Russia Resurgent - A TL
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Does the Kingdom of Yugoslavia only cover Serbia and Montenegro?
Will we see monarchist resurgence in Romania and Bulgaria?
Bulgaria? Nope. Bad blood and Simeon was an idiot.
Romania? On the cards.
Ah... And I hope Albania ( and maybe greece) is still on the cards?
great chapter, but i have one question could the ctso membership be expanded to some other russia allies country like cuba, angola, and the other soviet friendly country
I assume that the US wouldn't take that nicely. The most CSTO should expand is the USSR borders (minus the baltics of course) and as we've seen, Eastern Europe, through the balkans
Didn't Albania have a "failed" referendum? And I presume there are the Bagartoni in Georgia, supported by the public too
By 2001-2 the support for the monarchy was gone due to some corruption scandals, tough the heir of Zogu is well regarded. About the Bagartoni, they are supported, however the Georgian government till date ever since independence haven't supported them which makes a referendum.......tad bit hard to conduct; especially in a country not fearing to use force of arms.
Interesting timeline indeed.
Some questions:
1) ITTL has a through examination of all of Russia's nuclear assets happened? Anything missing?
2) Did the Soviet/Russian Shuttle program survive? If so then there is a great source of funds for both Russia and Kazakhstan - lots of cash in space launches, space clean-up, and stations.
3) Is the Ariel Sea and Caspian Sea still dying up? Given the agricultural reforms, one would hope the over-damming, and other issues would stop/be reviewed.
4) What did Yeltsin get up do post power?
5) Did the giant Nikolai Valuev still end up in the Duma?
6) Have those ugly Soviet era apartment blocks started being replaced around Russian cities?
7) How far is the West countries investing in Russia gone?
8) Are there still massive gas pipelines to Europe?
9) Is there a switch to electric railways going on?
10) What are LGBT rights like?
11) How are relations with Israel?
Some observations:
1) I think you are under estimating the build time on some of your infrastructure projects, esp the rail ones- you timings seem too ambitious for things like the Trans-Siberian. The refrub in Belorussia is one thing, a new line is something else.
2) Afghanistan is going to get very interesting in a few 'in universe' months. I foresee Russia getting involved with the invasion. Perhaps not in Iraq though.
3) Don't over 'wank' Russia, I don't deny it could be a greater country than OTL, but it would be too easy to over do things. Bad things still need to happen, and geopolitics being what it is the US, UK, Japan China are not going to let Russia get too dominant
4) More Investment in Africa?
5) Central Asia strikes me a great spot for some seriously big solar plants
Watching with interest.
Some questions:
1) ITTL has a through examination of all of Russia's nuclear assets happened? Anything missing?
2) Did the Soviet/Russian Shuttle program survive? If so then there is a great source of funds for both Russia and Kazakhstan - lots of cash in space launches, space clean-up, and stations.
3) Is the Ariel Sea and Caspian Sea still dying up? Given the agricultural reforms, one would hope the over-damming, and other issues would stop/be reviewed.
4) What did Yeltsin get up do post power?
5) Did the giant Nikolai Valuev still end up in the Duma?
6) Have those ugly Soviet era apartment blocks started being replaced around Russian cities?
7) How far is the West countries investing in Russia gone?
8) Are there still massive gas pipelines to Europe?
9) Is there a switch to electric railways going on?
10) What are LGBT rights like?
11) How are relations with Israel?
Some observations:
1) I think you are under estimating the build time on some of your infrastructure projects, esp the rail ones- you timings seem too ambitious for things like the Trans-Siberian. The refrub in Belorussia is one thing, a new line is something else.
2) Afghanistan is going to get very interesting in a few 'in universe' months. I foresee Russia getting involved with the invasion. Perhaps not in Iraq though.
3) Don't over 'wank' Russia, I don't deny it could be a greater country than OTL, but it would be too easy to over do things. Bad things still need to happen, and geopolitics being what it is the US, UK, Japan China are not going to let Russia get too dominant
4) More Investment in Africa?
5) Central Asia strikes me a great spot for some seriously big solar plants
Watching with interest.
The only states that I see joining Russia are Kazakhstan, maybe Uzbekistan (although I wouldn't say a 100%) and Eastern Ukraine, if talks happen between Ukraine and Russia
didn't that start happen before the break up of the soviets?
Last edited:
1. Yes. Old parts have been scrapped so as to have a lot more financial spending parity.
2. Mostly yes. It's being maintained but slightly quiet due to the entire financial stuff going on.
3. Ariel? Yes, it had already started dying. Caspian no. The agricultural portion is used as irrigation and damming the Volga would be disastrous for Russia.
4. Staying as that idiotic president who tries to gain the limelight every so often in a few TV shows now and then.
5. He is still a boxer as off right now.
6.in major cities, largely. In towns the process is beginning.
7. As continuous as 1991-98, after that it fell largely but it's continuous right now.
8. Partially yes.
9. Beginning around now yes.
10. Ambivalent kinda.
11. Ambivalent or more like, you don't touch me I won't touch you kind of attitude.
2001 (2nd Half)
Chapter 8
***
2001 (2nd Half)
***
In June, the Tallinn Conference took place between the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The members of the organization were:-
The Tallinn Conference.
Yavlinsky returned to Moscow stating that the economic prosperity of Russia and it’s allies was now guaranteed. Meanwhile however peace was something that wasn’t being upheld properly in Georgia. The South Ossetian War and the Abkhazian War was starting to get out of hand. In June 23rd, around 400 Georgian troops assaulted the city of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia itself, and tried to gain control of the city. The Abkhaz troops forced the Georgians back with the aid of Russian peacekeepers caught in the firefight in the city.
Georgia issued a diplomatic protest against Russia for the involvement of Russian troops in ‘Georgian’ soil. Yavlinsky dismissed these claims stating that the Georgian military knew that Russian peacekeepers were present, and had went ahead on their own free will, and that Russia had no hand in the defeat of the Georgian forces. Russo-Georgian relations were not at all in a good state, and this event simply enforced this belief and anti-Russian riots started to break out in Georgian cities. This was frowned upon by the Russian higher-ups, as the Russian trade lines going through Georgia into Turkey and Armenia would be threatened should Georgia suddenly start to become overtly hostile to the Russian state.
Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia.
In the late days of June, repeated missile attacks against Iraq by the United States of America, meant that Russia was currently sitting tightly. Yavlinsky, was currently caught in a tough spot. He could not be seen doing absolutely nothing over the events going in Iraq and neither could he be seen doing overtly too much, as he tried to keep the relations between the Russian Federation and the CSTO as a whole at least ambivalent with the Western nations joining NATO. The Baltic Crisis which saw Lithuania and Latvia unable to join NATO, had already been a hitch in the relations between the two factions, and currently Russia was only in the position of aggressively pushing forward its economy and developing its military at the same time.
In a press conference he gave a speech asking for calm. “It has been an occurrence for far too many years by this point to make it even seem coherent and rational. Just yesterday, news arrived that an American missile hit an Iraqi football stadium whilst a game was going (AN: true event) on, and in the subsequent disaster, killed around 40 Iraqi civilians. Such actions are the actions of a person or nation trying to bypass everything to do what it wants. We cannot allow this to continue, and whilst the disarmament of Iraq is a strong issue, on which Russia agrees, we cannot allow the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians. We must remain calm in these times of crisis and not at all act with irrationality and emotions. We must act with the cold hard facts presented in front of us.”
Meanwhile in China itself, on July 5th, the Russian government and the Chinese government signed the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with one another. The main points of this treaty were:-
During the entire month of July, the Russian government was driving forward with it’s second 3 year plan, which had been following the technology mantra over and over again. Russia Online was currently booming in sails, as the online technology gained a good amount of fame and sails started to grow exponentially. Russia Online was still in the process of creating an Operating System, though there was a good amount of progress going on in that sector thankfully for the Russians.
In August however, tragedy struck. A few Chechen separatists, still existed in a few random cells all across the countryside which was inaccessible due to terrain and many more factors. Zyuganov, as a part of the 3 year plan, had come to Chechnya to participate in the inauguration of a new technological firm in Grozny, however a suicide bomber managed to get close and detonated the bomb next to Zyuganov, killing him, the FSB agents who tried to stop him, and around 4 civilians next to him on August 3rd. The suicide bombing brought a lot of condemnation from Yavlinsky. Ivan Melnikov was made the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Russia and the position of Prime Minister was given to Melnikov as well, because of the demands from the Communist Party.
Gennady Zyuganov, killed by Chechen terrorists.
The entire episode was a rather big wake up call for the Russians who were growing lax in their security measures in Chechnya, and increased anti-terror activities were restarted and the entire episode became the final nail in the coffin for the Chechen independence movement ironically, as the deaths of fellow Chechens in the attack, had made the Chechen populace angry as well, and the Chechen guerillas quickly found out they were not going to be getting support from the populace as isolated incidents of Chechens handing over guerillas to the Russian anti-terror groups started to become known.
Meanwhile this was also a good pretext for Vladimir Putin, the leader of the FSB to start a shakeup in the FSB’s old guard. They were rigid and unwilling to change, and the higher ups in the Russian government quietly blamed them for the inefficiency of the FSB in this regard. Putin managed to get the clearance he needed, and much of the old guard were ‘convinced’ to retire with yearly pension and they were shunted off to the side with newer and more professional and competent officers taking their positions.
This was however a slightly bad move on part of both Yavlinsky and Putin. Many of the old guard generals and officers ended up joining the National Center Party of Russia led by Podberezkin, and this provided a good boost for the popularity of the National Center Party of Russia due to many old people having links to some members of the old guard.
However still, the decision to shunt the old guard away did lead to a mini era of reform in the FSB as well, categorized by the fact, that Putin warned Yavlinsky later in the month that something was going on with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and that suspicious activities were being detected.
Indirectly being assisted by the CIA as well, the Russian FSB was receiving disturbing reports about Al Qaeda and the fact that Zyuganov’s assassin may have had some contact and relation with the Al Qaeda group and some Islamic terrorist groups. This was not good news. Russia had a sizeable Muslim population, and any rise in islamophobia due to Islamic terror attacks was something that Russia really did not wish to have, right during the times when the Russian economy was growing and starting to properly become assimilated into the global market and economy.
In August 21, the United States and NATO announced that peacekeepers from NATO would be stationed in the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonia had protested largely against this, and was unwilling to have American troops on Macedonian soil. They had given in mostly due to the American diplomatic attack, however by this point they were asking for diplomatic balance, and also asked Russian troops to enter Macedonia as peacekeepers from the Russian military base at Nis. This was accepted by Yavlinsky who had been very suspicious about the NATO’s movement into Macedonia and Russian and NATO soldiers patrolled the areas of Macedonian uncomfortably eyeing each other with distrust as each time each patrol passed each other, the clenching of assault rifles, and murmured profanities were common, though no incidents took place. The situation in Macedonia was tense nonetheless and both sides in return kept their troops in Macedonia at a minimum level to discourage any such events from taking place.
Russian Peacekeeping forces in Macedonia.
In August 31st, the World Conference Against Racism took place in South Africa. The Russian delegation there argued for better coherence with the ethnic populations of the world to make a less racist world and for semi-globalism to work as a compromise between pro-globalists and anti-globalists stating that rapid globalization without check could be a potential disaster in the making. Of course the conference was only largely ceremonial and not at all having any executive authority, however, the words of the Russian argument were noted by many, as being at least partially true in some regards.
On September 4th, Russia Online announced that a new Operating System named Ruson OS was going to be released in Christmas (according to the Gregorian Calendar). This was a good step forward for the Russian technological group, as Russia wished to make this company become a global competitor for the technological markets and industries. It was gaining a lot of traction within the CSTO nations no doubt, however there was little to no news about it outside of the CSTO nations, and very few even knew about it, and Russia wished to rectify that situation.
In September 9, Around 68 people died in Parnu County in Estonia due to methanol poisoning and worries about extra cases cropping up began to grow within the government and the people alike. The Russian government, eager to follow up on the route of rapprochement taken by both countries sent a good amount FHSR employees to take care and treat the Estonian populace in Parnu in cooperation with the Estonian government to make sure that the methanol poisoning had not and would not spread around the entirety of the area. In the end, around 278 people were found with symptoms and they were sent for treatment and subsequently most of them survived. The Estonian government expressed their gratitude to Russia by stating that the Estonian government was willing to expand upon the opportunities between the two nation states and would be willing to negotiate an entry into the CSTO economic union, though not the military one. This was accepted by Moscow enthusiastically. Ethnic tensions and historical rivalry had been quickly dying out between the two states, due to increased cooperation and both Tallinn and Moscow were eager to live their bereft history behind them.
9/11 attacks
In September 11, around almost 3000 American civilians died in the 9/11 attacks and the World Trade Centers collapsed as a reason in Manhattan. The Russian government sent a letter of condolence to America and Sergey Shoyu gave a public speech during the aftermath of the event.
“Islam is an Abrahamic religion. A fellow brother of the book, though it may not seem like that at times. Russia and Islam has had a……complicated relationship to say the least, however we still look at our numbers today and find that a good portion of Russians are Islamic. And they live in peace, believe themselves to be Russian, and are as patriotic to this nation like any other Novgorodian or Muscovite. Extremism in anything, militarism, religion, politics, day to day work, anything, is a very dangerous business, and blaming an entire community as a whole is something that the government of Russia does not emphasize. However the eradication of extremism is something that the government of Russia wishes to bring about in everything. We must be moderate in our approach. Seek what others want and left others seek what we want, for this world of ours is a symbiotic relationship of give and take. The recent attacks on American soil are nothing except the product of radical extremism, something that Russia cannot abide by, having been victim to it, so many times in the past. Should the United States, and by extension, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization need any Russian aid for their retaliation that will come, no doubt, against extremism, then Russians, may they be Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant, are ready to help them.”
President Bush announcing the War on Terror.
In September 20th, Bush announced a ‘War on Terror’ and whilst the Russian government was guardedly fine about this, the FSB was indicating something else was going on. American troops movements in the middle east as well as the navy in the Indian Ocean was just too sudden and the Russian government was quite suspicious about what America was currently planning, and how would Russia react to any kind of provocation was now occupying the minds in Kremlin. Moreover Bush issued an ultimatum to the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden, and “close all immediate terrorist training cells, hand over every terrorist and their supporters and allow the United States full access to the terrorist camps for close inspections.”
In return, the Taliban had denounced the 9/11 attacks and they had been slightly aggravated by the attacks. However Bin Laden was protected by the Pashtun laws on hospitality, which basically stated that visitors were gods, and the Taliban demanded proof of Osama Bin Laden’s guilt. Taliban called that if proof of Bin Laden’s guilt was proven by any third party nation, they would hand over Bin Laden and his lackeys. As NATO came dangerously close to invading the already tumultuous region of Afghanistan, Russian President Yavlinsky ordered the FSB to begin investigations regarding the attacks and to find out if Bin Laden had anything to do regarding the attack on the September 11 attacks. Putin stated that Russia could find out who was behind the attacks, only if FSB agents were on the ground in Afghanistan. Later that night, from Russian airfields in Tajikistan, Russian spies are inserted into Afghanistan by the Russians.
In October 7th, the Americans launched Operation Enduring Freedom and invaded Afghanistan refusing the Taliban’s call for peace and de-escalations. Russia publically supported the ‘war on terror’ however denounced the invasion of Afghanistan calling it an unnecessary loss of life for all parties involved. The Russian FSB was also starting to filter in reports about possible links between Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, indirectly, the Russians were asking the British Mi6 agents in the region, the next largest spy organization active in the region to begin cooperation to find out whether or not Bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Mi6 agents and FSB agents reportedly colluded with one another in Afghanistan during their investigation processes, and Russian cyber networks, were hard at work trying to find any data regarding the attacks, though till this point, they were unsuccessful.
Operation Enduring Freedom.
Meanwhile Russian aerial assets continued to observe the manner in which NATO committed their attacks in Afghanistan, with the aim of gathering doctrinal intelligence as well as equipment intelligence, because NATO and Russia just didn’t click with one another, and neither did Yavlinsky nor did NATO trust the each other, and both were always looking at each other with suspicion.
On November 12th, Kabul was abandoned by the Taliban as members of the Northern Alliance soon stormed the city and took the capital of Afghanistan. Russia viewed these events with slight interest. They had no current deployments into Afghanistan, and agreed with the United States that the Islamic terrorism had to be rooted out, however an entire invasion of Afghanistan was something that Russia did not support. The region had finally achieved some kind of stability for a few months and years, and now the entire stability was destroyed and refugees were flowing into the Central Asian States as well as Pakistan and Iran, and with the CSTO being involved in this, at least diplomatically, Russia had been thrown into the sidelines by NATO in this endeavor, something that irritated Russia to no end.
In December 13, the 2001 Indian Parliament Attack took place, which forced the Indian Army and armed forces to go on the mobilization in the Pakistani border. Provoked by this, the Pakistani government announced a mobilization of its own armed forces. Faced with a potential nuclear war, and with NATO involved quagmire deep in Afghanistan to pay good enough attention in the subcontinent, Russia and China led the diplomatic mission in the subcontinent.
Tanks being mobilized in the Indo-Pak standoff of 2001.
Yavlinsky officially issued an ultimatum to India after border fights started in the Line of Control in Kashmir backing Pakistan. The ultimatum presented condolences for the parliamentary attack, however denounced the armed aggression India was pursuing and with the risk of nuclear war, stated that if India instigated another armed conflict in the subcontinent then Russia and with the backing of the Chinese government, China would also intervene. Faced with fighting against three nuclear powers, and two great powers and one regional power, India backed down, and the Indo-Pak confrontation died down. However this was the final nail in the coffin for the previously amenable Russo-Indian relations. Yavlinsky claimed in public that he had done this and taken a proactive position to eliminate the threat of nuclear war, and he was praised by both the east and west for his actions, however privately Yavlinsky had done what any leader would have; Yavlinsky was supporting his ally in the south along with China.
As the year ended, talks between Yabloko and the Communist party over a continued coalition for the 2002 elections began to take place.
***
***
2001 (2nd Half)
***
In June, the Tallinn Conference took place between the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The members of the organization were:-
- The Russian Federation.
- The Republic of Ukraine
- The Republic of Armenia
- The Republic of Kazakhstan
- The Republic of Uzbekistan
- The Republic of Turkmenistan
- The Republic of Kyrgyzstan
- The Republic of Tajikistan
- The Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
- The Republic of Estonia.
- The Republic of Azerbaijan.
- The CSTO to become an economic alliance along with being a military alliance.
- The CSTO to have a common currency; possibly the Ruble.
- The CSTO to have a common market system.
- The CSTO (except observer states) to have a free movement area between each other.
The Tallinn Conference.
Yavlinsky returned to Moscow stating that the economic prosperity of Russia and it’s allies was now guaranteed. Meanwhile however peace was something that wasn’t being upheld properly in Georgia. The South Ossetian War and the Abkhazian War was starting to get out of hand. In June 23rd, around 400 Georgian troops assaulted the city of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia itself, and tried to gain control of the city. The Abkhaz troops forced the Georgians back with the aid of Russian peacekeepers caught in the firefight in the city.
Georgia issued a diplomatic protest against Russia for the involvement of Russian troops in ‘Georgian’ soil. Yavlinsky dismissed these claims stating that the Georgian military knew that Russian peacekeepers were present, and had went ahead on their own free will, and that Russia had no hand in the defeat of the Georgian forces. Russo-Georgian relations were not at all in a good state, and this event simply enforced this belief and anti-Russian riots started to break out in Georgian cities. This was frowned upon by the Russian higher-ups, as the Russian trade lines going through Georgia into Turkey and Armenia would be threatened should Georgia suddenly start to become overtly hostile to the Russian state.
Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia.
In the late days of June, repeated missile attacks against Iraq by the United States of America, meant that Russia was currently sitting tightly. Yavlinsky, was currently caught in a tough spot. He could not be seen doing absolutely nothing over the events going in Iraq and neither could he be seen doing overtly too much, as he tried to keep the relations between the Russian Federation and the CSTO as a whole at least ambivalent with the Western nations joining NATO. The Baltic Crisis which saw Lithuania and Latvia unable to join NATO, had already been a hitch in the relations between the two factions, and currently Russia was only in the position of aggressively pushing forward its economy and developing its military at the same time.
In a press conference he gave a speech asking for calm. “It has been an occurrence for far too many years by this point to make it even seem coherent and rational. Just yesterday, news arrived that an American missile hit an Iraqi football stadium whilst a game was going (AN: true event) on, and in the subsequent disaster, killed around 40 Iraqi civilians. Such actions are the actions of a person or nation trying to bypass everything to do what it wants. We cannot allow this to continue, and whilst the disarmament of Iraq is a strong issue, on which Russia agrees, we cannot allow the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians. We must remain calm in these times of crisis and not at all act with irrationality and emotions. We must act with the cold hard facts presented in front of us.”
Meanwhile in China itself, on July 5th, the Russian government and the Chinese government signed the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with one another. The main points of this treaty were:-
- China wishes to develop and modernize its armed forces, much of which remain outdated. This process can be accelerated with Russian military training, and technology.
- China wishes to have a stable, consistent and affordable amount of fuel shipments, especially petroleum. This goal can be better met with the purchase of Russian petroleum.
- China wishes to attain Russian support for its stance on Taiwan.
- Russia strives to obtain resources of capital, which can be significantly aided by the addition of Chinese capital resources.
- Russia wishes to sell its military expertise and military technology to China at an affordable and negotiated price for the betterment of both sides.
- Russia to sell its large oil and petroleum capability with China.
During the entire month of July, the Russian government was driving forward with it’s second 3 year plan, which had been following the technology mantra over and over again. Russia Online was currently booming in sails, as the online technology gained a good amount of fame and sails started to grow exponentially. Russia Online was still in the process of creating an Operating System, though there was a good amount of progress going on in that sector thankfully for the Russians.
In August however, tragedy struck. A few Chechen separatists, still existed in a few random cells all across the countryside which was inaccessible due to terrain and many more factors. Zyuganov, as a part of the 3 year plan, had come to Chechnya to participate in the inauguration of a new technological firm in Grozny, however a suicide bomber managed to get close and detonated the bomb next to Zyuganov, killing him, the FSB agents who tried to stop him, and around 4 civilians next to him on August 3rd. The suicide bombing brought a lot of condemnation from Yavlinsky. Ivan Melnikov was made the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Russia and the position of Prime Minister was given to Melnikov as well, because of the demands from the Communist Party.
Gennady Zyuganov, killed by Chechen terrorists.
The entire episode was a rather big wake up call for the Russians who were growing lax in their security measures in Chechnya, and increased anti-terror activities were restarted and the entire episode became the final nail in the coffin for the Chechen independence movement ironically, as the deaths of fellow Chechens in the attack, had made the Chechen populace angry as well, and the Chechen guerillas quickly found out they were not going to be getting support from the populace as isolated incidents of Chechens handing over guerillas to the Russian anti-terror groups started to become known.
Meanwhile this was also a good pretext for Vladimir Putin, the leader of the FSB to start a shakeup in the FSB’s old guard. They were rigid and unwilling to change, and the higher ups in the Russian government quietly blamed them for the inefficiency of the FSB in this regard. Putin managed to get the clearance he needed, and much of the old guard were ‘convinced’ to retire with yearly pension and they were shunted off to the side with newer and more professional and competent officers taking their positions.
This was however a slightly bad move on part of both Yavlinsky and Putin. Many of the old guard generals and officers ended up joining the National Center Party of Russia led by Podberezkin, and this provided a good boost for the popularity of the National Center Party of Russia due to many old people having links to some members of the old guard.
However still, the decision to shunt the old guard away did lead to a mini era of reform in the FSB as well, categorized by the fact, that Putin warned Yavlinsky later in the month that something was going on with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and that suspicious activities were being detected.
Indirectly being assisted by the CIA as well, the Russian FSB was receiving disturbing reports about Al Qaeda and the fact that Zyuganov’s assassin may have had some contact and relation with the Al Qaeda group and some Islamic terrorist groups. This was not good news. Russia had a sizeable Muslim population, and any rise in islamophobia due to Islamic terror attacks was something that Russia really did not wish to have, right during the times when the Russian economy was growing and starting to properly become assimilated into the global market and economy.
In August 21, the United States and NATO announced that peacekeepers from NATO would be stationed in the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonia had protested largely against this, and was unwilling to have American troops on Macedonian soil. They had given in mostly due to the American diplomatic attack, however by this point they were asking for diplomatic balance, and also asked Russian troops to enter Macedonia as peacekeepers from the Russian military base at Nis. This was accepted by Yavlinsky who had been very suspicious about the NATO’s movement into Macedonia and Russian and NATO soldiers patrolled the areas of Macedonian uncomfortably eyeing each other with distrust as each time each patrol passed each other, the clenching of assault rifles, and murmured profanities were common, though no incidents took place. The situation in Macedonia was tense nonetheless and both sides in return kept their troops in Macedonia at a minimum level to discourage any such events from taking place.
Russian Peacekeeping forces in Macedonia.
In August 31st, the World Conference Against Racism took place in South Africa. The Russian delegation there argued for better coherence with the ethnic populations of the world to make a less racist world and for semi-globalism to work as a compromise between pro-globalists and anti-globalists stating that rapid globalization without check could be a potential disaster in the making. Of course the conference was only largely ceremonial and not at all having any executive authority, however, the words of the Russian argument were noted by many, as being at least partially true in some regards.
On September 4th, Russia Online announced that a new Operating System named Ruson OS was going to be released in Christmas (according to the Gregorian Calendar). This was a good step forward for the Russian technological group, as Russia wished to make this company become a global competitor for the technological markets and industries. It was gaining a lot of traction within the CSTO nations no doubt, however there was little to no news about it outside of the CSTO nations, and very few even knew about it, and Russia wished to rectify that situation.
In September 9, Around 68 people died in Parnu County in Estonia due to methanol poisoning and worries about extra cases cropping up began to grow within the government and the people alike. The Russian government, eager to follow up on the route of rapprochement taken by both countries sent a good amount FHSR employees to take care and treat the Estonian populace in Parnu in cooperation with the Estonian government to make sure that the methanol poisoning had not and would not spread around the entirety of the area. In the end, around 278 people were found with symptoms and they were sent for treatment and subsequently most of them survived. The Estonian government expressed their gratitude to Russia by stating that the Estonian government was willing to expand upon the opportunities between the two nation states and would be willing to negotiate an entry into the CSTO economic union, though not the military one. This was accepted by Moscow enthusiastically. Ethnic tensions and historical rivalry had been quickly dying out between the two states, due to increased cooperation and both Tallinn and Moscow were eager to live their bereft history behind them.
9/11 attacks
In September 11, around almost 3000 American civilians died in the 9/11 attacks and the World Trade Centers collapsed as a reason in Manhattan. The Russian government sent a letter of condolence to America and Sergey Shoyu gave a public speech during the aftermath of the event.
“Islam is an Abrahamic religion. A fellow brother of the book, though it may not seem like that at times. Russia and Islam has had a……complicated relationship to say the least, however we still look at our numbers today and find that a good portion of Russians are Islamic. And they live in peace, believe themselves to be Russian, and are as patriotic to this nation like any other Novgorodian or Muscovite. Extremism in anything, militarism, religion, politics, day to day work, anything, is a very dangerous business, and blaming an entire community as a whole is something that the government of Russia does not emphasize. However the eradication of extremism is something that the government of Russia wishes to bring about in everything. We must be moderate in our approach. Seek what others want and left others seek what we want, for this world of ours is a symbiotic relationship of give and take. The recent attacks on American soil are nothing except the product of radical extremism, something that Russia cannot abide by, having been victim to it, so many times in the past. Should the United States, and by extension, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization need any Russian aid for their retaliation that will come, no doubt, against extremism, then Russians, may they be Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant, are ready to help them.”
President Bush announcing the War on Terror.
In September 20th, Bush announced a ‘War on Terror’ and whilst the Russian government was guardedly fine about this, the FSB was indicating something else was going on. American troops movements in the middle east as well as the navy in the Indian Ocean was just too sudden and the Russian government was quite suspicious about what America was currently planning, and how would Russia react to any kind of provocation was now occupying the minds in Kremlin. Moreover Bush issued an ultimatum to the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden, and “close all immediate terrorist training cells, hand over every terrorist and their supporters and allow the United States full access to the terrorist camps for close inspections.”
In return, the Taliban had denounced the 9/11 attacks and they had been slightly aggravated by the attacks. However Bin Laden was protected by the Pashtun laws on hospitality, which basically stated that visitors were gods, and the Taliban demanded proof of Osama Bin Laden’s guilt. Taliban called that if proof of Bin Laden’s guilt was proven by any third party nation, they would hand over Bin Laden and his lackeys. As NATO came dangerously close to invading the already tumultuous region of Afghanistan, Russian President Yavlinsky ordered the FSB to begin investigations regarding the attacks and to find out if Bin Laden had anything to do regarding the attack on the September 11 attacks. Putin stated that Russia could find out who was behind the attacks, only if FSB agents were on the ground in Afghanistan. Later that night, from Russian airfields in Tajikistan, Russian spies are inserted into Afghanistan by the Russians.
In October 7th, the Americans launched Operation Enduring Freedom and invaded Afghanistan refusing the Taliban’s call for peace and de-escalations. Russia publically supported the ‘war on terror’ however denounced the invasion of Afghanistan calling it an unnecessary loss of life for all parties involved. The Russian FSB was also starting to filter in reports about possible links between Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, indirectly, the Russians were asking the British Mi6 agents in the region, the next largest spy organization active in the region to begin cooperation to find out whether or not Bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Mi6 agents and FSB agents reportedly colluded with one another in Afghanistan during their investigation processes, and Russian cyber networks, were hard at work trying to find any data regarding the attacks, though till this point, they were unsuccessful.
Operation Enduring Freedom.
Meanwhile Russian aerial assets continued to observe the manner in which NATO committed their attacks in Afghanistan, with the aim of gathering doctrinal intelligence as well as equipment intelligence, because NATO and Russia just didn’t click with one another, and neither did Yavlinsky nor did NATO trust the each other, and both were always looking at each other with suspicion.
On November 12th, Kabul was abandoned by the Taliban as members of the Northern Alliance soon stormed the city and took the capital of Afghanistan. Russia viewed these events with slight interest. They had no current deployments into Afghanistan, and agreed with the United States that the Islamic terrorism had to be rooted out, however an entire invasion of Afghanistan was something that Russia did not support. The region had finally achieved some kind of stability for a few months and years, and now the entire stability was destroyed and refugees were flowing into the Central Asian States as well as Pakistan and Iran, and with the CSTO being involved in this, at least diplomatically, Russia had been thrown into the sidelines by NATO in this endeavor, something that irritated Russia to no end.
In December 13, the 2001 Indian Parliament Attack took place, which forced the Indian Army and armed forces to go on the mobilization in the Pakistani border. Provoked by this, the Pakistani government announced a mobilization of its own armed forces. Faced with a potential nuclear war, and with NATO involved quagmire deep in Afghanistan to pay good enough attention in the subcontinent, Russia and China led the diplomatic mission in the subcontinent.
Tanks being mobilized in the Indo-Pak standoff of 2001.
Yavlinsky officially issued an ultimatum to India after border fights started in the Line of Control in Kashmir backing Pakistan. The ultimatum presented condolences for the parliamentary attack, however denounced the armed aggression India was pursuing and with the risk of nuclear war, stated that if India instigated another armed conflict in the subcontinent then Russia and with the backing of the Chinese government, China would also intervene. Faced with fighting against three nuclear powers, and two great powers and one regional power, India backed down, and the Indo-Pak confrontation died down. However this was the final nail in the coffin for the previously amenable Russo-Indian relations. Yavlinsky claimed in public that he had done this and taken a proactive position to eliminate the threat of nuclear war, and he was praised by both the east and west for his actions, however privately Yavlinsky had done what any leader would have; Yavlinsky was supporting his ally in the south along with China.
As the year ended, talks between Yabloko and the Communist party over a continued coalition for the 2002 elections began to take place.
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