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In the early 17th century, Russia suffered a great degree of political instability which IOTL saw the Romanovs seize power. However, what if this delicate time resulted in a stalemate between political powers with no-one able to reclaim the power once held by Ivan the Terrible? A seceded Novgorod Republic, Godonuv Moscow, Romanov Tver, and other city-states vie with each other but are unable to re-unite Russia.

What happens to Siberia? At this point the Khanate of Sibir had already been conquered, and Russians were brutally exploiting the Siberians through the practice of extracting tributes for the lucrative fur trade. Would Siberian natives be able to push away the invaders without a Russian state to back them? Would the colonists establish a European-style feudal state east of the Urals? Or would the desire to trade furs for European goods drive them to submit to one of the Russian statelets west of the Urals, or even a non-Russian power such as Sweden, which could conceivably enter Siberia from the north?
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