states, the nations that once backed and supported it.
This had huge negative implications for the Sikorsky Aircraft Company, which was based in Alaska. Although Sikorsky continued to export military aircraft for NATO shortly after the re-unification, NATO's claims of Mainland meddling caused Sikorsky CEO Vladimir Breiner to end defense contracts with NATO, but to continue exporting civilian aircraft.
This caused a huge slash in Sikorsky's revenue, causing 3/4 of its plants in Western nations to shut and close. Eventually, George H.W. Bush ordered Sikorsky to shut down in the United States in general, causing even more revenue loss.
However, Russia receded from the global competition image, despite maintaining a well-funded global military, as President Pokrovsky invested his time in fixing issues abroad. Russian military operations would be regional.
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. Worried about the fate of the Russian Manchurian community, Pokrovsky 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.
After having retreated from the global scene from a while, Russia re-entered when it openly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, with President Pokrovsky sending forces into Iraq to confront U.S. forces in support of Saddam Hussein. As as result, Bush enacted sanctions against Russia. Baghdad became divided between a Coalition and Russian-controlled zone.
Zhirinovsky Era 2004-2007[]

President Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, 2002
In 2004, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party became president, via rigging, cheating and jerrymandering, promising to crush the Ukrainian separatist movement.
Zhirinovsky gave the greenlight to Sikorsky to build military aircraft for Russia, triggering a new round of sanctions from President Bush.
From 2004 to 2007, Zhirinosky led a Fascist-like rule in Russia and made concentrated efforts to push and enforce ethnic Russians as the supreme elite ethnic group in the nation. Under his order, the Kremlin re-named Kazakhstan the Central Asian Republic, and removed Kazakh from its status as a co-official to Russian. References to non-Russians in the history of the nation were whitewashed, with special exemptions given for people such as Catherine the Great.
Despite being half-Jewish, Zhirinovsky was heavily anti-Semitic, which severely endangered Russia's relations with Israel and its American backer. As a result, Israel began to recall its diplomats from Russia.
However, it is his Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that worked to improve the financial situation of Russia, and often-not, was critical of Zhirinovsky's leadership worrying that Zhirinovsky may cause Russia to collapse, un-doing what Pokrovsky and Belinksy had done.
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 at first, Zhirinovsky referred to Bush as a "Jew-loving phony conservative". In addition, he competed with the U.S. as being the "leader of the Christian world" and stated that Russia was to be the leader of the Christian world, not the United States, claiming that the Western nations had failed in doing so.
Alexander Dugin went form an opposition bloc against Zhrinovsky, despite having similarity in views. Dugin favored a political ideology known as "Eurasianism", and despite being far-right, embraced non-Christian faiths, and criticized Zhirinovsky as trying to push "American-style nationalism" into Russia.
In addition, outrage ensued when leaks of Zhirinovsky's plans to re-conquer the former Russian Empire, which would include Finland, Poland, Georgia and the rest of Central Asia were released, ultimately leading to his downfall. Sergei Skripal, an ex-Soviet spy and Russian intelligence officer who worked for the Zhirinovsky government 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.
The sheer instability caused by Zhirinovsky created fears of a "second collapse" in Russia, that the non-Russian republics would all secede (similar to the Soviet collapse of our OT). Many fellow nationalists considered Zhirinovsky to be a closeted American puppet attempting to cause instability in Russia.
As such, in the 2007 White Nationalist Conference in Moscow, the leader of the Unite White Movement Party, Prince Paul III, then-leader of the United White Movement Party, threatened to expel the Liberal Democratic Party from the UWP if Zhirinovsky did not step down. Another quasi-revolution occured, urging Vladimir Zhirinovsky out of power.
Zhirinovsky would become remembered as one of Russia's most unstable rulers, drawing to the likes of Ivan IV and Joseph Stalin.
Post Zhirinovsky Era 2007-present[]
In 2007, fearing that Zhirinovsky's policies would de-stablize Russia, domestically and internationally, the Russian Supreme Court impeached Vladimir Zhirinovsky. This allowed Dmitry Medvedev to become president, much to Dugin's dismay.
Many Russians regarded Dugin as being much too similar to Zhirinovsky, as Dugin too, dreamed of a resurgent Russian Empire to dominate the globe. Medvedev however - while attempting to enforce Russian sovereignty and worldviews, also worked to restore and improve Russia's relations with the world.
This included attempting to solve the border crisis with Ukraine, however the resolution only led to more territorial disputes since Medvedev declared all of the major cities of valuable revenue in Ukraine to be Russian territory and signing an agreement with George W. Bush to divide zones of influence in Iraq in the central Tigris River, to create a buffer zone between Assyria and Iraq.
Russia had truly begun to resemble the government under Boris Pokrovsky and Vasily Belinsky with concentrated efforts and attempts to tackle poverty in Russia.
It is at this point when Putin began to rise to prominence, beginning what many percieved to be a "war on oligarchs". Many also feared a pre-cursor to a communist resurgence, which both Putin and Medvedev denied.
However, Putin also passed stiff laws to prevent scammers and what he referred to as "leeches" from taking advantage which he stated was a fine-line difference between rightful public distribution of wealth and communism - stating that neither Western capitalists nor Bolshevik communists were right.
In 2012, Russia was dealt a major blow when the Hague awarded Kiev status as Ukrainian territory, enraging Medvedev and Kremlin officials. East Ukraine's capital was moved to Kharkiv. A new agreement was reached between Russia and Ukraine, extending Ukrainian control 500 km west of the Dneiper, in which Russia made its own territorial concessions to Ukraine, finalizing the modern-day borders of Russia and Ukraine. This would finish a period in modern Russian history known as the Russia-Ukraine Border Crisis.

Russian and Scandinavian computer science students in St. Petersburg, via the Northern Europe Polytechnic Coalition
Medvedev also worked to restore relations with the West, whilst still maintaining Russian territorial ad global integrity and increasing ties with China, India and the Arab World. Medvedev signed the Railway Act into law, a system of railways that would connect Russia to several European and Asian nations, of these, included Canada, 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 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 and signed a series of economic agreements with Mongolia, in an attempt to help revitalize the sparsely-populated nation.
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 quasi-market economy means the government could not afford to mass-spend on its military to Soviet-era levels.
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. The military and economic ties with the growing China and India solidified credible bloc for Russia, and the Kremlin was also able to secure military agreements with many Arab nations.
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. New military reforms also emphasized the navy and air force, to truly combat NATO's naval and aerial supremacy.
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.
In 2010, Vladimir Putin became president. In May of 2010, Russia was put in hot water for the Sana'a Embassy Incident. In order to counter the European Union's economic monopoly, Russia, China and a coalition of other countries in Asia (namely Manchuria, Japan, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and East Turkestan) created the Eurasian Union, with the Russian ruble as the main currency for oil.
Rise Back to Military Superpower Status 2011-present[]
In 2010, Medvedev allowed prime minister Vladimir Putin to make military decisions and influence the military. Putin decided that Russia was going to intervene in the Middle East once again, and re-forge the historic ties between the Soviet Union and the Arab World.
In 2011, Russia intervened in the Arab Spring, backing the established governments of Egypt, Libya and Syria against the Muslim Brotherhood. The Kremlin's various actions in the Middle East, such as the Sana'a Incident of May 2010, and military operations against U.S. and Saudi-backed revolutionaries in Syria, Yemen and Egypt led to near-freezing of relations between Russia and the United States and Muslim World. Some Islamic uprisings occurred in Russia, only to be quashed in the Dagestan Affair.
Russia's ability to gain near-parallel influence with the U.S. in the Middle East prompted many world observers to once-more, re-classify Russia as a global superpower.
In 2015, Putin signed the Spiritual Purity Bill into law, which would nationalize the Russian Orthodox Church, and make it a requirement for the president, vice president and Prime Minister to become Russian Orthodox.
Rise back to Global Superpower Status[]
In 2014, the Russian Spetsnaz capture of Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria, along with leaders of Syrian Opposition solidified Russia's resurgence as a competing military superower. .
More improvements were made with some former Warsaw Pact nations, including a law to make it a Russian tradition to visit Poland in memorium of the Katyn Massacre leading to Poland's approval 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.
Over the years, as many NATO countries began discontent with Western influence, such as Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, they too re-joined Russia's sphere of influence. Russia often backed nationalist and Euroskeptic regimes and political parties across Europe.
The presidency of Donald Trump in the U.S., marked a new era of warming Russo-American relation.
Over time, as Trump began to show dismay and disgust against NATO, NATO lost its grip on many nations, to which, began to follow Russian and/or Chinese orbit. Of these, included Turkey, Scandinavia, Romania and Bulgaria.
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.
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.
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.
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 G3 East Alliance, which in many respects - is expected to succeed the Warsaw Pact as being the chief rival to NATO.
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[]
The Russian economy is a global 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, the military and other public sectors.
The Russian economy is currently the world's third largest, at $7.42 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, Grozny, Sochi 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.
Education[]
Just like the NCAA in the United States, colleges in Russia form part of the National Alliance of Collegiate Education (Национальный альянс университетского образования), or the NACE. Unlike the United States, American-style football is not the stape of NACE sports, rather - European football "soccer" and basketball.
Moscow State University[]
St. Petersburg University[]
Royal University[]
The Royal University (Королевский университет - OT American equivalent: Yale, Harvard and etc.) located in Tanan (OT equivalent: Fairbanks), Alaska. This is currently one of Russia's most prestigious and most expensive private schools. All of Russia's royal clubs operate in this university, this is also where many of the Romanovs and White Russian elite attend.
Moscow Technological Institute[]
One of Russia's top public technology, engineering and innovation colleges. Staple programs: mechanical engineering, construction management, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, auronautics, computer science and multi-disciplinary engineering.
Nabokov University[]
A business and liberal arts-oriented public school (OT American equivalent: Indiana University), named after noted White Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. Main staple programs: business, political science, arts, music, literacy. It is currently the largest public university in Alaska.
Wrangel University[]
Alaska's 2nd-largest public university, and one of Russia's top technology and engineering schools. Found by Pyotr Wrangel, staple programs include: all sorts of engineering, aeronautics, computer science and etc. Most of Russia's post-communist cosmonauts went to this school.
Religion[]

St. Basil's Cathedral - the current seat of the Moscow Patriarchate
Russia is a multi-religious nation. Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically the Russian Orthodox Church, which is Russia's state religion, and forms the majority of religion in Russia. 65.3% of Russia's population claims to be Russian Orthodox.
Currently, the Russian Orthodox Church is split between 2 patriarchates - namely that of the Moscow Patriarchate and that of the New Archangel Patriarchate. The 2 split in 1921, after the Bolsheviks conquered the Russian Mainland, in which Orthodox outside of the former Russian SFSR would go on to find the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia - which eventually solidified into the New Archangel Patriarchate.
After 1998, despite Russia being politically and geographically re-united, the 2 patriarchates never re-united due to one issue, which is the separating characteristic of the 2: the Moscow Patriarchate regards and accepts Patriarch Sergius, a pro-Soviet and pro-communist patriarch of Moscow as being in the line of succession, while the New Archangel Patriarchate does not accept or recognize any Soviet-era Moscow patriarch as being a legitimate leader of the church, causing a near-eternal rift between Moscow and New Archangel.
There are also large numbers of Roman Catholics in Belarus (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 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.

St. Nikhon's Cathedral - the seat of the New Archangel Patriarchate
Islam forms the second largest denomination, and is the majority practiced in Chechnya, Dagestan, Central Asia, Caucasus 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.
Thanks to the historical influence of the Soviet Union, many Russians are also irreligious, however this has seen an on-going decline. After the re-unification, many Russians are beginning to stigmatize atheism.
Military[]
Main article Russian Armed Forces

Russian T-90 tank
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.

The Ulyanovsk supercarrier

Sukhoi Su-57
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 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.
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 and the White Movement 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. This party holds considerable influence in Caucusus, Belarus, Central Asia, Dagestan and Ingushetia.
The largest political division in Russia as a republic (республика), to which exist two types: Federal (Федеральная Республика) and Autonomous (Автономная республика), each headed by a Governor (Губернатор). Practically, the two share the same civil powers, however Autonomous Republics contain cultural and some political autonomy. For example, many Autonomous Republics (except) Alaska are inhabited by non-ethnic Russians, and can mandate local languages alongside Russian in their schools.
In Alaska, local government prohibits communist, socialist and Soviet symbols, and the Kremlin has given the Alaskan local government to right teach the history of the Russian Revolution from their PoV.
Sports[]
Football (soccer), basketball, wrestling, sport-shooting and hockey are currently the main sports in Russia. Russia is currently considered a major global competitor in sports, and has held a historical legacy in dominating many major sports. Russia is an active competitor in FIBA, FIFA, the Olympics, Pan-Slavic Games, Pan-European Games and the ISSC.
The Soviet Union had the world's best hockey and basketball team, White Russia had the world's best sport-shooting team (to which the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and United States followed as well).