Is this TL a good start?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 66.7%
  • No

    Votes: 1 8.3%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 3 25.0%
  • Perhaps?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    12
  • Poll closed .
Chapter 31: Diplomatic Success and the Terror Starts!
  • Chapter 31: Diplomatic Success and the Terror Starts!

    ***

    The Slavic News Journal.

    Eurasian Union Expands! Ukraine, Moldavia, Azerbaijan and Armenia officially join the Eurasian Union.


    May 3rd, 2006

    After months and years of negotiations between the governments of all parties involved, the governments of Ukraine, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia have announced alongside the Eurasian government of the Eurasian Union State that these four countries have joined the Eurasian Union State. Popular referendums were held all throughout May 1st, and the results were released the next day. The results of the Referendums were:-

    • Ukraine: Yes – 82% No – 17%
    • Moldavia: Yes - 71% No – 25%
    • Azerbaijan: Yes - 64% No – 32%
    • Armenia: Yes – 74% No – 21%
    The respective governments of these nations announced just this morning their ascension into the Eurasian Union State. The Eurasian Union State which is a loose economic and military union and an offshoot of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization provides its members with great economic strategic depth, and the governments of all sides involved are largely entering this union for the economic benefits involved. All nations involved are already a part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and it’s subsequent economic zone, but nonetheless, the expansion of the Eurasian Union State is a bid that many fear will mark pro-Russian expansionism in this new day and age, as people have finally stated that Russia is resurgent on the world stage.

    Nonetheless, the Russian government has sent a message of gratitude to all nations involved stating that the expansion of the Eurasian Union State would herald a new future for the current economic and social obligations of the Union State. Other prospective nations for the Eurasian Union State are said to be South Ossetia, Georgia and Estonia, even though these countries have expressed some interest in the Eurasian Union State, their willingness to join it, however is in doubt. Nonetheless, the prospects for the Eurasian Union State is currently at an all-time high.

    Currently, the Eurasian Union State has also passed the new Eurasian Parliamentary Act, which closely follows its European counterpart and establishes a common Eurasian Parliament, which mirrors the current European Parliament. The first Eurasian Elections are going to be held on the end of May, and the seats allocated to each country in the Union State Parliament is: 80 for Russia, 35 for Ukraine, 10 for Moldavia, 10 for Azerbaijan, 8 for Armenia, 20 for Kazakhstan, 25 for Uzbekistan, 5 for Tajikistan, 5 for Krygyzstan, and finally 10 for Turkmenistan to make a total of 208 seats in the Eurasian Parliament.

    Currently, the Mongolian government is in active talks about accession into the Eurasian Union State as well, and the Russian government currently has been extremely receptive to the talks, even though some believe that the accession of Mongolia into the Eurasian Union State may lead to some problems with the People’s Republic of China down in the line. Nonetheless, Beijing has done nothing except send a note of congratulations to the Eurasian Union State till now.

    1600751109299.png

    Flag of the Eurasian Union State.

    ***

    Euro News:

    With 543 ballot votes Silvio Berlusconi has been elected as President of the Italian Republic!


    May 10th

    ***

    Euro News:

    Amidst Tensions and Boycotts from France, Finnish Band clinches victory in the Eurovision Contest held in Russia!


    May 20th, 2006

    1600751311175.png

    Lordi celebrating their victory in Eurovision 2006.


    As tensions over African interests between the governments of France and Russia seem to only grow, the Eurovision contest was held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Eurovision Contest, by virtue of it being held in Russia found itself boycotted on all sides by the French, Latvian, and Lithuanian governments who all decided not to take part this year due to the location of the contest. The Russian government denounced the move stating that a cultural event had no bearing with geopolitics, however nonetheless, the boycott continued.

    The Finnish Band Lordi has managed to clinch victory by earning 292 points in the final session for their exemplary song Hard Rock Hallelujah. As expected with this victory, the next Eurovision contest will take place in Finland next year, in which the Russian government has quite funnily vowed to take the championship back to ‘Mother Russia’ to which the Finnish foreign minister joked ‘You can come and try’. It seems that the formerly hostile Finno-Russian rivalry is slowly starting to cool down into what is becoming more of a cultural and athletic rivalry more than anything else.

    Nonetheless, the Latvian, Lithuanian and French boycott of the Eurovision contest has led to heightened tensions as the final French troops leave Chad under heavy supervision from the new Chadian regime, which has installed a new leader through a democratic election overseen by the UN, which has heralded it as one of the freest elections it has seen in Africa till date. Nonetheless, other than boycotting the event, the French and Latvians alongside the Lithuanians haven’t done much.

    ***

    Eurasian Parliament Elections: (20th May – 28th May)

    Eurasian Unionist Party (EUP) (purple): 28 seats

    Social Democrats Alliance (yellow): 42 seats

    Communists Alliance (red): 40 seats

    Party of Regions (dark blue): 22 seats

    Svoboda (light blue): 1 seat

    PL (blue): 3 seats

    Nor Otan (white): 14 seats

    Ak Zhol (dark blue): 6 seats

    Liberal Democrats Alliance (orange): 30 seats

    Greens Alliance (green): 11 seats

    Nationalist Party (violet): 5 seats

    Civic Solidarity Party (maroon): 6 seats

    1600751039389.png

    1st Parliament of the Eurasian Union State.
    ***


    New York Tribunal:

    New Chadian Regime and the Russian Government sign Military Deal


    June 2nd, 2006

    After some good weeks of negotiations with one another, and between the new government in Chad, and Russia, the Chadian government has signed a deal with the Russian government which will allow for 2500 Russian soldiers to make a military base near Lake Chad, and will be allowed to keep 36, or 3 squadrons of warplanes in the area, officially forming the Imperial Russian Military Base on Lake Chad. The Russian and Chadian governments have stated that this comes after multiple attacks on the civilian population from Radical Islamists and Radical Christians who have become increasingly militant as the new democratic government of Chad has changed the government into a secular one. The Russian government has stated that specific anti-terror troops will be stationed in Chad, to force the radicals out of the nation, and begin the reconstruction of Chad.

    Speaking about such terms, the governments of Chad, Sudan and Russia have trilaterally signed a new economic deal with one other, which allows for around $30 Billion aid package from Russia into Chad, which economists say will go a long way to heal the Chadian economy. The Sudanese government has also pledged to create new infrastructural ties with Chad to connect the two countries and increase trading ties for the economic benefits of both nations. A hypothetical new train railway line between the two countries has been kept on the table, even though no concrete talks have been reached.

    The Sudanese government has also stated that like their Libyan counterpart, they are currently thinking about a possible Sudanese entry into the Collective Security Treaty Organization. However Russia on the other hand has stated that the formal entry of the Sudanese government into CSTO was not exactly necessary and doing so would perhaps disrupt the economic recovery of the nation, as addition of trade tariffs may have opposite effects. Nonetheless, the Sudanese foreign ministry has stated that it is on the table.

    In order to counter this growing Russian influence in the region, the governments of France and Mali have both signed a new military deal with one another, which stipulates a maximum of around 3500 French troops to be based on the Malian border alongside Chad, which the United Nations has lambasted stating that it does nothing but raise tensions. Nonetheless, these new deals springing up in Africa could lead to a massive increase in geopolitical tensions which the governments of the surrounding nations wish to avoid. Russia has stated that they are more than willing to make new concessions with France in response for equal concessions from France as well, which the French government has unilaterally stated it will not.

    1600751397564.png

    Russian troops in Chad.

    ***

    International Political and Economic Journal:

    Russian Duma Votes Unanimously for New Green Deal!


    June 7th, 2006

    The Russian Duma yesterday voted unanimously to start a New Green Deal after the last 3 year plan ends this year. The New Green Deal comes after multiple researchers throughout the new millennium have somberly confirmed that climate change is a real prospect in the future. The Russian government, which is currently ruled by a social democratic governmental coalition has been negotiating and compromising about the situation since the end of the 2002 Presidential and 2003 Federal Elections, and after around three years of negotiations, and compromises, a deal has been reached which has been supported unanimously between all major parties that are present in the Russian Duma. Even opposition members such as the Communists and the Liberal Democrats under Zhirinovsky have also supported this new deal, on the inclusion of the points that they thought best as well.

    Zhirinovsky later stated that: “The ruling government and my own party do not get along well in any particular order. However compromises is the word of the political game, and since both sides have compromised equally, this deal has been able to pass unanimously at least from my party’s side.”

    The famed nationalist in Russian affairs has stated that doing anything to extend Russian economic dominance, and preparing it for the future was something that he supported.

    1600751449925.png

    Cover of the Russian New Green Deal.

    The major policies put forward by the Russian New Green Deal are:-

    • Climate Neutrality by the year of 2050 is the main goal of the Russian Green Deal. For the Russian government to reach their target of climate neutrality, one goal is to decarbonize their energy system by aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 2065. Their relevant energy directive is intended to be looked over and adjusted if problem areas arise. In 2010, federal kingdoms of Russia would have to adhere to the Russian government’s climate goal. The key principles include: prioritize energy efficiency, to develop a power sector based on renewable energy and resources, to secure an affordable energy supply, and to have a fully integrated, environmentally sustainable and digitalized Russian energy market.
    • To create a sustainable ‘green’ industry using the majority of the renewable resources of the Russian government along with sustainable products which will include textiles, construction, vehicles, batteries, electronics and lower gas emissions.
    • The creation of a ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy which pursues the issue of food sustainability as well as support allocated to producers. It includes a reduction of the usage of chemical fertilizers in agriculture by 75% by 2018, increasing availability of health food options and aiding consumers to understand the health ratings of products and sustainable packaging.
    • The agricultural portion of the Green New Deal also includes, (i) Making 30% of Russian agriculture organic by the year of 2018, (ii) reduce by 75% the usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by 2018, (iii) reduce nutrient loss by at least 50%, (iv) create sustainable food labelling, (v) reduce food waste by 50% by 2018, (vi), dedicate to R and I related to the issue $15 billion.
    • Eliminating pollution wherever possible in the Russian government in conjunction with Russia’s anti-poverty program.
    The Russian government has stated this ambitious move would provide a backdrop for all major countries to follow for a sustainable world economy and earth for the future. Prominent Russian environmentalist who is pretty famous all over Russia for his environmental jobs, and his Night Talk show in St. Petersburg, Alexey Lushnikov has been appointed by the government to become the ‘Secretary of the Green Deal’ in the Russian government, to which he has stated that he will do his best.

    1600751486694.png

    Alexey Lushnikov

    The Eurasian Union State and it’s constituent members have stated that they will probably follow the Russian model of the Russian Green New Deal by the end of 2008 and probably base their own deals based on the Russian deal. The Central Asian governments have stated that they wish to remove their dependence on oil, and the governments of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine and Moldavia have stated that they wish for greater economic sustainability of their own economies, which will be aided by the Russian New Green Deal, and basing their own deals of it.

    The majority of the European Union has praised the Russian New Green Deal, and the United Nations has stated that: “The Russian New Green Deal is a model for almost every country to follow. This body hopes that the governments of fellow nations will follow in the footsteps of the Russian government in this matter.”

    The Russian Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky has stated that the deal will start implementation on the 1st of July, 2006, a month from now.

    ***

    Euro News:

    Russian New Green Deal’s implementation process dampened by terror attack at Omsk.


    June 15th, 2006

    Russian New Green Deal has been on the headlines for many days now, however it’s implementation, which has been successful till now, has been overshadowed by a terror attack in Omsk. The Omsk Public School on the outskirts of the city in Siberia, was attacked by terrorists and they held around 300 students and 80 staff members, including teachers hostage. They demanded the abolition of the monarchy, and recreation of a new Communist Union State. The Russian Anti-Terror Units, immediately stormed the Omsk School, and managed to free the school, capturing around 9 of the 35 terrorists and killing the rest of them. Unfortunately, around 7 students, and 3 teachers had already been killed in scuffles before the anti-terror units could take command of the situation properly. The Russian Chancellor Yavlinsky has called the attack reprehensible, and has stated that the monarchy would only be abolished through popular vote. The terror group has been named the ‘National Bolshevik Army of Russia’ or the NBAR. The Communist Party of Russia has stated that they do not support the actions of NBAR, and have denounced it, unfortunately some links with some members of the Communist Party and NBAR have made the polls of the party drop from 22% to 15% in a heartbeat.

    1600751563238.png

    special roses laid down for the soldiers, teachers and students who lost their life in the terror attack

    Martial Law has been announced in many areas in Siberia where the NBAR may be operating in. The Russian military has announced Operation Poltava, which is aimed at eradicating the NBAR in Russia by the end of the year.

    ***
     
    Last edited:
    Inauguration speech
  • Silvio_Berlusconi_(2010)_cropped.jpg

    PRESIDENTE DELLA CAMERA DEI DEPUTATI SCHIFANI:
    La seduta è aperta. Invito il Presidente della Repubblica a prestare giuramento davanti al Parlamento
    a norma dell'articolo 91 della Costituzione (L'Assemblea si leva in piedi).

    Il Presidente della Repubblica legge la formula:
    "GIURO DI ESSERE FEDELE ALLA REPUBBLICA
    E DI OSSERVARNE LA COSTITUZIONE"


    (Vivissimi, prolungati applausi, cui si associano i membri del Governo e il pubblico delle tribune).

    Il Presidente della Camera cede il suo seggio al Presidente della Repubblica e prende posto alla sua destra.

    PRESIDENTE DELLA CAMERA DEI DEPUTATI SCHIFANI:
    Il Presidente della Repubblica rivolgerà ora il suo messaggio al Parlamento. Invito gli onorevoli deputati e gli onorevoli senatori a prendere posto.

    MESSAGGIO AL PARLAMENTO DEL PRESIDENTE DELLA REPUBBLICA
    SILVIO BERLUSCONI



    Signor Presidente,
    Onorevoli deputati,
    Onorevoli senatori,
    Signori rappresentanti delle regioni d'Italia,

    il mio omaggio va all'Assemblea che mi ha eletto, al Parlamento nella sua più alta composizione,
    che esprime la rappresentanza nazionale ed i suoi valori storici e, assieme ad essa,
    le autonomie politiche e le identità culturali delle regioni italiane.

    [… ...]

    Gli italiani hanno preso la parola, hanno messo a tacere con la loro voce sovrana il pessimismo rumoroso
    di chi non ama l'Italia e non crede nel suo futuro. Hanno respinto le insidiose campagne di sfiducia astensionista,
    hanno partecipato generosamente al momento più alto e più nobile di una democrazia liberale moderna ed hanno detto:
    noi vi mettiamo in grado di risollevare il Paese, sta a voi non deluderci.

    Fate funzionare le istituzioni della Repubblica, ci hanno ordinato gli elettori. Realizzate quanto avete promesso di realizzare
    e fatelo in fretta, perché una cosa è sicura: l'Italia non ha tempo da perdere.

    [… …]

    Solo la stabilità politica può suscitare quel clima di fiducia che stimola a progettare e a intraprendere,
    che rassicura i cittadini risparmiatori e consumatori, che sollecita a investire sul futuro.

    Con l'aiuto di Dio, con la fiducia degli italiani, sarò fedele al mio giuramento.
    Sarò fedele ai valori di libertà, di giustizia, di democrazia che sono il fondamento della Costituzione repubblicana.

    Viva la Repubblica italiana! Viva l'Unione Europea! Viva l'Italia!​

    TRANSLATION:

    PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES SCHIFANI:
    The session is open. I invite the President of the Republic to take an oath before Parliament
    in accordance with Article 91 of the Constitution (The Assembly stands up).

    The President of the Republic reads the formula:
    "I SWEAR TO BE FAITHFUL TO THE REPUBLIC
    AND TO OBSERVE ITS CONSTITUTION"


    (Very lively, prolonged applause, joined by the members of the Government and the audience of the stands).

    The President of the Chamber gives his seat to the President of the Republic and takes his place on his right.

    PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES SCHIFANI:
    The President of the Republic will now address his message to Parliament. I invite the honorable deputies and the honorable senators to take their seats.

    MESSAGE TO PARLIAMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
    SILVIO BERLUSCONI



    Mister President,
    Honorable Deputies,
    Honorable Senators,
    Representatives of the regions of Italy,

    my tribute goes to the Assembly that elected me, to the Parliament in its highest composition,
    which expresses national representation and its historical values and, together with it,
    the political autonomies and cultural identities of the Italian regions.

    [... ...]

    The Italians took the floor, silenced with their sovereign voice the noisy pessimism
    of those who do not love Italy and do not believe in its future. They rejected the insidious campaigns of abstentionist distrust,
    they generously participated in the highest and noblest moment of a modern liberal democracy and said:
    we enable you to revive the country, it's up to you not to disappoint us.

    Run the institutions of the Republic, the voters ordered us. Realize what you promised to accomplish
    and do it quickly, because one thing is certain: Italy has no time to waste.

    [……]

    Only political stability can inspire that climate of trust which stimulates planning and undertaking,
    which reassures savers and consumers, which urges them to invest in the future.

    With God's help, with the confidence of the Italians, I will be faithful to my oath.
    I will be faithful to the values of freedom, justice and democracy which are the foundation of the Republican Constitution.

    Long live the Italian Republic! Long live the European Union! Long live Italy!​
     
    Chapter 32: The Terror Begins
  • Chapter 32: The Terror Begins

    ***

    Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections (26th March 2006)

    Party of Regions (blue): 47% (211 seats)

    Our Ukraine Bloc (yellow): 29% (130 seats)

    Socialist Party (red): 17% (76 seats)

    Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (purple) : 7% (31 seats)

    Independents (grey): 2 seats

    1600915477421.png


    Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada after the elections


    (Note: I forgot to include this in the past chapter! Sorry!)

    ***

    Euro News:

    Terror Attacks Continue in Russia! Alexandr Dugin Leader of the NBAR! Russia Announces Martial Law in Siberia!

    June 24th, 2006

    Repeated terror attacks have been perpetrated all across the Russian Czardom as the National Bolsheviks demand the end of the Russian monarchy, and the return to sovietism. Aleksandr Dugin has been found out to be the leader of the National Bolshevik Army of Russia. His second in command seems to be Eduard Limonov and Yegor Letov. The Russian Armed Forces have been raised to full alert as NBAR terror attacks have made bombs go off in the cities of Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Novosibirsk. The Russian government has listed the NBAR as a terrorist organization, and the three leaders of the NBAR, now nicknamed as the ‘Troika’ has been put under the wanted list. No one knows where the headquarters of the NBAR is, however the Russian military has stated that they have reason to believe that the NBAR headquarters may be in one of the multiple abandoned bases in Siberia, which were abandoned during the Dissolution of the USSR.

    1600915541868.png

    Flag of the NBAR.

    The Czarina of Russia, Czarina Maria I is slated to go to Yekaterinburg for the next day to discuss the attacks with the public, and conduct a public speech, under the full guise of the Russian security system.

    ***

    June 27th, 2006, Kremlin, Moscow.

    Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky of the Czardom of Russia pinched his eyes slightly as he looked at the reports of the new Green New Deal in front of his desk and continued to read them. He hoped that the Czarina was alright, however he had better things to do, such as looking at the possible inflationary returns of the current green deal.

    He was flicking through the papers when he heard an urgent knock on his office door. He sighed again and cleaned his glasses and put them on before looking at the door in a sort of dignified manner as he said “You may enter.”

    The Director of the FSB, Vladimir Putin entered the room as he bowed his head slightly. Yavlinsky stood up and shook hands with Putin as Yavlinsky looked at the man. “Director Putin, what seems to be eating away at you? I haven’t seen you this grim since the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.”

    “With good reason.” Putin muttered as he sat down in front of Yavlinsky’s desk. Yavlinsky frowned. This agitated Putin was not the nature or personality of the normal Putin that Yavlinsky knew. “What is the matter Director Putin?”

    “First things first Chancellor.” Putin snapped slightly. “Where is the Crown Prince?”

    “I believe he is St. Petersburg, in the Winter Palace.” Yavlinsky answered. “He is meeting with the parents of his prospective wife after all.”

    “Of all times.” Putin muttered. He looked at me and took a deep breath before he bowed his head and said “I will resign from my post if you wish. However the news is grave. Her Majesty Czarina Maria I of Russia has been assassinated in Yekaterinburg by a suicide bomber taking 29 civilians and 6 security personnel with her. The suicide bomber was later found to be a Chechen fighter from the Chechen Wars, linked with the National Bolshevik Army.”

    Yavlinsky’s blood ran cold. “What?!”

    Putin bowed his head again. “That was my reaction as well.”

    Yavlinsky slammed back onto his chair as he looked at Putin with incredulity. Putin simply passed a file to him as Yavlinsky took it limply and read it through. Apparently whilst giving her speech and taking questions and suggestions from the public gathering in the area, the suicide bomber had moved forward slowly, not getting the attention of the security detail at first. He threw himself onto the stage and when the Security members yanked him up, the bombs in his vest exploded just a few meters away from the Czarina.

    Yavlinsky took a huge gulp in his throat and nodded. “Very well. I will deal with the media crisis that will befall us now. Director, don’t you worry, your job is safe, for now. But I want the FSB to use all its resources. All left over Soviet weapons will not sustain the NBAR. They are being supported by a foreign power, and I want to know who. I want all internal assets of the NBAR to immediately start infiltration works in the NBAR, and rat them out! Is that understood?”

    “Yes sir.”

    “Good. Dismissed.”

    A few hours later, Yavlinsky found himself in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg sore from the short flight he had taken in the chancellor’s helicopter to get there. Inside, Otto von Habsburg, the leader of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine was seated as the old claimant to the defunct Austrian throne sat inside discussing a potential marriage amiably. Everyone stood up as Yavlinsky entered the room. Yavlinsky bowed his head to the royals before looking up. The crown prince was set to marry Lioba Meister, the daughter of Gabriela Habsburg. The final discussions should have finished hours ago, and by the amiable chatting that had been going on, Yavlinsky knew that the talks were over. And guessing by the shy smiles Lioba and the Crown Prince were sending each other, the discussion about the marriage was over as well then.

    Yavlinsky turned to the Crown Prince and said “Your Majesty, I have bad news. I hope I can disclose it to you in private. Please.”

    The Crown Prince frowned before he nodded and followed Yavlinsky outside the room and into the hallway. “Chancellor Yavlinsky, what has happened? I haven’t seen you this frantic in my whole life.”

    Yavlinsky bit into his lower lip before he took a deep breath and said “Your Majesty, there is no calm way of saying this. But, your mother, the Czarina has been assassinated by the NBAR. You are as of this moment, the Czar of All Russia.”

    Seconds later, the sobs of a son lost of his mother would engulf the Winter Palace, as the Chancellor, the strongest man in Russia, tried to console the next monarch of the nation.

    ***


    Russia Insight:

    NATION IN MOURNING AS CZARINA MARIA I ASSASSINATED! CZAR MIKHAIL II ASCENDS THE RUSSIAN THRONE! CHANCELLOR YAVLINSKY PROMISES RETRIBUTION OF THE HIGHEST KIND TO THE NATIONAL BOLSHEVIK ARMY!

    ***

    Euro News:

    The Romanian Referendum Passes! Monarchy Restored in Romania!


    July 3rd, 2006

    Amidst the increased reporting coming throughout the world through the assassination of Czarina Maria I of Russia, the Romanian government went ahead with their monarchical referendum on the issue of a monarchical government in Romania on July 1st, 2006. After heated debates throughout the nation, the results came in yesterday evening and was released by the Romanian government.

    Yes: 54.3%

    No: 45.7%

    King Michael I of Romania yesterday confirmed that the referendum passed as the United Nations and the European Union Commission during the Referendum confirmed that the referendum had been free and fair. King Michael I of Romania has been reinstated as the Monarch of all Romanians today morning, amidst a massive parade in Bucharest where millions were present. King Michael I gave a resounding speech today morning regarding the restoration of the Romanian monarchy.

    The monarchy has always been subservient to the people, and for the past few days, this sentiment has only been strengthened.”

    1600915656284.png

    King Michael I of Romania during his re-inauguration as Monarch of All Romanians.


    The House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen has been restored in the now Kingdom of Romania. Princess Margareta has been designated as the Heir Apparent of the Romanian throne as of right now. The Romanian government has started the process of the amendment of the Romanian constitution, in favor of the Romanian Monarchical Restoration, which will be over by the end of the month.

    ***

    New York Tribunal:

    Russian village of Asino under attack by the NBAS


    July 3rd, 2006

    As the nation of Russia mourns for their monarch, the Russian village of Asino, on the side of Chulym river, has come under multiple raids from the NBAR personnel in Siberia. The Russian Armed Forces posted in the village, numbering around 50 in total has till now managed to hold off the attacks, and the Russian Armed Forces engaged the NBAR in what has become known as the Battle of Tikhaya Kurya has seen the NBAR thrown out of the village as 120 NBAR personnel and 80 Russian Troops fired at each other in a heated fight and battle in and around the small creek and river. The Russian Armed Forces managed to expel the NBAR troops from the village and managed to seize the general in charge of the NBAR forces attacking Asino, Eduard Limonov. Under the heaviest offense of the Russian law, Limonov has been executed as a traitor of the nation, probably after he was interrogated by the Russian intelligence. The Russian government has released information to the public stating that the Tomsk Oblast and by extension the Asinovsky District is under Martial Law, with the Russian Armed Forces stating that the abandoned bunkers in the heavily forested district having been confirmed as the headquarters of the National Bolshevik Army of Russia.

    1600915724724.png

    Asino, a small Russian village in Siberia came under attack.

    The Russian Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky has stated that the entire district is under lockdown, and the entire district would be scoured by 20,000 Russian troops from where Operation Poltava would begin. Chancellor Yavlinsky has stated that Operation Poltava was an operation which intends to destroy the National Bolsheviks.

    The Russian Stock Exchange has dropped by 8 points in value due to loss of investor confidence in Siberia due to the National Bolshevik Terror. The Russian government has vowed to end this terror as soon as possible, and make the Russian economy progress on, and not let the terror impede progress.

    As the terror continues in Siberia, His Majesty Czar Mikhail II of Russia married Lioba Meister, the granddaughter of Otto von Habsburg in the Winter Palace with the population of St. Petersburg looking on. His Majesty the Czar has stated that “These are trying times, and we must move along with them. Stability is something that we require, and I hope that with the help of the people, it will be possible.”

    1600915793460.png

    Lioba Romanova nee Meister, the new Queen of Russia, and grandaughter of Otto von Habsburg.


    ***

    Military Journal:

    Russian Military unveils new technology as they eliminate the National Bolsheviks!


    July 10th, 2006

    1600915873920.png

    A Russian trooper wearing Ratnik programs.


    As the Russian forces scour Siberia to take down the terrorist National Bolshevik Army of Russia, the Russian Armed Forces have unveiled the Ratnik Program, which the Russian government states is a future infantry combat system. It is currently apparently only being used by special operatives in the Russian armed forces, even though the government has stated that they intend to extend it to the entirety of the infantry forces of the Russian Army. It is designed to improve the connectivity and combat effectiveness on the individual level. Improvements include modernized body armor, a helmet with a special eye monitor, communications system, and special headphones. It includes 10 subsystems and 59 individual items. The individual components used in the Ratnik program are:-

    Combat Uniform Items:-

    VKBO Layer system – a multilayered system manufactured by the BTK group designed for use at temperatures to at least minus 40 degrees Celsius.

    6Sh122 Masking Suit – a reversible combat oversuit designed for concealment in environment.

    Combat Equipment:-

    • 6B45/6B43 – primary body armor system for infantry units.
    • 6B46 – plate carrier style armor system for light weight units.
    • 6B48 – primary body armor for tank and AFV crews.
    • 6B47 – Aramid fibre helmet system rated for small arms fire. Includes two covers that allow the helmet to be jumpable, one white and one in standard EMR pattern.
    • 6Sh116/6Sh117 – Load bearing equipment with a variety of utility and magazine pouches to suit the various weapons of the military, and includes a seven litre ‘butt pack’ and 25 litre patrol backpack.
    • 6Sh118 RAID pack – 60 litre backpack designed for carrying large equipment for long deployments.
    • GSSh-01-10: Active hearing protection from radio cable.
    Accessories:

    • 6B50 – dust and impact goggles.
    • 6B51 – knee and elbow protection based on improved version of the Russian made Splav X pads.
    • 6Sh122 Gloves.
    • VKBO summer boots.
    • Faradei Winterized boots.
    • 6E5 Light Shovel.
    • 6E6 Multitool.
    • 6sh120 Shelter System.
    • 6E4-1 Watch
    • FSS-014 Light: Light system that can be mounted in helmet.
    • NF-10 Individual Water Syste,
    • 1PN140 and 1PN141 Night and Thermal Vision Sights.
    Military observers during this armed conflict going on in rural Russia state that the Ratnik system has been extremely effective and gives the average infantry soldier a massive advantage during battles. The Russian government has stated that the entirety of the Russian Armed Forces would be equipped with the Ratnik system by 2015.

    ***

    Russia Insight:

    Russian Football Team Returns From FIFA World Cup!


    July 12th, 2006

    After an admirable performance by our national Russian team during the FIFA Football World Cup held in Germany, they have finally returned back home. The Russian team managed to win their bracket during the world cup and advanced into the knockout stages where it had to play against Switzerland. The resulting match saw Russia win by a 3-1 margin. The team advanced into the Quarter finals where it faced the Italian Football team. The match ended in a 3-2 victory for the Italians, from where they would go on to win the World Cup. Nonetheless, despite the knockout in the Quarter-Finals, our team has played honorably and shown their talents for the entire world to see.

    1600915953111.png

    Italy won FIFA world cup 2006.

    ***

    Euro News:

    Amidst Russian Insurgency, USARC Launches First Lunar Probe.


    July 15th, 2006

    Amidst the National Bolshevik Insurgency in Russia, the USARC has launched their first lunar probe since it’s establishment. The USARC notice board has given quite the statement today which has caused a massive uproar throughout the world.

    1600916043808.png

    USARC Lunar Probe.

    The USARC intends to conduct multiple lunar probes throughout the rest of the decade. Through bilateral and multilateral cooperation between nations of the Eurasian Union State, the USARC believes that by 2015, a group of special cosmonauts will land in the moon, which will signify the resurgence of Eurasia in the aerospace sector.”

    The goal is called an ambitious one, however with the current development of USARC, it is actually seen as a realistic one. The USARC assembly has stated that 1 cosmonaut from each country will be chosen from the Eurasian Union State.

    ***

    July 18th, 2006, In the forests of Tomsk Oblast.

    Andrei Smirnov stayed absolutely still as he peered through the eyeglass of the Orsis T-5000 sniper rifle. In the northern forests of the Siberian Taiga of the Tomsk Oblast, the FSB had determined the location of one of the major bunkers of the National Bolsheviks. Yegor Letov, the second member of the National Bolshevik Troika was said to be in the bunker.

    As a member of the prestigious Alpha Group, Andrei’s entire work revolved around the sniper rifle, and he sat quietly looking at the entrance of said bunker. Around twenty of his comrades were stationed in the foliage, all of them sitting quietly looking at the bunker, waiting for his move.

    They had been sitting down disguised in the foliage equipped with the new Ratnik system as their eyes narrowed. Andrei moved slightly to his right flicking over a small leaf as he focused his sniper rifle and looked at the bunker as the door opened to show Yegor Letov. He was walking alongside four bodyguards carrying weapons. Andrei’s eyes narrowed as he focused his sniper’s glass onto the bodyguards.

    Those aren’t Russians.” Andrei thought. “They don’t look like a Russian, or any of the ethnic minorities. Those beards, and that face structure, those are Arabs. Arab mercenaries then. But from where did the National Bolsheviks get enough money to hire mercenaries from?”

    Andrei blinked to get back into position before he clenched the trigger and after aiming his sniper gun quietly for another few second quietly as Letov started to chat with his body guards. He pulled the trigger and a few seconds later, Letov fell to the ground in the distance with a bullet hole in the middle of his head. Andrei smirked. As soon as Letov fell down, the rest of the Alpha Group hiding with him sprung out of their positions and shot the Arab bodyguards down with their silencers attached to their guns as well. Taking in their surroundings Andrei and the rest walked slowly down to the site.

    Andrei knelt down next to the body of Letov and looked back at his comrades. “Take the bodies. We can use them. Dispose of the bodyguards quietly, take their mercenary logo from their clothes, and let’s get out of here. Our mission is over.”

    “Yes sir.” They hushed back.

    ***

    1600916106245.png

    Alpha Group Logo.

    ***

     
    Last edited:
    Chapter 32: The KGB Aren’t Dead Son, They Just Go By a Different Name.
  • Chapter 32: The KGB Aren’t Dead Son, They Just Go By a Different Name.

    ***

    July 26th, 2006, Kremlin

    “2 months of insurgency……” Minister of Emergency Affairs Alexander Lebed stated as he drank a hot cup of coffee whilst looking at the strongest men and women in Russia in the secret conference in the Kremlin.

    “2 months of utter hell for me.” Yavlinsky replied. “Lebed, Putin, you both were in charge of the information section of this insurgency, and has there been any reports?”

    Lebed snorted and shook his head. “No. My focus is on the internal situation. The National Bolsheviks do not seem to get any focus from the urban areas. It is the absolute rural areas that seem to support them. Even then, these rural areas tend to be extremely religious, so their support base is slightly blunted. Most of their troops seem to be these rural troops, some disaffected former Army personnel mostly from the Chechen War, and some Chechens. However from what I can understand from the reports, these make up only a third to half of their total forces. The rest are full of foreign mercenaries. Dugin’s bank account also seems to show an irregularity as they are full of fluctuating money amounts, however before he went missing last year, his account seemed to have $50 million before it was withdrawn in its entirety.”

    “How did Dugin get that much money?” Yavlinsky asked with a tired voice.

    Putin sighed and slapped down a report in front of Yavlinsky. Yavlinsky took it and read through it. His hands clenched the report angrily as he looked at Putin and asked “Has this been verified?”

    “Thrice.” Came Putin’s answer.

    Yavlinsky took a deep breath and put the report back on the table.

    “The French, and Egyptians huh……” Yavlinsky murmured as he stippled his fingers. “Those two wouldn’t do anything against us without Washington’s backing. I see. Well, how is the situation on the ground?”

    Sergey Shoyu perked up and answered, “Sir, around 20,000 of our troops from the 11th Motorized Division have encircled the last remnants of the National Bolsheviks in Siberia. I just need your order, and this insurgency will be over immediately.”

    Yavlinsky nodded slowly. Shoyu nodded back and immediately phoned one of his subordinates giving the go ahead.

    Yavlinsky turned to Putin. Putin leaned back with a slight shiver as Yavlinsky’s cold eyes glanced over him. “I want every Foreign Operative on Russian soil, be they American, French or British to be found and quietly interrogated and then executed. All of our assets in France and Egypt are to be brought to active service.”

    Putin smiled back coldly as he nodded.

    Every single man in the table smiled, with the same thought running in their heads. “
    The KGB isn’t over yet.”

    ***

    Euro News:

    The National Bolsheviks Snuffed Out in Russia! Dugin On the Run!

    July 29th, 2006

    The 2 month long insurgency in Russia has come to an end as the National Bolshevik Army has been eradicated by the Russian Armed Forces. Their leader Dugin is currently on the run, and he is a wanted man in Russia, dead or alive. The final battle of the insurgency, the Battle of Tomsk Oblast saw around 8,000 Russian troops directly engage around 900 to 1200 Insurgents. Private onlookers and observers have stated that the Russian Armed Forces took 91 casualties of which 67 were killed in the battle, whilst around 569 National Bolsheviks were killed in the fighting. The rest of them have all been captured by the Russian government, and have been sentenced to life in prison.

    1601094537999.png

    Dugin is on the run

    Russian Chancellor Yavlinsky has also given an ominous warning in the Kremlin today to foreign and domestic media.

    None of the National Bolsheviks used old Soviet Weapons like we believed at first. Semi-modern weapons from a large array of nations have been found, and whilst it is possible that they could have received these weapons through the black market, their monetary situation makes this come into doubt as well. It is now a position that has been affirmed by the Intelligence officers of our nation and the FSB, foreign powers were involved in this. Once the FSB finds out whom, the consequences will not be kind at all.”

    The Russian government has also announced that all weapons in the state in the hands of foreigners will be confiscated for about one month, before they be returned. All paperworks would be screened and checked by the Russian government.

    The European Union has been supportive of this move as of recent news. Italian President Berlusconi, triumphant over having won his constitutional referendum, has also extended a new trade offer to Moscow. The Financial Minister of Italy has stated that Russia and Italy stand to gain massive profits with agricultural exchanges with one another to diversify and expand their respective agricultural markets. The Russian government has already signed the trade deal from what can be understood.

    ***

    The Daily Express:

    France in Uproar! Corsican Conflict Escalates!

    July 31st, 2006

    The French government is in uproar as of this moment. The ongoing Corsican Conflict against the FLNC which seeks for Corsican Independence through brutal terror tactics has stopped. However this is not good news. The internal factions of the Corsican Conflict on side of the Corsican Nationalists have ceased, and have been united into the ‘Corsican Liberation Army’ or the CLA and they have currently ‘declared’ war on France. Multiple villages and towns in Corsica have become subject to occupation from the CLA or at least attacks from the CLA.

    1601094841316.png

    CLA troops.

    The CLA has announced that they shall respect international laws and rules and obligations regarding the rules of war, however would continue in its struggle against the French. Around 26 French soldiers have been killed in the island from what we can understand in the past three days already. The CLA has announced that after they complete the War of Independence, they will hesitantly allow naturalized French citizens from the mainland decide whether or not they wish to stay in an independent Corsican State, with the condition in remaining in Corsica to be learning the language and swearing loyalty to a new Corsican state.

    This new soft approach made by the CLA alongside their strong hard approach against the Parisian government has raised many eyebrows, and discontent Corsican youths are said to be joining the CLA in rapid amounts. The French government has responded by stating that they would retaliate against the ‘terrorists’ with all that they had and that by the end of the year, the CLA would be snuffed out of Corsica. The French government has reiterated their claims on Corsica stating that Corsica has been a permanent part of France ever since the Corsican Crisis of the mid-eighteenth century.

    amp.png

    Corsica. Red denotes the lands under control of the CLA

    The CLA has responded by stated that it is not, and would not accept French attacks on the Corsican people. The Italian government has declared diplomatic support for France, however has stated that they will not partake in military actions against the CLA. The Spanish and British governments have diplomatically backed the French governments. The Russian and Chinese governments have remained quiet about the issue, however from what reporters on the ground have stated, the Russian government is more focused on dealing with the aftermath of their own insurgency.

    ***

    “Agent 3D8Y6 here.”

    “Alright, where are the items?”

    “Oh shut up Corsican. I came here running all the way from Nice in a speedboat. Here, your weapons are in the speedboat. Anti-tank weaponry, and a lot of assault rifles, bullets, protective gear, and some good modern equipment.”

    “Thank you. We will not forget your aid for an independent Corsica.”

    “You had better not. My higher ups are running a risky game doing this.”

    “Indeed. But from what I can understand…..?”

    “Tit for tat. Geopolitics sounds like a game for children when I think about it that way, though.”


    ***

    Russia Today:

    Alexey Lushnikov, Leader of the New Green Deal, and other Green Movements Put in Petition for Reintroduction of the Caspian Tiger.

    August 3rd, 2006

    Amidst growing economic and environmental consciousness in Russia, over the New Green Deal, the leader of said deal, and almost all of the Green political activist groups in Russia have signed a petition with 67,000 people signing the petition to start the reintroduction of the Caspian Tiger in the Volga River Delta which is in Russian territory. Biologists and scientists declared in 2004 that the reintroduction was possible, due to increased Russian growth and development.

    The Russian government has issued a statement stating that the reintroduction programme will be verified in the State Duma with a vote between the Members of the Russian Parliament. They have stated that the vote would be democratic and to see if the reintroduction was feasible.

    1601094916745.png

    The Caspian Tiger reborn in Russia in 2008.

    ***

    Russia Today:

    Russian State Duma votes 268-232 For Reintroduction of the Caspian Tiger. Russian Government states that 76 Tigers will be reintroduced!

    August 5th, 2006

    ***

    New York Tribunal:

    Egypt Attacked! Electric Grid Fails and Cyberattacks continue.

    August 10th, 2006

    The Egyptian government has announced that they have exerted martial law as the country reels from cyberattacks that have never been done in such scales before. Yesterday evening, almost the entirety of the electric grid in Egypt went off leading to a loss of electricity in the nation for two hours before the grids could be restarted again. The Stock Exchange of Egypt was also targeted, and it seems that the Egyptian value in international stocks have sunk by 16%, inflicting a major attack on the Egyptian economy. Multiple classified documents from the Egyptian military regarding their military capabilities have been released to the public, and the identities of multiple Egyptian operatives have also been compromised. Websites have been filled with spam, and the electoral electric system of Egypt has also been attacked, and the power outage has led to loss of information and data in the electoral engines of Egypt.

    1601095046348.png

    Egyptian power outage due to the attack.

    The Egyptian government has called this a cyber attack of the scale that has never been seen before. This cyber attack has also managed to make the investor confidence in Egypt scale massively down, and Egyptian share values have degraded by 9 points over the past 24 hours. The Egyptian government has also defaulted it’s debts partially over this crisis.

    One commentator in America has stated that “The Egyptian economy will take years to recover.”

    This attack from what we can understand has been done independently. One Egyptian cyber security personnel managed to track a hacker to an apartment in Luxor. The Egyptian security forces have already raided said apartment in Luxor which has resulted in the security forces by mistake disturbing a family which lived in the site seen in the attack. The Egyptian government has stated that this was likely the work of the radical insurgency going on in the Sinai Peninsula under the Islamic forces there. The Islamic Forces haven’t denied or accepted this however. Some in the Egyptian government have also accused the Israeli Government for conducting this cyber attack over the Egyptian refusal to accept the Israeli attacks against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Israel has denied this allegation.

    The Egyptian government has also declared partial martial law in Egypt for one week over this issue. The Egyptian government has vowed to track down these hackers.

    According to the International Monetary Fund, the Egyptian economy has lost $30 Billion in the attacks and the debt of the Egyptian economy has almost tripled. The costs of maintaining the state in Egypt has increased by twice the previous amount, and the International Monetary Fund has stated that the Egyptian economy has been pushed half a decade backwards. The value of the Suez Canal has also unfortunately suffered, and the Egyptian economy is currently in crisis.

    ***

    Russia Today:

    Chancellor Yavlinsky Announces End of the Last 3 Year Plan two months early

    August 15th, 2006

    The Russian Chancellor and Head of Government, Yavlinsky has announced that the third and last 3 year economic plan has come to a close. The Chancellor stated that the plan would have ended earlier if not for the insurgency, however with the insurgency well past Russia, the economic achievements of Russia have been astounding. Despite the insurgency which resulted in the deaths of around 1200 people all around Russia including the Czarina of Russia, the Russian economic growth rate has hit an all time high of 13.3% as the Russian economy hits the $2 Trillion mark. The Russian government has been successful enough to provide an extra 1,000,000 jobs in the past three years, and the Eurasian Ruble has seen a rise in value over the past three years by 67%. The government of Russia under Yavlinsky has announced that by 2010, it is the ambition of Russia to reach the $3 Trillion mark. According to what has been released to the public, the Russian GDP is now being spent by the government under the following proportions:-

    Military: 4%

    Service Sector: 45%

    Agriculture: 1%

    Industry: 40%

    Health Care: 5%

    Other: 5%

    The Russian Government has unveiled a comprehensive amount of new economic reforms on part of President Yavlinsky, and the economic forum of Russia. This new economic plan which plans to end in 2009, consists of the following plans and directives:-

    • Count, Save and Pay – Establishing and Propagation of Thrifty Model of Energy resources, establishing governmental coordination of mass installation and production of counters and economizers.
    • New Light – gradual replacement of tradition incandescent light bulbs with more efficient types of lamps; development of the national production of energy saving devices.
    • Energetically Efficient City Block – Pilot Project aimed into creation of efficient energy distribution and saving in urban blocks of several Russian cities.
    • Energetically Efficient Social Sector – Realization of the energy efficiency programs in schools and hospitals, with subsequent enlargement of the project scope to all social services.
    • Local Energy Systems – Developing of the local systems of electricity generation and central heating, where such small scale systems can be more effective than large, centralized systems, development of the production of the equipment for local energy generation and supply.
    • Innovative Energy Supply – Stimulation of new innovative developments in the energy sector; nationwide technological contests in the area of energy efficiency.
    • Development of the Standard Project of the Optimized and Informatized Powerblock based on the VVER Technology – Development by 2010 of all technology needed for a modern nuclear power station with the VVER type reactor, adapted for Russian as well as for European and Asian markets.
    • New Technological Platform; closed nuclear fuel cycle and fast neutron rectors - Development by 2020 of a new technological base in nuclear technology, characterized by the usage of closed nuclear fuel cycle and fast neutron reactors. This technology allows better efficiency of nuclear fuel usage, an important advantage in light of the expected future squeeze in the world’s uranium supply.
    • Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion – Development by 2050 of practical methods of controlled Thermonuclear Fusion, the technology aimed to production of cheap energy will be fully independent from non-renewable resources.
    • Development of supercomputing and grid technology – creation of the common space for domestically produced high performance supercomputers on the basis of gird computing.
    • Electronic government – gradual movement towards the e-government.
    Chancellor Yavlinsky has announced that these reforms, barring the ones for 2020, and 2065 to be finished by 2010 at most. The International Monetary Fund has stated that if all ends are met, then the Russian economy could hit $3.5 Trillion by 2010, which may be one of the highest growth rates in history, only matched by the astronomical rise of Britain in 1790-1815, the rise of American industrial power in 1865-1914, and the current growth of the Chinese manufacturing sector.

    ***
     
    Chapter 33: The World In Front Of Us.
  • Chapter 33: The World In Front Of Us.

    ***

    Russia Insight:

    Russian State Duma Announces New Set of Constitutional Reforms. Referendum to be held on October!

    August 20th, 2006

    The Russian State Duma has announced a new set of constitutional reforms, which will be verified by the people in a referendum on the 1st of October, 2006. The reforms have come into the forefront of Russian politics recently as the haphazardly made Russian constitution after the fall of the Soviet Union, and it’s many deficiencies have come to light over the 2 month long National Bolshevik Insurgency.

    The first reform that has been proposed is the term limit of the Chancellor. Chancellor Yavlinsky has backed the two term limit, however some are calling for a three term limit or a one term limit or even total free limits like the United Kingdom. However for now, the Russian State Duma speaker, Emilia Slabunova, has stated that the reform put on the table is a clear and cut statement stating that the first reform would only back two term limits, however how long those term limits will be is in question. Slabunova has stated that the debate is currently between the current 6 year term limit, or instead having a 4 year term limit, 5 year term limit or 7 year term limit. All options will be presented in the referendum according to Slabunova.

    1601265777533.png

    Emilia Slabunova.

    The second reform that has been put on the table for discussion is the electoral policy of the nation. The electoral voting system in Russia is very peculiar, and very complicated, and the reform that has been put forward is considering a simplification of the voting process. According to Slabunova, the reform is also asking for the increase in the seats of the State Duma and the Federal Assembly to include all of the constituent Kingdoms of Russia on a proportionate basis, and allocating new seats to members of ethnic minorities. The proposed plan is extending the number of seats to 600 seats of the State Duma in which 15 new seats will be allocated to minority representatives irrespective of their political affiliation. This plan also calls for the increase in the Federal Assembly to 250 seats in which 5 seats will be allocated to minority groups irrespective of their political affiliation.

    The third reform put forward is cancelling the former rigid governor electoral system and instead bringing forward a total popular voting system for the election of governors of the Kingdoms of Russia including the Oblasts and Krais. This reform in particular has garnered a lot of support in the young Russian population as of recent times.

    The status of LGBTs in the Russian constitution was also very vaguely defined. As per this, another question that will be brought forward in the referendum is whether making the status of LGBTs in Russia legal or not. The government has stated that they will support the wishes of the majority in any case for this reform, however if the reform failed to pass in votes, would provide ‘minority rights’ to LGBTs even if their status is not passed through the referendum as a ‘fail safe’. This has caused some anger to come at the government from conservative groups.

    The fifth and last reform brought in the table is changing the electoral system to make sure that legislative elections take place every 4 years instead of the random 6 or 5 or 7, giving a defined figure for the legislative elections.

    1601265923044.png

    Russian State Duma.

    All in all, these reforms are targeted at providing answers and solutions to the major political problems, and backstops in the Russian constitution and the Russian society. The referendum is going to take place on October 1st, 2006, and don’t stay home all you Russians out there! This is about our future, and please come out and vote!

    ***

    www.Digital.Blog.com.

    Topic – Russon Co. Launches New Game!

    August 30th, 2006

    In a news conference yesterday, the Russian digital and technological giant has announced that its subsidiary company named the Rusgaming Corporation is going to release a new game called For the Motherland! By the end of the year. This game from what has been announced is a first person shooter game set in World War One. The basic premise is that you will have to fight the Germans and Austrians and the Turks as a normal Russian soldier in the Imperial Russian Army. The missions are going to be ‘heavily realistic’ according to leaks, and the plot system is based upon actual military events. Famous battles of the Eastern Front like the Battle of Sarakamish, the Siege of Pzemysyl, the Battle of Warsaw, the Battle of Riga, etc will all be available in the game. There is also going to be an online version of the game in which players can play and fight and compete with one another. The game will be available in Russian, English, Ukrainian, Turkic, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. It’s release date has been made December 20th, 2006.

    1601265971788.png

    Leaked images of the game.

    ***


    News of Africa:

    Egypt Faces Massive Protests Against the Government!

    September 10th, 2006

    After the massive cyberattack that shook the Egyptian economy and brought it down to it’s knees, the Egyptian government has failed to meet its promises of vengeance, and the economic situation has deteriorated by several margins. The Egyptian government has been forced to default on their debt, unable to keep on paying it, and has asked the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to start subsidizing the economy of Egypt for a few weeks to a month at least. The World Bank has issued an emergency loan packaging deal to Egypt, which has been able to make the Egyptian economy come afloat. The Egyptian government is also on the verge of floating their economy and currency however has been dissuaded by their Saudi Arabian, Jordan, Syrian, and African allies, all of whom state that doing so would trigger an economic crisis in the Arab and African worlds.

    1601266041014.png

    Egyptian protestors.

    Nonetheless, these economic failures of the Egyptian government have shown their faults for the world to see, and the young population of Egypt have dropped into the streets calling for the resignation of the President and full democratic elections. Reports have come in stating that governmental agents and police officers have started to arrest and detain these protestors, however to no avail, as the protests only seem to get larger and larger. The military has also become restless in Egypt, and the government and it’s neighbors are currently unsure on how to move. However from what is being broadcasted, the Syrian, and Tunisian governments, both extremely notorious for being one man dictatorships, have stopped broadcasting news about Egypt to keep their own population at bay, which indicates a level of unrest in Syria and Tunisia as well.

    ***

    www.foreignpolicy.com

    Russia and France sign accords in Copenhagen ending Chad dispute.

    September 22nd, 2006

    The French governments and the Russian governments have both signed the Copenhagen Accords, as both countries have agreed to respect the status quo in the current situation. According to the accords, the French government will withdraw all troops from Mali except for a group of 500 and the Russian government will withdraw all troops barring for 500 from Chad. The French government also has recognized the new democratic government in Chad, however the Chadian government is now being subject to paying monetary compensation to the French government for the destruction or seizure of French assets in Chad due to the Chadian Civil War. The Chadian government has stated that the full extent of these payments would be negotiated in private between the Parisian and Chadian government.

    1601266124019.png

    The signing of the deal.

    The French government has been thoroughly humiliated in their proxy war in Chad, and the leaks that have been made public to us state that the French government will pursue anti-russian military procurement pacts, and more diplomatic avenues against the Russian state and it’s allies. Many have denigrated and attacked France for supporting a dictator, and the French government has also come under fire for embezzlement of money into the military sector. The Russian government for its part has also come under slight fire for its escalation of the localized conflict. Nonetheless, this accord signed in Copenhagen may lead to a cool in relations after years of tension between France and Russia. The French government and Russian government have also signed a minor trade deal with one another, and all French assets which had been frozen were released by Russia. The Russian students have also been allowed to return by the French government. However this won’t be happening according to details presented to the public, as out of the 489 Russian students in France who were unable to study due to the freezing of school scholarships, around 412 have already been subsidized by the Russian government within Russia, and Russian linked institutions worldwide already. Only around 60 students have kept their name in to return to France, which have led to $4 million deficit in expenses in French universities.


    ***

    www.russiangovernment.rus

    REFERENDUM ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS RESULT:-

    October 3rd, 2006

    *please note that the portions of the referendum that have passed have been underlined. Thank you and please follow all of the guidelines and cyber security laws of the Czardom of Russia whilst using online resources. Thank you.

    • 1st Reform:-
    Term Limit of 6 years (Current): 42%

    Term Limit of 4 years: 22%

    Term Limit of 5 years: 21%

    Term Limit of 7 years: 15%

    • 2nd Reform:-
    Do you support the expansion of the State Duma and the Federal Assembly: 58%

    Do you not support the expansion of the State Duma and the Federal Assembly: 40%

    • 3rd Reform:-
    Do you support the direct popular voting system for governors of the Czardom of Russia: 63%

    Do you not support the Direct popular voting system for the governors of the Czardom of Russia: 35%

    • 4th Reform:-
    Do you support giving LGBT’s full rights of the state: 46%

    Do you support giving LGBT’s minority rights of the state: 52%

    • 5th Reform:-
    Legislative Elections Electoral Term of 5 years (Current): 38%

    Legislative Elections Electoral Term of 4 years: 43%

    Legislative Elections Electoral Term of 3 years: 19%



    #total voting electorate of Russia: 115,000,000

    #total votes received: 92,000,000

    #electoral turnout: 81.3%

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    SOUTH OSSETIAN PRESIDENT DECLARES REFERENDUM!

    October 10th, 2006

    The South Ossetian president, Eduard Kokoity has stated that they will be conducting a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia on the question of whether or not they shall join the Czardom of Russia. In Kokoity’s words:

    The Alanian and the Ossetian peoples have been separated for 17 years already, and we yearn for our families to be one again. Pro-union forces have been active in our region and for good reason. We will put an end to this question democratically under the supervision of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, Greece and Bulgarian officials. We will make sure that the will of the people is heard loud and clear.’

    Ever since the rise of Ossetian nationalism in Georgia, it has hinged characteristically on being able to join Russia and uniting the Kingdom of North Ossetia with the southern counterpart. The Russian government has responded by stating that they shall observe the referendum and respect whatever decision may come of it. The Georgian government, many of whom criticize for being a Russian puppet, stated yesterday in a statement that they would observe the referendum in it’s full democratic respect and respect its decision, as long as Georgian assets and citizens were cared for settled properly.

    1601266179343.png

    Eduard Kokoity announcing the referendum.

    The international community, or most importantly of all, the CSTO alliance, and the Eurasian Union State has stated they look forward for a democratic referendum, and the European Union has stated that they shall also send many observers to make sure that the referendum was ‘legitimate’. This is happening in the backdrop of the Russo-British Trade Deal last Saturday.

    The referendum is scheduled to take place on November 30th, and it’s results will be released to the public on December 5th. The governments of all nations involved have sworn and vowed to make sure that the referendum will be democratic.

    ***


    Russia Insight.

    Russian Legislative Elections dated for November 10th.

    October 15th, 2006

    The Russian government has stated that in light of the constitutional reforms that have been passed, the next legislative elections will take place on the 15th of November next month. The current parties taking part in the elections are:-

    Yabloko (Grigory Yavlinsky): Center-Left, Social Democrats

    United Russia (Boris Nemtsov): Center-Right, Monarchist, Free Trade Economists

    Communist Party of Russia (Melnikov): Left, internal trade economists

    National Center Party (Podberezkin): Right, Populists

    Liberal Democratic Party (Zhirinovsky):Right, and Neo-Populists. Economically Free Thinking.

    Green Party of Russia (Lushnikov): Center Left, and Green Economics

    The current polls of the parties are:-

    Yabloko: 34%

    United Russia: 26%

    Liberal Democrats: 15%

    Communist Party of Russia: 12%

    National Center Party: 7%

    Green Party of Russia: 6%

    ***
     
    Chapter 34: The End of an Era.
  • Chapter 34: The End of an Era.

    ****

    Russia Insight:

    Russia Announces New Immigration and Scholarship Scheme.

    October 22nd, 2006

    The Russian government has announced a new immigration scheme. Despite the loosening of the former rigid Soviet immigration policy, Russia’s immigration policy has always been more rigid and inflexible in comparison to the other first world democracies. Nonetheless, the State Duma of the Russian Czardom has passed a new legislation which totally flips the Russian Immigration policy.

    According to the New Immigration Act, it is still a rigid act in comparison to the US, or the rest of Europe, however is much more loose and liberal in comparison to before. According to the Act, the Russian Diaspora throughout the world would be given first priority to return back to Russia on immigration. The Russian ethnic minorities of Bashkirs, Tuvans, Chechens, Dagestanis, etc and their diasporas would also be given priority during immigration. Other than this, Anyone, who has worked and lived Russia for 5 years, and has developed a fluency in the Russian language can become a citizen, provided that he or she has not committed a crime. Almost anyone who is hired by a Russian firm and has a legal work permit and work visa can stay in the country and work indefinitely. However despite this semi-liberal policy, the Russian immigration system is now giving points for potential immigrants on the basis of education, and higher education as well, and is therefore targeting professional manpower. The Russian government has stated that this is deliberate, and with the government turning more and more technocratic, it is believed that the immigration policy will continue to become a weird mix of conservative and liberal, according to one American political observer.

    1601368923573.png

    Moscow State University.

    The Russian government has also unveiled a scholarship scheme. In the past decade, under the steady political leadership of Grigory Yavlinsky, the educational institutions of Russia have flourished. The Moscow Institute of Economics, and the St. Petersburg University of Science, the Kazan University of Technology all have cropped up into the international imagination, and more scholarship schemes have been distributed. However, despite this, no particular scholarship policy was in place. Along with the immigration policy, the New Scholarship Scheme was passed through the Russian State Duma, which calls for increased scholarships into Russian schools and educational institutes as well. The Vietnamese Government, Nepalese Government, Chinese Government, Finnish Government, German Government have all expressed their desires to sign an international scholarship deal with Russia, and this New Scholarship Act also permits the scholarship deals to be passed during international arbitration and international dealings. The Russian government has stated that these two new acts will provide Russia with much more soft capability in the future.

    ***

    www.economicforum.com.

    Russia Announces New Loans Scheme

    October 30th, 2006

    The Russian government has released a new information into the international community stating that they have unveiled a new economic package for struggling economies in the world, like countries like Laos, Nepal, African nations, Sri Lanka, etc with a loaning scheme. A maximum loan of $5 billion could be purchased from the Russian government for an interest rate of 1.2 percent per annum. This was a great deal for many nations, as the normal interest rate in the global economy was 1.6% per annum, and reducing their cost effectiveness by 0.4%, while does not look great on paper, in practice, makes a huge difference. The governments of Sri Lanka, Laos, Chad, Eritrea, and East Timor have already filed the Russian government for some loans to be purchased. The Russian government’s motive behind this economic deal, is perhaps to gain a faster rate of foreign reserve incomes, as it is perhaps the only area of the Russian economy which hasn’t experienced a massive boom in the past few years. Nonetheless, with this deal out in the international market, it is very probable, that the Russian government will be able to garner more foreign currency reserves. The Russian government has also released a statement that their reserves will be kept in Rubles, Pounds and Euros, and not in dollars. Economists believe that this may stagnate trading growth between the United States of America, and the Russian government, however with the Republicans winning back the House this year, many have pointed fingers at Russia stating this would hurt the economic parity that America had enjoyed for several years. Nonetheless, this economic move has been met with partial success, as the CSTO has stated their own intention of following up Russia on their reserves denotations.

    1601368976750.png

    Eurasian Ruble.

    ***

    www.Libyangovernment.lib

    The Elections Results.

    November 5th,

    Dear citizens, as is known to all of you, the first democratic elections took place this year, around a week ago for the Libyan peoples to participate in for the first time in history. This election has been supervised by supervisors from the Eurasian Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Our elections are according to them, not on par with the rest of the world, especially Europe and North America, however they have stated that they have noted a huge increase in improvement of democratic standards in this election. We hope that we can maintain this increase in democratic standards in Libya, and thus here are the results of the 1st Libyan General Elections held last week.

    • National Party of Libya.
    This is the party led by Saif Al-Islam Gadaffi, and his views in the party can be collaborated as Center-Right, Libyan Nationalistic, Slight Populism, pro-free trade.

    Seats Gained in the People’s General Assembly (dark green): 159 seats

    Seats Gained in the National Assembly (dark green): 64 seats

    • Justice and Construction Party
    This party is headed by Mohamed Sowan, and this party is essential social democratic in nature, and stands on the centre left of the political spectrum, and are economically protectionists.

    Seats gained in the People’s General Assembly (yellow): 51 seats

    Seats gained in the National Assembly (yellow): 21 seats

    • National Front Party
    This is the party headed by Mohamed Ali Abdallah, and is essentially the liberalists and progressives of Libya. They are pro-western in their views.

    Seats gained in the People’s General Assembly (purple): 36 seats

    Seats gained in the Nation Assembly (purple): 21 seats

    The independents have won 54 seats in the People’s General Assembly and 21 seats in the National Assembly.


    1601369036176.png

    Libyan People’s General Assembly.


    1601369046948.png

    Libyan National Assembly.

    ***

    Russian Political Forum!

    Podberezkin and Zhirinovsky announce union of their political parties to form a ‘united center right party for russia’. Zhirinovsky becomes Chief of Party with Podberezkin as second in command. Party’s name is Russian National Party!

    November 8th, 2006.

    ***

    www.russiagovernment.rus

    Russian General Elections Are Over!

    November 15th, 2006

    The Russian General Legislative Elections held two days ago have ended, and their votes have been tabulated by the government. With the full democratic laws and conventions being held, the following are the results of the elections.

    • Yabloko
    A social democratic party, it stands on the center-left side of the political spectrum. It is led by incumbent Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky, and has been credited with a decade’s worth of economic and social progress.

    Seats gained in the Russian State Duma (yellow): 202 seats

    Seats gained in the Russian Federal Assembly (yellow): 84 seats

    Popular votes: 32.35 million votes

    • United Russia
    This party is led by Boris Nemtsov and is a center-right party in the political spectrum. It is an ardent monarchist party, and economically encourages technocracy for future development.

    Seats gained in the Russian State Duma (purple): 158 seats

    Seats gained in the Russian Federal Assembly (purple): 66 seats

    Popular votes: 25.34 million votes

    • Russian National Party
    This party is led Zhirinovsky, and whilst they have had their alliances with the ruling government, is a more right wing party with populism as its tenets.

    Seats gained in the Russian State Duma (blue): 112 seats

    Seats gained in the Russian Federal Assembly (blue): 47 seats

    Popular votes: 18.04 million votes

    • Communist Party of Russia
    The once powerful Communist Party of Russia has declined in popularity and led by Melnikov, some who believe is incompetent, is a party that is on the left side of the political spectrum.

    Seats gained in the Russian State Duma (red): 67 seats

    Seats gained in the Russian Federal Assembly (red): 28 seats

    Popular votes: 10.75 million votes

    • Green Party of Russia
    The Green Party of Russia led by Alexey Lushikov is a center left party which advocates for green politics and green economics. Their popularity is rising, and they have managed to become the only green party to gain the highest proportion of seats in any parliament in the world.

    Seats gained in Russian State Duma (green): 40 seats

    Seats gained in Russian Federal Assembly (green): 17 seats

    Popular votes: 6.52 million votes

    • Eurasian Unionist Party of Russia
    Led by Alexander Lebed, a popular military man, this party advocates for a centralized union in the Eurasian Union State. It practices syncretic ideologies but is mostly recognized as a Centrist Party in the political spectrum.

    Seats gained in the Russian State Duma (violet): 18 seats

    Seats gained in Russian Federal Assembly (violet): 7 seats

    Popular votes: 2.97 million votes

    Independents have won 3 seats in the Russian State Duma and 1 seat in the Federal Assembly.


    1601369064435.png

    Russian State Duma.


    1601369078994.png

    Russian Federal Assembly.

    ***

    www.militarynews.com

    Russia announces that the Black Eagle MBT is open for exports.


    November 25th, 2006

    The Russian government has announced that the Black Eagle Main Battle Tank, which has been heralded as a new generation tank will be open for exports, with its new export model for any country willing to buy it. As the Russian Armed Forces brings it’s 400th Black Eagle into active service this year, the exports of the Black Eagle shall be open mainly to the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization members and the Eurasian Union State Members. The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Libya, the Republic of Mongolia, the Republic of Ukraine have all already put in orders of varying degrees to buy the export version of the Black Eagle tank. The Chinese government, and the Yugoslavian government alongside the Finnish government have also stated their willingness to look into the export version of the tank. Each unit of the tank costs around USD 3.15 million dollars according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, and ‘preferred’ countries would be the ones receiving this tank. Some governments like that of Brazil and Indonesia have also expressed their willingness to buy the tank as they have sent supervisors to Russia to look into the tank. The South Korean Government has also proposed a technology transfer with Russia regarding their tank designs, which the Russian government has stated they will look into.

    1601369223101.png

    Black Eagle MBT.

    The current orders for the export version of the Black Eagle Tank are 100 for Iran, 75 for Libya, 50 for Ukraine, and 20 for Mongolia. The Chinese government has stated a willingness to buy 250 units of the tank, and the Kazakh government is current thinking about buying 100 units. The Yugoslav government is allegedly thinking about buying 150 units.


    ***

    www.USARC.com.

    USARC launches new satellite into Space!

    December 1st, 2006

    The USARC commission is happy to announce that the commission under the funding of the Russian government has recently launched a new satellite into space. This in coordination with the entire Eurasian Union State’s Green Efforts will be conducting environmental surveys and will provide the Eurasian Union State with a constant source of data regarding areas in which they will have to increase their efforts, and will provide a proper device which will aid the Eurasian Union State’s governments in increasing their progress in their New Green Deals.

    1601369277173.png

    Satellite.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    SOUTH OSSETIA VOTES TO JOIN RUSSIA

    December 8th, 2006

    The South Ossetian people have spoken! Three days before today, the results of the South Ossetian Referendum was released to the public. The Collective Security Treaty Organization and countries such as Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria sent observers to observe the referendum. Out of an electorate of 81,000, around 76,000 people showed up to vote. Among them, the votes of the referendum were:-

    • Do you support the annexation of South Ossetia into the Czardom of Russia: 64.7%
    • Do you not support the annexation of South Ossetia into the Czardom of Russia: 31.3%
    • Invalid votes: 4%
    The Russian government and the South Ossetian government signed the Instrument of Annexation in Grozny this morning, and as of this moment, the Republic of South Ossetia has ceased to exist, and is a part of the Czardom of Russia as an autonomous Kingdom. The Kingdom of North Ossetia and the Kingdom of South Ossetia have been merged to form the Kingdom of Alania as an autonomous kingdom within the Czardom of Russia.

    The Georgian government has supported the annexation with the government stating that the referendum was fully democratic, and that they shall support it. The Russian government has already secured all Georgian assets in South Ossetia which has been returned dutifully.

    Many in the west, mainly from the former Warsaw Pact, and from France and from the United States of America have condemned the annexation. The foreign minister of Poland Anna Fotyga has denounced the annexation.

    1601369320718.png

    Anna Fotyga.

    This annexation is just the third move. Russia annexed Belarus. Then Crimea. Now South Ossetia. Ukraine is next. Then the Baltics.” She said in a private meeting with a few reporters yesterday. The governments of Russia, Ukraine and Estonia have all filed complaints to the Polish government denouncing her statements, and the Russian government has angrily stated that such denigrating statements could be ‘very dangerous’ for Poland. The Polish government has officially made an apology for the statement today morning.

    ***

    www.corsicannationalism.com

    WE WANT FREEDOM FROM FRANCE! DOWN WITH THE PARISIANS!

    Dìu vi salvi, Regina
    Corsican
    Dìu vi salvi, Regina
    È Matre universale,
    Per qual favor si sallì
    À u paradisu.
    Per qual favor si sallì
    À u paradisu.

    Voi site gioia è risu
    Di tutti i scunsulati,
    Di tutti i tribulati
    L'ùnica speme.
    Di tutti i tribulati
    L'ùnica speme.

    À voi suspira è geme
    Lu nostru afflittu core
    In un mar di dulore
    È d'amarezza.
    In un mar di dulore
    È d'amarezza.

    Marìa, mar di dulcezza,
    Li vostri ochji pietosi,
    Materni ed amurosi,
    À noi vulghjite.
    Materni ed amurosi,
    À noi vulghjite.

    Noi mìseri accuglite
    Ind'u vostru santu velu.
    Lu vostru figliu in celu,
    À noi mustrate.
    Lu vostru figliu in celu,
    À noi mustrate.

    Gradite ed ascultate,
    O Vèrghjina Marìa,
    Dolce, clemente è pìa,
    L'affetti nostri.
    Dolce, clemente è pìa,
    L'affetti nostri.

    Voi dai nemici nostri,
    À noi date vittoria
    È poi l'eterna gloria
    In paradisu.
    È poi l'eterna gloria
    In paradisu.


    WE THE NATIONALISTIC BOYS OF CORSICA ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT 80 FRENCH SOLDIERS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN THIS PROUD LIBERATION OF OUR COUNTRY! DOWN WITH THE PARIS REGIME AND FRANCE!


    ***

    Paris Tribune:

    The website Corsicanatioanlism.com has been banned by the government for ‘anti-french’ activities.

    December 15th, 2006

    ***

    African News:

    Russia and Somalia sign deal allowing for intervention.

    December 30th, 2006

    The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has signed a deal with the Russian government. The Russian government has signed a deal with the Somalian government in which the Russian government has agreed to send the 101st Armored Brigade, and the 45th Motorized Division to Somalia along with a naval escort and 50 warplanes into Somalia. The Russian government and Somalian government had been talks with one another for 3 years, and it has culminated into this. The Somalian government has stated that they have called in Russian troops on their behest to put an end to the ‘Somali Crisis’ once and for all. This move has been supported by the Djibouti and Eritrean government, with both stating that this would put an end to the instability in the area once and for all. The Ethiopian government has stated that they would find it honoring to fight alongside Russian troops with their own intervention in Somalia. The Russian government has stated that the Russian troops placed in Somalia will eradicate all ‘islamic radicals’ and put an end to Somali piracy through the navy. The new Peter the Great Russian Battlecruiser will be taking part in the anti-piracy role, and the government is sending the 6th Black Sea Flotilla into the Red Sea to take part in the anti-piracy activities.

    1601370151059.png

    The Peter the Great Russian Battlecruiser. looks small in picture, but is a beast of a size in reality.

    Many political observers fear that Somalia may have also fallen into the Russian sphere of influence.

    ***​

    End of 2006 Russian Data:-

    Population: 155,000,000

    GDP (nominal): 2.08 Trillion Dollars

    GDP per capita: $13,500 dollars

    Inflation: 6.3%

    Reserves: $124 Billion Dollars

    Debt: 13% of GDP

    Pension: RUB 12,000

    Average Wage: RUB 22,000.

    ***
     
    VERY SAD UPDATE
  • unfortuantely a virus has eaten through my files. the chapters of this tl all the way to chapter 53 have been eaten and destroyed. My laptop has been cleaned but the data is lost. Until i can write up again, this tl will be on hiatus.
     
    Chapter 35: Intervention in Somalia and the Start of Many a Things, mainly political though.
  • Chapter 35: Intervention in Somalia and the Start of Many a Things, mainly political though.

    ***

    Le Petit Journal: Russia Announces Intervention in Somalia!

    January 2nd, 2007

    The Russian Czardom was officially announced in tandem with their Somalian counterparts in the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government of Somalia that the Russian Military has intervened against Islamic Jihadists in Somalia. According to the information given by Russian Ministry of Defense, the 101st Armored Brigade and the 45th Motorized Division has already seen a small amount of combat and that Russia would continue to use its powerful military to restore order.


    map.png

    Frontlines and factions in the Somalian Civil War.

    This is very worrying for NATO. The Russian influence in East Africa and North Africa has grown exponentially in the past half a decade. Libya is officially a part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and is within an economic union with Russia, and both Sudan and Chad are allies and proxies of Russia within the region. Ethiopia has shown willingness to cooperate with Russian military personnel in the region and the Ethiopians have intervened in Somalia in tandem with the Russians.

    However what is even more worrying is in fact the willingness of some of our allies to secure our interests abroad. Till now, we can only see the nations of Poland, Romania, and Hungary willing to commit themselves into securing our assets and our securities abroad. The nations of Germany, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Norway and the Benelux openly complain about their economies being deficient to fight Russia, and that with their newfound good relations with Russia, they didn’t wish to antagonize the Russians. The Iberians grumble beneath their breaths as well and the Spanish government has been negotiating a royal visit to and fro from Russia between the Spanish Royal Family and the Russian Royal Family to increase ties. The Portuguese have also quietly signed a new trade deal with the Russians over chromium extraction technology.

    Our true allies, for us French, in this struggle against Russian economic imperialism can perhaps only be Poland, Romania and Hungary. Even the British, our allies from 1914 show an extreme lack of enthusiasm for any event designed to make the Russians pushed out, whilst they are distracted with the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming more than just an empty lobby with their recent economic and military interventions.

    The French government has officially stated that they shall monitor the situation in Somalia with our military bases in Djibouti with increased surveillance to make sure that every side adhered to the internationally recognized boundaries and laws of war. This Journal and Journalist outlet shall support our government in their action for our interests in the Horn of Africa.


    1603104833654.png

    French Troops in Djibouti.

    ***

    Daily Express – United Kingdom Announces Intervention

    January 8th, 2007

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that the House of Commons has backed him after receiving invitation from the Commonwealth of Nations and the provisional government in Somalia for intervention in Somaliland. Somaliland was once a British colony in the Horn of Africa, and were involved heavily in the East African Front of World War 2, along with its inhabitants who fought loyally for the British crown. After Italian Somalia gained its independence, the colony was given independence and merged with Somalia. The British government has announced that an Armed Force of 1000 troops will be intervening in Somaliland to bring order back to the area. President Egal of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland has asked for the intervention after Somali Islamists and Jihadists crossed the Somalian-Somaliland border with impunity to attack the hastily ill-equipped Somaliland Militia in the area.


    1603104883512.png

    President Egal of Somaliland.

    According to the statement from the British government the intervention force will not extend beyond the borders of Somaliland, however the British government has also stated that they will not withdraw from the region until a permanent solution to the Somaliland question was found. The Somalian and Somaliland Governments have acquiesced to the order from the British government and the intervention will take place by the end of the week.

    According to our reporters from all over Europe and throughout the world, it seems this intervention in the Horn of Africa has rattled some feathers whilst softening some more. The Tories in opposition to the government has decried Blair for ‘neo-colonialism’ and a good amount of African nations have also stated that another intervention on part of Britain wasn’t a prudent idea. In France, the people are protesting against the British intervention, ironic considering their own interventions in Africa. The British government has contacted the Russian government about the intervention and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense has stated that Russian and British soldiers will cooperate with one another wherever possible in Somalia.

    The Russian government has also pledged itself that it would support the United Kingdom for a permanent Compromise which would bring the Somali Crisis to an end once and for all.

    Currently the politics in the United Kingdom seem to be varying to a lot of degrees. Much of the Labour Party have supported the decision of Blair, whilst the Tories are raising voices to hell high heaven, and the Greens, and the Liberal Democrats are also pointing a lot of waggling fingers at Westminster for this decision, however nonetheless with a clear majority the intervention will go ahead. The Canadian government has also stated that 100 Canadian soldiers will take part in the intervention as part of the Commonwealth force. The Australians have pledged 250 soldiers, with the New Zealanders pledging 150 soldiers. In total 500 Commonwealth soldiers will also be intervening with 1000 British troops in the region. The Canadian, Australian and New Zealander governments have all supported the intervention as well, obviously.

    The rest of the Commonwealth have either expressed support for the intervention or have remained neutral on the whole issue till now. In particular the Indian government has raised objections especially since the British intervention will mean that Britain will have to cooperate with the Russian government and the Russian military in place in the area.

    ***

    www.worldgovernments.com

    Pakistani General Elections Over!

    January 15th, 2007

    The Pakistani General elections, the first perhaps from 2002, began on the 1st of January this year. The elections were contested between Pakistani People’s Party led by Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani Muslim League (Nawaz) led by Nisar Ali Khan and finally the Pakistani Muslim League led by Shujaat Hussein. The Pakistani General Elections are pretty interesting to watch unfold. The recent pro-Russian feelings that have been rising in Pakistan have also seen the Pakistani military slowly erode on its power.

    With the Russian government supplying weapons to the Pakistani army they have also applied massive amounts of pressure on the military step away from politics and to remain a neutral force in politics. This election was also held with Russian supervisors present in the area to maintain legal force, and there are rumors abound that the Russian government has quietly threatened the Pakistani military with actions if they tried to do anything misleading in the country during the elections. Meanwhile small amounts of Russian troops have also been engaged in the Baluchistan Insurgency to put it down, and the Pakistani populace in general seem to favor the Russians.

    The PPP ran on the course of being a neutral playing field and was more of a social democratic platform that was being run. Nisar Ali Khan and the PML(N) however has run on a pro-Russian campaign. Despite having his wife as an American and children as half-America, Nisar Ali Khan has shown his displeasure for the rampant amount of American actions in the Muslim world, and has expressed his support for Russian influence in Pakistan to counteract the Indians. The PML(Q) itself has run the campaign of the election on a neutral basis that is largely void of taking any side, like the PPP, however what is interesting to note is that there is no pro-Western rhetoric in any of the political parties in Pakistan, which can only be attributed to foreign policy failure of the West in Pakistan. Quite interestingly, a Pro-Commonwealth party named the Pakistani Commonwealth Party had also emerged right before the general elections, however they failed to gain enough votes for the final ballot, nonetheless, the emergence of a pro-Commonwealth party is interesting to note in Pakistan, a former Colony of Britain.

    The results of the Elections were:-

    PPP (Ali Zardari): 26.7% of the votes, gaining 91 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan.

    PML(N) (Ali Khan): 39.6% of the votes, gaining 135 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan.

    PML (Q) (Hussein): 25% of the votes, gaining 85 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan.

    Commonwealth Party: 8.7% of the votes, gaining 29 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan.

    Independents have won 2 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan.

    As such, Nisar Ali Khan has been elected to the position of Prime Minister of Pakistan. He embodies a new future for Pakistan which may lead to a new age of prosperity and better economics for the Pakistanis.


    1603104439701.png

    PPP In Dark Green, PML (N) in light green, PML(Q) in yellow, Commonwealth in Pink and independents in grey.


    1603105033364.png

    Nisar Ali Khan, the new Prime Minister of Pakistan.

    ***

    Euro News

    January 27th, 2007

    Russia Announces Pledge to Fight Global Warming.

    Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky has recently been praised for his own personal actions in reintroducing the Caspian Tiger back into the Russian regions of the Caspian sea. Around 20 Caspian Tigers roam the Volga Delta currently with recent studies showing the numbers will grow to 100 by 2012 and 350 by 2020.

    The Chancellor has also announces the New Green Deal that has been taken in by the Russian government will be expanded upon by the Russian government, and the Green deal will be expanded upon. Green Party leader Alexey Lushnikov has shown his support for the idea, and that the Chancellor has stated that Russia will lead the fight against Global Warming. Whilst a major Oil exporter and exporter of the fossil fuels, ever since 1996 Russia’s share of the Oil Industry has been declining, ever since the Electronic Industry of Russia has opened, and the Banking sector of Russia has boomed. The Russian government has also announced that they shall be looking into further ways in which the Russian government can continue their fight against climate change.

    The Russian government has recently solidified the Ministry of Environment, with Alexey Lushnikov becoming appointed as the Minister of Environment in Russia. The new legislature that has been passed through the Russian State Duma named the Pollution Act is a severe law that isn’t particularly popular in Russia, however it has been deemed a massive step forward by environmentalists worldwide. The Russian Green Tax Legislature Act consists of the following:-

    • A massive 8% Carbon tax levied on industries that go above the carbon levels advised by the government.
    • Any industry going above 15% than the levels advised by the government would have its stocks frozen by the Russian government.
    • Any industry that is going above 20% of the levels advised by the government will find itself closed.
    • The establishment of the ‘Environmental Machine Procurement Industries’ funded jointly by the government and the public which would procure and distribute eco-friendly machinery to Russian industries for cheaper prices with the same value.
    1603105133469.png

    Russian workers constructing solar panels for renewable energy

    It is a simply legislature, however it speaks volumes. It creates a modicum of environmental control. According to WHO and the UN and its sister agencies, this tax will lead to a decrease in the carbon emission levels of Russia by 1.5% every year. It doesn’t seem like a massive prospect, however in the quantitative sense, even 1.5% is massive decrease in numbers. By 2020, the Russian carbon emission levels will have fallen by 20%, which means that around 4% of the total carbon thrown into the atmosphere will be decreased by the end of the next decade. This is truly a momentous change in policy and because of Russia’s own policies, they seem to be gaining traction within the Eurasian Union, where Green Politics and their popularity is rising. Russia is also influencing Europe, as Green parties all across Europe are starting poll higher than average due to Russia’s lead in the global fight against Global Warming and Climate Change.

    ***

    World News

    February 9th, 2007

    Purple Revolution Not Over? First Yugoslavia, then Russia, and then Romania, now Georgia?

    The so dubbed Purple Revolution that has engulfed Western Europe with a general rise of monarchism is said to have mostly died out after the restoration of Michael I to the throne of Romania. However despite this monarchism is in quite the resurgence in Georgia. Egged on by the fact that David Bagration and Ana Bagration-Gruzinsky have recently announced that Princess Ana is pregnant with a child that will unite two of the royal houses of Georgia.


    1603105191625.png

    Prince David Bagration and Princess Ana Bagration-Gruzinsky.

    Not only that the current President of Georgia, Davit Tarkhan Mouravi is a member of the Georgian Nobility. As President, under him the South Ossetians have gone independent, however under him, the Abkhazians have remained in the Georgian nation, and with his support for the Eurasian Union and CSTO has managed to make Georgia’s economic growth massive in the Black Sea. The economic development of Georgia has become the envy of many, and as a nobleman, the President of Georgia himself has elicited a massive growth in royalism in the country.

    Last week, the government responded to massive protests in Tbilisi and Sukhumi about the restoration of the monarchy and has stated that they shall conduct a meeting with Prince David Bagration about the issue. Today morning the news has been released by the Georgian government’s official speaker for the public that Prince Bagration and Princess Gruzinksy have agreed to become restored as monarchs of Georgia through popular referendum as constitutional monarchs, should the monarchy be restored.

    As such the Georgian government has announced that on March 1st, 2007, the referendum on the monarchy and its restoration will take place. Should Prince Bagration be restored, he has said that he will take the regnal name of Constantine II, after King Constantine I of Imereti, the common ancestor of all the Bagration Dynasty.

    The current polls according to youGov about the restoration of the monarchy state:-

    Yes to Restore: 59%

    No to Restore: 31%

    Undecided: 9%

    The Pro-Monarchists and the Anti-Monarchists have already started to campaign heavily for and against the monarchy in their own manner, however it seems that Georgia shall be the last bastion of the Purple Revolution by this point. Russia has announced that they shall support a restoration through a referendum, and so have all the other constitutional monarchs of Europe.


    1603105267767.png

    A Pro Monarchist Rally in Sukhumi.

    ***

    African News

    February 19th, 2007

    Hosni Mubarak Consolidates Power in Egypt even amidst protests

    Strongman Mubarak of Egypt has managed to consolidate his power in the highest echelons of the Egyptian governments. After being at the blunt end of massive cyber attacks, the Egyptian people rose up in revolt against their oppressive government for naught it seems, as around 18,000 people have been arrested by the Egyptian government and have been thrown into prison. The protests against the government are petering out in the country of the Nile river, as news arrives that suspicious looking ‘Black Masked Men’ are kidnapping known dissidents against the Mubarak regime.


    1603105321125.png

    President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, a dictator and strongman.

    There have been allegations that the United States of America is aiding the Mubarak regime as it is the last bastion of the American influence in Eastern North Africa. American policy experts have been rumored to state that if Egypt were to fall to ‘outside’ influences the fall of the Suez Canal would be a massive blow to the United States of America. These rumors of American aid are unsubstantiated however with no direct proof.

    ***

    Russia Insight!

    February 25th, 2007

    BURAN TAKES FLIGHT! BURAN SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERS SPACE AMIDST HISTORIC MOMENT! RUSSIA RE-ASSERTS CLAIM THAT THEY SHALL LAND IN THE MOON BY 2015.


    1603105389171.png

    The Buran Launch.

    ***
     
    Chapter 36: Civil War?
  • Chapter 36: Civil War?

    ***

    The Caucasian Times

    March 3rd, 2007

    Georgia Announces Restoration of the Monarchy!

    The Georgian Monarchical Referendum on the 1st of March, 2007 saw a turnout of 98%, a massive turnout rate for the nation. Monarchism has always been popular in Georgia after independence. Partially to spite their former Communist heritage and history, and also due to the fact that the new independent nation needed stability and because Georgians have always been the nostalgic people of the Far East of the European Continent. However the so called Purple Revolution that swept Europe since 1999 saw the popularity of monarchism rise even further in Georgia, and the restoration of the Yugoslav, Romanian and Russian Monarchies have only made it even more popular.

    However what always seemed to tumble the Georgian monarchists in their bid for a kingdom would be the question of which Royal House the country would restore should the monarchy be restored? Many Georgian Royal Houses are already extinct or live through morganatic bloodline relation within the Bagration Family and the Gruzinsky family. However with the union of the two families, it becomes all the more easier for the average Georgian to call for the restoration of the monarchy. Therefore the one who would become the monarch who be David Bagration.

    The results of the Georgian Monarchical Referendum was:-

    • Yes to Restore: 64%
    • No to Restore: 32%
    • Invalid: 2%
    As such with an overwhelming majority to restore the Georgian Monarchy, Prince David Bagration has been restored the Georgian Throne as King Constantine II of Georgia. This happened just hours before this is going to be published amidst massive crowds in Tbilisi where the people of the city cheered their new monarch on as he stepped up to the Crown of George XII. The new kingdom is in a festive mood as the Constitutional monarchs of the entire globe, such as Russia, Romania, Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Japan etc congratulate the country on restoring their former monarchy that had been snuffed out two hundred years prior by the Russian Empire.

    1603190503574.png

    Flag of the Kingdom of Georgia.

    ***

    African News

    EGYPT IN CIVIL WAR! WHAT AWAITS THE COUNTRY OF THE NILE?


    March 12th, 2007

    The country of Egypt has been racked with protests and violent riots against the dictatorial government under Hosni Mubarak for months by this point. However our correspondent in Cairo has just contacted us with mind-blowing news coming to you before it hits the mainstream media.

    The country of Egypt is in civil war. Protestors turned into rioters. Rioters turned into dissidents. Dissidents turned into rebels. A group called the Egyptian Army of Liberty of the EAL or جيش الحرية المصري has already started to conduct hit and run attacks on governmental military positions in the country. Many military personnel are said to have defected over to the rebels as well taking up arms against the strongman government currently ruling in Cairo.

    1603190560573.png

    The Flag being used by EAL.

    According to the data that has been presented to us and our correspondent in the region, it seems that Ahmed Shafik is the leader of this so called Egyptian Army of Liberty. Flyers are being distributed quietly by the EAL and its proxies trying to woo the people into their favor. The Egyptian EAL has already taken up a serious amount of gains in the Dalkha Oasis and have already beaten back multiple attempts from the Egyptian military to retake the oasis. The Dalkha Oasis is right next to the town of Mut, and is a critical juncture between the scarce roads in the Egyptian and Libyan deserts that are under the command and jurisdiction of Egypt. Losing Mut and the Dalkha Oasis would mean utter damage to the Egyptian morale and the locale of the area.

    Not only that but President Hosni Mubarak has threatened the EAL with death beyond what they can never imagine and has stated that such insurgents will be crushed decisively by the Egyptian Armed Forces.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, the Egyptian Civil War has begun. Rumors are also spreading amongst the population, without substantiation, that it is the American government who is supporting Hosni and his clique of yes men who are now running the nation of Egypt under martial and dictatorial law. Further news will be given to you when we have received it. Thank you.

    1603190607505.png

    Egyptian Military personnel look at the damage made by the EAL near the Mut Valley Oasis.

    ***

    Mexico Times

    RUSSIA AND MULTIPLE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES SIGN HISTORICAL TRADE DEAL


    March 19th, 2007

    The Russian government and mutlipel latin American countries have announced in the aftermath of the Mexico City Economic Conference that they have signed a massive trade deal and economic deal with the Czardom of Russia. Under the careful foreign policy of Grigory Yavlinsky, the Russian government has expanded its economic influence all throughout the world, and even now this is evident.

    The countries that took part in the Mexico City Economic Conference were the Czardom of Russia, United Mexican States, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. These countries alongside Russia have pledged the following in economic deals with one another in the Treaty of Mexico City:-

    • The creation of a scholarship program for the countries of Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador in universities of Russia on the same basis of the deal given to Chinese, Vietnamese, and Nepalese students in Russia.
    • The grant of Russian education visas on an easy and acceptable platform.
    • The increase of Russian language centers in the Latin American countries who have signed this deal.
    • The creation of a technological cooperation and group between all countries involved.
    • The countries of Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador to lower the tariffs on Russian goods flowing into their country by 3%
    • The Russian government to lower the tariffs for goods coming into Russia through these countries by 2.2%.
    • The creation of a joint Mexico-Russian technological firm supervised by both Mexican and Russian governments and run on private insurance for the development and observation of oil drilling techniques and production abilities, capabilities, and trends in the global market.
    • The aforementioned Latin America countries to use the Eurasian Ruble as a secondary reserve currency.
    • The renewal of Military Bases for Russia in Cuba.
    This massive deal that has been reached between the nation states involved is beneficial for both sides. President Kerry of the United States of America has expressed doubt over the willingness of all the nations involved in this deal to complete it in its full however has stated that economic development was the goal of the United States throughout the globe, and wouldn’t stop the nations from conducting themselves in such a manner. However NATO correspondents have become increasingly skeptical about the increasing Russian interference in Latin America and Africa, and has stated that this new deal could be a new facet for the Russians to worm their way into more influential zones of spheres of interest across the globe, which has led to many hardcore Americans claim the Monroe Doctrine to be used to ‘oust’ Russian influence. Thankfully this seems to be a fringe group, and nonetheless, the rise of Russian influence is worrisome for the Americans, especially when it is right at their doorstep.

    1603190673060.png

    Russian Military personnel in Cuba.

    ***

    Economic Journal.

    RUSSIA ANNOUNCES NEW ENERGY DRIVE and NEW ECONOMIC ACT


    March 25th, 2007

    The Russian government has recently been on the news lately for their new economic deal with several Latin American countries and their economies. Many Americans have had a knee jerk reaction to Russia’s influence in Latin America growing. Internally however it seems that Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky will not be going out without a show. His Chancellorship term ends next year, and he is making the best of it that he can.

    Over the course of the past few months he and his colleagues in the Russian cabinet had formed a group for the planning of the future of the Russian economy on the short term level, and the Russian government has announced that the ‘Russian Economic Act 2007’ which will be in implementation until 2010. This act covers many grounds and services, and these are:-

    • The creation of a National Medical Investment Fund dedicated solely for the creation of a developed investment sector in the medical sector of Russia, in order to develop the Federal Healthcare Service of Russia (FHSR) to higher levels.
    • The creation of a new Monetary Investment Fund and Board or the MIFB which will regulate and supervise the flow of monetary policy within the Russian economy to make sure that the growth of the economy is stable and to make sure that any sort of inflationary period is observed quickly and early.
    • The expansion of the monetary policy of Russia, into a larger monetary model, based on the Chinese and American economic monetary models (partially) in order to incentivize the Russian economy even further.
    • New Insurance incentives have been made public to the Russian public with a new interest rate of 7% and with a threshold percentage of 3%. This in total will make sure that the economy of the nation will continue to make sure that the inflation of the nation will remain relatively low.
    • New incentives to be provided for small scale banking and investment services to be rationalized into larger banking and investment services by merging these groups. These incentives include things like tax breaks, larger interest etc. This will be conducted and done in order to make the market economy remain competitive and to increase innovation in the Russian economy.
    • The investment of $45 Billion into the renewable energy sector will be allocated for the construction of 12 hydropower plants and wind energy plants which will supplant natural gas energy plants that are in old and in need of repair. Once the renewable plants have been finished, these old plants will be shut down, and their lands will either be added to the nearby wildlife preserve after the dismantlement of the factory or it shall be sold to the private company on the market.
    • The increase of governmental balance between protectionism and trade to insure that the economy is better.

    1603190733889.png

    The Russian economy was growing at an extremely healthy rate.

    All of these acts which have already started implementation slowly but surely are going to be extremely lucrative for the Russians in the future. Their new visionary goals for massive monetary policies will ensure that the Russian economy will continue to grow at a massive rate only matched by that of China. The Russian economy is currently growing fast and the Chancellor under which it was achieved, Grigory Yavlinsky, is in no mood to have it end.

    The renewable energy drive is also important to note as it will remove one of the historical Russian industry’s problem of being overly reliant on the energy sector, and it is another step forward for Russia amidst their ongoing ‘Green Revolution’. The Russian government has also recently stated that a few industries in Siberia have been closed down by the Russian government under the offense of producing a massive amount of carbon into the atmosphere which was well above the levels set by the Russian government. In order to offset this loss of economic production as well, the Russian government has pursued this economic plan.

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    A new Russian Hydroelectric Dam in Siberia.

    ***

    Finnish News

    FINNISH GENERAL ELECTIONS OVER. Eero Heinäluoma BECOMES PRIME MINISTER.

    March 31st, 2007

    The Social Democratic Party has pulled ahead of the rest of the parties in the Finnish General Elections and have won the elections. Eero Heinaluoma has thus become the Prime Minister of Finland.

    1603190207965.png

    The new Finnish Prime Minister Eero Heinäluoma

    The results of the 2007 Finnish General Elections were:-

    • Social Democratic: 23.11% or 51 seats won in parliament.
    • National Coalition: 22.26% or 50 seats won in parliament.
    • Center: 21.44% or 45 seats won in parliament.
    • Christian Democrat: 8.82% or 17 seats won in parliament.
    • Left Alliance: 8.46% or 15 seats won in parliament.
    • Green League: 4.86% or 7 seats won in parliament.
    • Swedish Peoples: 4.57% or 9 seats won in parliament.
    • Finns: 4.05% or 5 seats won in parliament
    • Communist Party of Finland: 0.66% or 0 seats won in parliament.

    map.png

    The Finnish Parliament after the 2007 Finnish General Elections.
    ***

    Baltic News

    ESTONIA BETRAYS HER BRETHREN!

    FILES ADMISSION LETTER TO CSTO


    April 7th, 2007

    Ever since the start of the independence of the Baltic States, it seems that Estonia, naturally due to her large Russian minority has decisively swung in favor of Russian influence in her politics and in her policy outlook.

    And this has only solidified. We the Baltic News Press working from Riga must sadly express that our Baltic brother to the north has finally decided to turn to the Russians and have finally filed an admission form to the Russian government for admission into the Collective Security Treaty Organization or the CSTO, which is a Russian lead worldwide military and economic alliance, which consists of Russia itself, a global power, and powerful regional powers like Ukraine, Libya and Iran. The Estonian government has released a press statement yesterday to clarify their position.

    ‘Over the past 9 years the Estonian government has made it clear to the world that we will remain at a policy that will seek to put the past behind us and look towards the future, especially when it comes to Russia. Russia has returned to the world stage as a global power and economic power in her own right, and has only respected the sovereign body of Estonia. 9 years of flourishing trade has made the Estonian government nicknamed the Baltic Tiger, and this is largely attributed to our close economic ties with Russia and the rest of the Eurasian Union and CSTO. For years we have negotiated and bartered, trying to find a permanent solution to the diplomatic dilemma we faced with ourselves and our foreign policy, however it was finally born fruit, and by the end of the month of April, the Republic of Estonia will join the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in both its Economic and Military obligations, and will seek a future even in the Eurasian Union. Let both the Estonian and Russian peoples prosper.’

    This is an astounding news for all the Baltic peoples, especially when our own Latvian government and our neighbor Lithuania petition the European Union for admission into the European Union. The Finnish government has stated in a press statement that they shall respect the sovereign decision of Estonia on this issue and countries such as Germany, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Great Britain have all stated that the decision of the Estonian government and its democratically elected government will be fully accepted by the international community.

    In quite the contrast, our Latvian government, the Lithuanian government, the Polish government and the Hungarian governments have all filed massive amounts of protests aimed at the Estonian government. In a press meeting over the issue, Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky stated:-

    1603190860497.png

    Grigory Yavlinsky's speech on Estonia's accession to the CSTO.

    Perhaps one of the most shameful moments in Russian history is that when we sent troops to the Baltics to protect them from a German invasion in the Second World War, we took advantage of the military situation and annexed the Baltics into the Russian nation. Of course we weren’t making the policies back then, and if we had, such a thing wouldn’t have happened. Consider this the start of reconciliation. We do not need to the same nation to work together, and we shall remain sovereign and all that it entails. Estonia shall remain Estonian and Russia shall remain Russian without any border displacements. However we shall remain the brothers and sisters that we have throughout history. Uralic people like the Estonians and the Eastern Slavic peoples like the Russians have co-existed and allied with one another throughout history and this is only a continuation of that historical alliance of two different worlds and two different realms.”

    1603190370587.png

    CSTO accepting Estonia's Entry into the CSTO.

    This speech has received much acclaim in the international community partially because it acknowledges one of the international laws that were broken by the Soviet Union and also because of the sheer emotion with which the old Chancellor spoke with. The Estonians have argued that their way forward is with Russia, and with the East in the Baltic, where they have remained throughout history, once a part of the Livonian Order, then the Swedish Empire, and finally the Russian Empire. Estonia is independent, however they now remain firmly in the Russian sphere of influence, most sadly for us southern Baltic people. We cannot believe that Estonia has forgotten all that Russia has done to us and is forgiving them. Our government must find a way to accede to NATO, even if the Russians don’t like it, they won’t be able to stop us like they did in 1998, and neither can they stop Lithuania should Lithuania try to accede to NATO.

    ***
     
    Small map update
  • map.png


    This is a small map update

    Light green denotes major railroads built after 1995.
    Brown denotes major roadways or highways built after 1995 (note that the norther you go the more the roads become seasonal roads)
    the blue box denotes major ports that have built after 1995.
    Consider this a small graphic + economic update.
     
    Chapter 37: Afghanistan is Burning! We want to live our lives! Begone!
  • Chapter 37: Afghanistan is Burning! We want to live our lives! Begone!

    ***

    www.eurasiatimes.com

    NATO and Allies announce new drive in Afghanistan to defeat Taliban

    April 10th, 2007

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its allies have announced a new drive forward in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and defeat them once and for all. The Afghan nation has been mired in total warfare ever since the fall of the Afghan Monarchy and the initiation of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The War in Afghanistan for the Soviets and Russians may be over by two decades already, however the war in Afghanistan continues to escalate in scale for NATO and its allies.

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    American troops in Afghanistan.

    Abandoned by the United States in its economic dealings with India to counter Russian influence in the region, the government of Pakistan under Nasir Ali Khan has threatened to close of routes to Afghanistan against the NATO coalition in Afghanistan.

    What you are doing in Afghanistan is nothing short of Murder. Warlords roam the streets in Afghanistan because of your previous funding of them, and now you fight them bringing in chaos to already a chaos ridden country. I say withdraw. Withdraw now when you still have some of your dignity by you. What is needed in Afghanistan right now is for the coalition of Afghan neighbors to intervene collectively as one and restore the previous status quo of the pre-Soviet invasion era in Afghanistan. Pakistan will not tolerate these continued spillovers of the War of Afghanistan into its borders. This is the first and final warning that Pakistan is willing to make.” – Nisar Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan.

    In total contrast to what the Pakistani government is asking the alliance of NATO is thinking of intervening in Afghanistan in an even wider scale. NATO ally Australia, and its Prime Minister John Howards has even already announced that 300 Australian soldiers from the Australian Special Air Service will be deployed in Afghanistan in the anticipation of a stronger general offensive from the Taliban.

    The Eurasian Union Secretary, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has stated in a press conference yesterday after an emergency Eurasian Union Parliamentary meeting that the Eurasian Union and its constituent states of Russia, Ukraine, Moldavia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan would not wish for the Afghan war to spill over into the Central Asian states and that the current situation was not in favor of the western coalition. Tokayev has also stated that ramping up the number and amount of American troops and NATO troops in Afghanistan will be nothing short of ‘disaster’.

    In an attack against this resolution from the Eurasian Union and its constituent states, the French government has attacked the Russian government and the Eurasian Union stating,

    Should we allow Afghanistan to fall back into anarchy then?

    In an astounding move, Crown Prince Ahmad Shah Khan of Afghanistan, the pretender to the now defunct Afghan throne has stated in response,

    Afghanistan wasn’t in anarchy before you came bringing your ideals into a place that has no place for foreign ideals.

    Normally the Crown Prince is a man who shies away from public life, however the man has recently come into spotlight by trying to mediate between the Afghan government, Taliban and NATO. The man has clearly stated that the current situation in Afghanistan cannot be allowed to be escalated even further. The government of Afghanistan has supported the Crown Prince and has stated that the current situation was not in favor of a general NATO offensive.

    The Russian government has also stated that they shall not allow further ‘breaches’ in the airspace of Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. In the past few years a small amount of NATO warplanes and fighter planes have strayed into Turkmen and Tajik skies, however in response to the escalation of hostilities in Afghanistan, Russian Chancellor Yavlinsky has stated in a press conference yesterday “Russia will send more than 100 warplanes divided into 12 squadrons to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Every single breach of the Tajik and Turkmen skies is a breach of their sovereignty and their neutrality. Planes caught in the skies will be forced to land and their pilots detained before being deported back. This escalation will not and cannot stand.”

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    Russian Warplanes in Tajikistan.

    Only the future knows what will happen now.

    ***

    www.economictimes.com

    Russia announces new transportation reform!

    April 14th, 2007

    The Russian government has initiated a new transportation reform within the Czardom of Russia. In the past decade or so the Russian transportation industry has managed to grow immensely due to the relative increase in their economy and the massive economic growth, and as such multiple new railway lines and roadways accompanied by new ports have sprung up across the Russian nation. However by this point, the Russian government is also now stepping headfirst into their first serious transportation reform plan.

    Let us go briefly into the basis and history of the Russian transportation system before going further on the Russian government’s plan, for much of it won’t make sense for men and people who are not informed about Russia’s transportation system.

    Russia has the world’s second largest railway network, behind only the United States of America, with a total track length of 94,157 kilometers as of 2006. 90,000 kilometers of this uses a broad rail gauge of 1,520 mm, while a narrow gauge of 1,067 mm is used in the rest of the railway tracks, most of the latter is mostly found in Sakhalin, Crimea and Kamchatka. Electrified track accounts for around half of the Russian railway network, totaling 46,000 kilometers, however it carries the vast majority of the Russian railway traffic. As of 2006, the Russian railway sector employs around 600,000 people, which is around 1.7% of the entire GDP population, something that is both a boon and curse of the massive Russian landmass. The Russian railway system operates Metro systems in all major Russian cities as well. The Russian railway is also connected to various foreign countries through Gauge breaks in the railway, like Finland (who uses the same gauge standard as Russia), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea.

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    Russian railways metro.

    As of 2006, the Russian nation has 1,200,000 km of roads, of which 1,050,000 are paved roads. Some of these make up the Russian Federal Motorway as well. Russia’s road system is perhaps one of the major sectors in which the government has invested in these past years to create innovation in the economy in a more fluid manner, and it has paid off, as the Russian motorways have become very efficient in their use, and many people working in the service sector are employed in the Russian roadway systems and motorways.

    In light of these, the Russian transportation named the ‘Roadway Act of 2007 proposes the following’:-

    ‘The draft state program of the Transport System Development was submitted by the Ministry of Transport in execution of Clause 2 of Chancellorship Executive Order no. 596 of the long term economic policy of the Czardom.

    The state program was drafted with due consideration for the provisions of the concept of Long-term socioeconomic development of the Russian Czardom to 2020; the transport strategy of 2030; the railway transport development strategy to 2030; the concept for the development of the Airport Network to 2020; and the concept to Overhaul the System for Managing Inland Waterways. These documents set forth the long term priorities of the state transport policy:-

    • Well balanced and cost effective development of the transport infrastructure through increasing the capacity of the transport network, eliminating gaps and bottlenecks, expanding major transport hubs, creating and developing special economic zones.
    • Provide transport support through the comprehensive development of the Russian Far East and Siberia, including the development of railways and roads, which play a key role in the development of these territories, increase air traffic frequency and inland waterway traffic to provide transport support for area which cannot be effectively reached by other means of transport.
    • Create and introduce new transport and logistics technologies for improving the quality of transport services and making them more affordable
    • Renew the air fleet and river going fleet, introduce new generation aircraft and new technology for sea transportation.
    • Ensure the comprehensive safety of the transport system and its sustained operation.
    • Primarily convert the advanced ground, onboard and satellite communications and navigation systems and networks, air traffic observation, and control systems and networks, ensure the cost effective operation of Russia’s air traffic control system under conditions of the estimated increase in nationwide air traffic frequencies.
    The Russian has allocated a massive $100 Billion in project for this multi-year superproject for increasing connectivity of the nation and developing the transport system of the nation even further.

    ***

    www.euronews.com

    Lithuania and Latvia Announce NATO Accession in Response to Estonian CSTO Accession

    April 22nd, 2007

    The two Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia have both announced that their nations will be acceding and joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by the end of the year. This comes a few weeks after Estonia announced that they would accede to the Collective Security Treaty Organization and has come forward as something that was inevitable the moment Tallinn announced that they would formally join the Pro-Russian bloc. The Russian government has been silent on the issue unlike in 1996, when the Russian government threatened to end the extradition of Russian troops from the Baltics back into Russia if they were to pursue their membership of NATO.

    The NATO alliance has expressed their willingness to integrate Lithuania and Latvia into their command structure and the government of Russia seems to have taken this as they aren’t in a position to argue with the accession of Estonia into the CSTO. Chancellor Yavlinsky has decidedly been quiet about the issue.

    However what is worrying however is that Lithuanian Russians, and Latvian Russians have started to riot in their countries protesting against the accession of the Lithuanian and Latvian nations into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This will probably lead to nowhere, however the government are in agreement that Lithuania and Latvia must join NATO to ‘protect’ themselves.

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    Latvia and Lithuania acceded to NATO.

    Meanwhile the Estonian government has responded by simply adding tariff boundaries to the trade between Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania which will make resource trading between the three nations harder to conduct, which some say may have been the end goal of the Estonian government in this enterprise at least.

    ***

    www.africatimes.com

    Russia and Somalia announce the liberation of Southern Somalia

    April 29th, 2007

    With the War in Somalia becoming even more dangerous, as the powers of Ethiopia and Russia intervene in the war alongside Great Britain and the Commonwealth the war has turned deadly. What was once a tribal and religious war now sees Russian and British missiles fall upon enemy targets and British and Russian special operatives move with impunity attacking enemies who are untrained and ill-equipped with ease. Nonetheless, the current situation in Somalia so as it stands is that the British have completely evicted the Jihadists from Somaliland and have stayed put. The British government last week also announced that they had reached a deal with the Russian government wherein the Russian government will provide supplies to the British positions in Somaliland from the Russian naval base and military bases in Sudan, whilst the British will provide aid and relief to Russian troops from the British bases in Oman and the British Indian Ocean Territory, alongside the Australians.

    However as the fighting in the north ceases, the fighting in the south has also ceased as the Russian government and the Somalian government have announced that Jubaland and Puntland have been recovered by the Mogadishu regime, with most of the Al-Qaeda networks and the Warlord networks being destroyed by British and Russian asymmetrical warfare in the region.

    The last holdout in the region is the group and militants and jihadists allied with the local warlords in the region is holding out with the remainder of their forces in the town of Afmadow surrounded on all sides with 500 Russian soldiers, 2000 Somalian soldiers, aided by 30 Russian T-90 Tanks. A small ceasefire has been announced for the exchange of the dead bodies, however the siege will continue from tomorrow, with no real hope for the jihadists and militants surviving the siege of Afmadow. With that out of the way, the governmental control of Puntland and Jubaland has been restored for the first time in years, and the people are rejoicing in the streets of Mogadishu.

    1603438950367.png

    A Somalian soldier patrolling a liberated village in Puntland.

    However the War in Somalia is far from over and is quite likely to continue. The Jihadists and multiple warlords continue to hold a lot of ground and territory in the north and central regions of the Somalian nation. Galkayo remains under the control of the Militants and in the north Bereeda has become home to modern day pirates as they raid civilian ships in the region before being stopped by the Royal Navy and the Imperial Russian Navy.

    The War in Somalia is far from over, however at least they are making progress.

    The British government and the Russian government have also opened talks alongside side the Ethiopian government for trilateral talks in Malta over the future of Somalia once the war ends. Britain is at this point unilaterally backing the future independence of Somaliland after the end of the War in Somalia, however Russia and Ethiopia both are not willing to make any guarantees. Ethiopia has taken the mediating position in this matter and has asked that Somaliland conduct a proper referendum on the issue, and create a ‘two countries, one state’ solution wherein Somaliland goes independence, however both Somalia and Somaliland will continue to have free borders, and will have a shared economy. This by far is the most acceptable solution to the Somalian government should Somaliland go independent, however nothing concrete has been discussed or even thought off as of this moment.

    ***

    www.arabnews.com

    P5 Unite in a mission to Suez as Egyptian Civil War ups the Ante

    May 4th, 2007

    The Egyptian Civil War continues to escalate as the deserts fall under the rule of the Egyptian Army of Liberty against the Hosni Mubarak government, and the government continues to escalate the civil war themselves with the use of tanks and warplanes.

    Nonetheless the Egyptian Civil War has had an extremely negative effect throughout the world due to the interference of rebels in the Suez Canal and emergency Security Council Meetings have been going on for multiple days until yesterday when the Permanent Five nations of the Security Council all agreed, a rarity for sure, for all five nations to intervene in the conflict to secure the Suez Canal. The Resolution which is called the ‘Suez Zone Civil War Act’ has been passed with approval from China, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States. The resolution stipulates that 3000 Russian troops, 2000 French Troops, 1500 British troops, 1000 American troops, and 400 Chinese troops will land in the Suez canal zone under the United Nations Peacekeeping forces and restore order in the Suez Canal and the Suez Canal Zone.

    1603439017396.png

    A US Aircraft carrier is followed by a Royal Navy frigate in the Suez Canal following the P5 intervention in Suez.

    The Egyptian government in response has formally drafted a protest in the United Nations against this resolution, even though they have agreed to let the troops in to secure the Suez Canal. The British and French government have also stated that the British and French Navies will take part in coordinating the canal and its traffic in the future until the Egyptian Civil War has ended.

    Some countries like Libya and Sudan have both expressed notions of total intervention in the Egyptian Civil War, however the Russian government, whose influence over both nations is immense, has clearly yanked them both back stating that such an option is out of the question. The Israeli government has also raised noises over the Gaza strip, however the United Nations has clearly stated that Israel will not oversteps its bounds, however as Israel has brought some of its reservists into active service over the civil war, tensions are rising, as Syria and Lebanon both have mobilized their militaries in response to the Israeli mobilization.

    Many foreign experts say that a New Israeli-Arab War is on the horizon, and should diplomats fail with negotiations between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, then war will be inevitable, especially as Hezbollah and Palestine already start to test Israel’s patience. A new Arab-Israeli war could lead to further destabilization of the Middle East, and the governments have all stated that with rumors abound that Israel has nuclear weapons, then a nuclear scare is not out of the scenario, which would be extremely harmful to the global economy.

    1603439069782.png

    Israel Mobilizes.

    In response to the heightened tensions in the area, the Russian government is pressuring the Israeli government in accordance with Britain and France, surprisingly knowing the new Franco-Russian rivalry, to sign the Treaty of Non-Proliferation, which Israel, with their deliberate ambiguity regarding Nuclear Weapons will not take. The Russian government has also politely threatened to stop all Israeli investments in Russia should Israel not sign the Treaty of Non-Proliferation by the end of June, which has only served to raise tensions.

    ***

    Vignette #1: Dmitry Ivanov

    Dmitry Ivanov was a simple man. He joined the army to get the pension and the insurances for his family. From a small nameless village in Siberia, Dmitry didn’t have much to do except fight, fight and fight. The tough weather conditions of northern Siberia had made him tough, and he could take a lot of things. The war in Darfur and Chad had made him battle hardened. But today he saw something that wanted to make him puke.

    He clenched his assault rifle and squinted his eyes as he saw the condition of the people living in Afmadow through his binoculars. They were as thin as a stick and the militants were kicking them around ordering them to do things as the poor people scurried trying to fulfill the orders.

    Then the whistle came, and the barrage of artillery strikes started. The artillery shells pounded the positions of the Jihadists and the T-90 tanks, sitting atop fixed mounds blasted ammunition round after ammunition round bringing the initial defenses of the town down almost immediately.

    Soon, the commanding officer gave the order to advance, in groups and Dmitry stood up and joined his comrades in assaulting the town. Sneaking in and out of pillars, and killing the jihadists in their way, the Russians made it into the middle of the city alongside the tanks in the roads. By the end of the hour, Dmitry and the rest of the Russian troops had liberated the city ending the war in Jubaland. But Dmitry was on his fours vomiting out the contents of his breakfast as he looked at the image in front of him. The poor inhabitants of the town had tried to resist the militants. Their sinews and muscles were laid down in front of them in ropes like a decorative design as retaliation from the Jihadists.

    Dmitry’s friend and comrade, Makhmud Vasayev, a Chechen was holding him still allowing him to vomit in peace. After a few minutes Dmitry wiped the vomit away and cleaned his face using his water canteen and clothes before he looked at Makhmud and asked “You follow the Islamic faith Makhmud, tell me why do your believers in faith do this?”

    Makhmud shook his head sadly. “This is war Dmitry. Religion has no part in it.”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Religion? The Quran verse 2:190 tells us to be aggressive only when we are defending but to never be aggressive when we are not provoked. Verse 2:256 tells us to never force our religion on others. My friend Dmitry, these militants decorate the town with the sinews of people who defy them, and forcefully convert the unwilling or kill them in the process. These are not Islamists or muslims.” Makhmud said softly. “They haven’t read the Quran, and they do not follow it. Allah, if he is out there, would disapprove massively. These men use the excuse of religion to gain power, become warlords with immense power. They are not muslims or islamists my friend. They are simply opportunists. Do not sully my and my friends who follow our faith with diligence. Islam does not want this, and Allah doesn’t want this.”

    Dmitry nodded as he stood shakily.

    “War……no matter the era it never changes.” Makhmud stated softly. “Antiquity, Medieval, Modern, what is the difference? New weapons, new tactics, all lead to the same thing, human barbarity.”

    Looking at the poor Somali people and their sinews littered all over the town, Dmitry couldn’t help but agree.

    ***
     
    Chapter 38: This War of Mine.
  • Chapter 38: This War of Mine.

    ***

    www.arabtimes.com

    Tensions mount as Bomb Blasts rock Israel

    May 6th, 2007

    With the arab region exploding in tensions regarding Israel once again, the region is in a hotbed of tensions due to the fact that 16 Israelis have been killed in massive bomb blasts conducted by suspected Palestinian agents within Israel, or perhaps Hezbollah as well.

    With the recent accession of Bashar Al-Assad to become the President of Syria in a formality election, as strongman of Syria, he has clearly stated that Syria will not accept Israeli mobilization as it would be a concise threat to the Syrian Golan Heights and the Syrian border. He has stated that if by the end of the week, the Israeli mobilization order is not rescinded, then Syria will mobilize as well.

    The Lebanon government has already mobilized its forces and has stated that a repeat of 2006 will not happen, stating that the sovereignty of Lebanon would not be broken again by the Israeli government.

    Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has stated in a press conference recently that Syrian provocations on the border would not be accepted by Israel and that the situation was escalating only because Syria was making it so.


    1603595966891.png

    Ehud Olmert.

    The international community has called for calm especially as Olmert’s statement of the last year comes into mind when Olmert listed Israel as a nuclear power. Russia is currently threatening economic sanctions against Israel if Israel doesn’t sign the Treaty of Non Proliferation, and abandon its policy of nuclear ambiguity, and the United States has called for negotiations between all sides.

    Massive protests have rocked Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine which all have an anti-Israeli tone with them, as they perceive Israel as the aggressor in this current hotbed of tensions. Russian Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky has clearly stated that the Black Sea will be off limits to Israel should Israel escalate the situation.

    The IDF has already gone into full mobilization, and it is now only a matter of time until the tensions reach its limit, and these tensions spillover into the battlefield.

    ***

    www.economictimes.com

    Russia Announces New Trade Deal with the European Union Amidst Tensions in the Middle East

    May 10th, 2007

    Amidst massive protests and tensions in the Middle East, the Russian government has signed a new trade deal with the European Union, this time in part with Sweden, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as Great Britain and Ireland. The major details of this trade deal are blurry and at best vague, however the terms that have been provided to us show a great deal of new things that have been added to the former trade deals.

    In particular what is a major deal is of course the Finnish, Swedish and Russian governments agreeing to build one railway line from Murmansk to Sodankyla in Finland all the way to Kalix in Sweden, with a gauge break in the Finno-Swedish border. This will bring much more connectivity between the states in the north, and the Russian minister of economics has shown his delight in the deal by stating that the Russian government is open for even more deals. The Norwegian government has also shown interest in the railroad project which has already begun small scale constructions, stating that a rail line from Kalix to Narvik would not be out of the question, even though some doubt the feasibility, considering Norway’s mountainous north.


    1603596015773.png

    A Russian train operating in Finland.

    In the European union itself, Germany has renewed talks with Russia over a gas pipeline from Moscow to Berlin, and the Italian government has also signed a deal with the Russian government which gives more lax tariffs in their trade between one another and the increase scholarship programs with one another. This will of course allow more innovativeness in the economies, and Portugal and Spain have also signed a deal with Russia in this mega trading deal with one another in which they have increased the scale of the trading with one another.

    With Great Britain, the Russians have signed a mutual technological transfer deal with Britain and Russia transferring and buying technology off one another, and with the Irish, an agricultural deal regarding crop rotation and trade has been reached with the Irish.

    The French in particular have reacted aggressively against this deal with the French MPs in the European Parliament boycotting this deal with the Russians, and have stated that the deal was unfeasible and only beneficial to Russia. However the Russian government has declined this allegation, and has stated that the current deal was beneficial to both sides, and would be more than willing to extend it to France as well, which has been rejected, and currently with tensions in the Middle East becoming higher every day, especially considering the Egyptian Civil War, it seems that this trade deal is taking a backseat in response to the tensions and flashpoints.

    ***

    www.spacenews.com

    Russian Space Probe Passes Through Venus

    May 13th, 2007

    A Russian space probe, with the engine Sputnik-7 had been launched in the past months by Russia repeatedly with their new developments in space technology, and recently news has arrived that it has circumvented the planet of Venus.


    1603596120236.png

    Sputnik-7

    Sputnik-7 is a Russian robotic space probe that orbited Venus from 2004 to 2007 studying Venus’s chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. Sputnik-7 was designed by the Russian Applied Physics Laboratory of Moscow. Science operations were managed by the Russian Space Agency. The Sputnik-7 is measured as 1.85 meters tall, 1.42 m wide, and 1.27 m deep. The bus was primarily constructed with four graphite fiber or cyanat ester composite panels that supported the propellant tanks, the large velocity adjust thruster, attitude monitors, and correction thrusters, the antennas, the instrument panel and a large ceramic loth sunshade, measuring 2.5 meters tall and 2 meters wide, for passive thermal control. At launch, the spacecraft weighed approximately 1,100 kilograms with its full load of propellant. The spacecraft’s total cost has been estimated to be $450 million.

    The Russian Aerospace Industries are also not sitting lightly this year as recently the government in tandem with the industries have announced that a new fourth generation Soyuz Space Shuttle will be constructed by the end of the year named the Soyuz TMA. The Soyuz TMA spacecraft will consist of three parts from front to back, which are a spheroid orbital module, a small aerodynamic reentry module and finally a cylindrical service module with solar panels attached. The Soyuz will also be able to carry up to three cosmonauts and provide life support to them for about 30 days The life support system will provide a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere at sea level partial pressures. The atmosphere will be regenerated through KO2 cylinders, which will absorb most of the CO2 and water produced by the crew and regenerates the oxygen, and LIOH cylinders which will absorb the leftover CO2.


    1603596172498.png

    A design work of the Soyuz-TMA.

    The new Soyuz spaceshuttle will consist of the following spacecraft systems:-

    Thermal Control SystemSistema Obespecheniya Teplovogo Rezhima, SOTR - Cистема Обеспечения Теплового Режима, COTP

    Life support systemKompleks Sredstv Obespecheniya Zhiznideyatelnosti, KSOZh - Комплекс Средств Обеспечения Жизнедеятельности, KCOЖ

    Power Supply SystemSistema Elektropitaniya, SEP - Система Электропитания, CЭП

    Communication and Tracking Systems – Rassvet (Dawn) radio communications system, Onboard Measurement System (SBI), Kvant-V spacecraft control, Klyost-M television system, Orbit Radio Tracking (RKO)

    Onboard Complex Control SystemSistema Upravleniya Bortovym Kompleksom, SUBK - Система Управления Бортовым Комплексом, СУБК

    Combined Propulsion SystemKompleksnaya Dvigatelnaya Ustanovka, KDU - Комплексная Двигательная Установка, КДУ

    Chaika-3 Motion Control SystemSistema Upravleniya Dvizheniem, SUD - Cистема Управления Движением, СУД

    Optical/Visual Devices (OVP)- VSK-4 (Vizir Spetsialniy Kosmicheskiy-4 - Визир Специальный Космический-4 ),Night Vision Device (VNUK-K, Visir Nochnogo Upravleniya po Kursu - ВНУK-К, Визир Ночного Управления по Курсу), Docking light, Pilot's Sight (VP-1, Vizir Pilota-1 - ВП-1, Визир Пилота-1), Laser Range Finder (LPR-1, Lazerniy Dalnomer-1 - ЛПР-1, Лазерный Дальномер-1)

    Kurs rendezvous system

    Docking System
    Sistema Stykovki i Vnutrennego Perekhoda, SSVP - Система Стыковки и Внутреннего Перехода, ССВП

    Teleoperator Control ModeTeleoperatorniy Rezhim Upravleniya, TORU - Телеоператорный Режим Управления, ТОРУ

    Entry Actuators SystemSistema Ispolnitelnikh Organov Spuska, SIO-S - Система Исполнительных Органов Спуска, СИО-С

    Landing Aids KitKompleks Sredstv Prizemleniya, KSP - Комплекс Средств Приземления, КСП

    Portable Survival KitNosimiy Avariyniy Zapas, NAZ - Носимый Аварийный Запас, НАЗ

    Soyuz launch escape systemSistema Avariynogo Spaseniya, SAS - Система Аварийного Спасения, САС



    All in all this project is an extremely ambitious one, and only the future will tell us what it holds for space exploration and the future of space technology.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    World Holds Breath as war breaks out in the Middle East….again

    May 20th, 2007

    Last night a report was published in the international community which highlighted the fact that artillery exchanges had taken place between Israel and Syria and Lebanon against each other, with Lebanon and Syria attacking Israel and vice versa. This was met with international condemnation and an offer of mediation, however these talks seem to have led to nowhere as just this morning the Israeli AirForce launched multiple attacks deep into Lebanon and Syria attacking key strategic sights.

    However what is interesting to note is that Russian made S-300 air defense systems downed multiple Israeli planes over Syrian airspace making the Israeli air offensive into Syria a very Pyrrhic victory as Syria has stopped partially in their offensive in the Golan Heights. Israel has denied to release their aerial losses however videos of Syrian S-300s downing Israeli planes is currently going viral in the digital world.


    1603596290517.png

    The S-300 Air Defense System.

    Nonetheless, this attack from the Arabs and Israelis at one another has provoked Hezbollah and the Palestinians to attack as well gunfire has already been exchanged all over the border, and the Hezbollah guerillas have already detonated multiple bombs all over Israel killing many.

    The Russian government and the American governments have spearheaded the efforts for negotiations between all sides, however both sides are unwilling to back down now with all of their national prides at stake. With all three side’s having their militaries mobilized to wartime footing, this war seems to have been the product of decades of tensions.

    In order to analyze the difference in the militaries of the nations, involved, we will have to analyze their militaries.

    The Israeli Defense Forces have a total number of 160,000 active personnel all of whom are mobilized as of this moment. Out of them nearly 100,000 are conscripts taking their conscription training. Israel also has 450,000 in reserve and has mobilized a good portion of them for this conflict that has broken out. The Israeli military budget is about $20 billion, the fifteenth largest in the world, and spends around 5.2% of their GDP in the military. The Israeli military is full of modern weapons, ranging from missiles to tanks, to handguns as well. Their navy is small but powerful and modern as well.

    Lebanon and its armed forces has an active personnel of 86,000 men of which half are conscripts and has a reserve personnel of around 30,000 men of all, all are mobilized by the Lebanese government. The budget is also $2.5 billion dollars and the country spends around 2.5% of their GDP on the military. The Lebanese military is small but it is by no means a weak opponent and can be a ferocious opponent, with modern weapons and veterans from the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon War.

    The Syrian Military has around 142,000 active personnel and 120,000 reserve personnel, of which around two thirds are conscripts. The country spends around $3.8 billion in the military spending around 5% of their GDP on the military. The Syrian military may be dountful in their quality to us atleast, however the weapons used by Syria with aid from Russia and Iran is anything but weak and the military is powerful in its own right.

    ***


    RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES 2007 REPORT

    • ARMY

    1603596369081.png

    The Russian Army.


    Active Personnel: 720,000

    Reserve Personnel: 1 million

    Professional troops: all of active troops, half of reserves.

    Defense Budget: $85 Billion (4.5% of GDP)

    Equipment:-


    • Ratnik
    • MP-443 Gracch (small arm):
    • SR-2 Udav (small arm):
    • PSS Silent pistol (small arm):
    • GSh-18 (small arm):
    • SPS (small arm):
    • OTs-14 Groza (assault rifle):
    • AK-74M (assault rifle):
    • AK-12 (assault rifle):
    • AN-94 (assault rifle):
    • SR-3M (suppressed assault rifle):
    • Dragunov SVD (semi-automatic sniper rifle):
    • SV-98 (bolt action sniper rifle):
    • ASVK-M Kord-M (anti-material rifle):
    • VSS Vintorez (Suppressed sniper rifle):
    • RPK-74 (squad automatic weapon):
    • RPK-74M (squad automatic weapon)
    • PKM (general purpose machine gun):
    • PKP Pecheneg (general purpose machine gun):
    • Kord (heavy machine gun):
    • GP-25/30/34 (Grenade launcher):
    • BS-1 Tishina (Grenade Launcher):
    • AGS-30 (Grenade Launcher):
    • RPG-28:
    • 9M111M Fagot-M (anti-tank guided missile):
    • 9M131 Metis – M/9M131M Metis-M1 (anti-tank missile):
    Artillery:-
    1. 2B9 Vasilek (600 Active, 900 reserve)
    2. 2A18 D-30 (700 Active, 1400 reserve)
    3. 2A29 MT-12 Rapira (600 Active, 1200 reserve)
    4. 2A36 Giatsint-B (750 Active, 1400 Reserve)
    5. 2B16 Nona-K (950 Active, 1500 Reserve)
    6. 2SI Gvozdika (750 Active, 1500 Reserve)
    7. 2S34 Chosta (350 Active, 500 Reserve)
    8. 2S35 Koalitsiya (200 Active, 350 Reserve)
    9. BM-21 Grad (1250 Active, 1800 Reserve)
    10. BM-30 Smerch (100 Active, 80 Reserve)
    11. Tornado-G (400 Active, 600 Reserve)
    12. TOS-1 (220 Active, 300 Reserve)

    Tactical Ballistic Missile System:-
    1. OTR-21 Tochka (600 Active, 800 Reserve)

    Anti-Air Artillery
    1. 9K22 Tunguska (600 Active, 600 Reserve)
    2. 9K35M3 Strela-10M3/MN (820 Active, 600 Reserve)
    3. 9K33 Osa (550 Active, 500 Reserve)
    4. 9K331M Tor-M1/Tor-M1-2U and M2 (300 Active, 400 Reserve)
    5. 2K12 Kub (500 Active, 500 Reserve)

    Tanks:-

    • Black Eagle MBT: 700 Active
    • T-90 MBT: 1400 Active (1300 reserve)
    • T-80 MBT: 700 active (2600 reserve)
    • T-72 MBT: 1200 Active (6200 reserve)


    Infantry Fighting Vehicles:-
    1. BMP-2 (5000 Active, 8000 Reserve)
    2. BMP-1 (2500 Active, 3500 Reserve)



    • NAVY
    1603596431310.png

    The Russian Navy.

    Personnel: 160,000

    Aircraft Carriers:-


    • Shtorm (Will be completed in 2008)
    • Lightning (Will be completed in 2010)
    Battlecruisers:-

    • Peter the Great
    • Catherine the Great
    • Ivan the Great (In Construction)
    Cruisers: 8 (6 in construction)

    Destroyers: 14 (3 in construction)

    Frigates: 16 (3 in construction)

    Corvettes: 70 (10 in construction)

    Landing Ships: 18 (2 in construction)

    Landing Craft: 33 (3 in construction)

    Mine Countermeasure Ship: 48 (3 in construction)

    SSBN subs: 12

    SSGN subs: 12 (3 in construction)

    SSN subs: 15 (1 in construction)

    SSK subs: 27 (5 in construction)


    • Air Force
    1603596485731.png

    The Russian Airforce organization.

    Personnel: 96,000

    MiG-29: 375

    MiG-31: 275

    Su-24: 150

    Su-25: 150

    Su-27: 400

    Su-30: 175

    Su-47: 500

    Tu-22: 180

    Tu-95: 65

    Tu-160: 45

    SM-Boggrom: 200

    ***
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter 39: Pyrrhus of Israel.
  • Chapter 39: Pyrrhus of Israel.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    ISRAEL ANNOUNCES MARTIAL LAW AS SYRIANS PUSH IN GOLAN HEIGHTS and RUSSIA ISSUES ULTIMATUM

    May 22nd, 2007

    For the first time in a good amount of time, the Israeli government has announced martial law in response to the recent Golan Heights Offensive. The Syrian forces in Damascus had been grouped, and spearheaded by Syrian general Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, the Syrians have manage to break the Israeli forward positions and have pushed the Israelis back in the Golan heights. The massive use of combined arms by the Syrians in coordination with artillery exchanges, aerial warfare, tanks, shock damage and infantry attacks have managed to disgruntle the Israeli defenders.

    Nonetheless, the Great Powers till now have refused to aid Israel on the grounds that the Golan Heights is ‘disputed territory’ and not formally Israeli. Another fact also remains is that the Golan Heights in majority recognized as Syrian territory occupied by the Israelis for the past thirty or so years. The Israeli provocation which led to this war, has also not endeared Israel to the United Nations who are seeing this new between Israel and the coalition of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine as an aftereffect of the ongoing Egyptian Civil War.


    1603709124945.png

    The Golan Heights.

    According to our sources on the ground, the Syrians face casualties of around 700 killed in their recent offensive and an unknown number dead. Whilst on the other hand the Israelis have lost smaller amounts of troops, some 380 killed, and 500 wounded, the Israelis have been pushed back in the Golan Heights as the Syrians liberate multiple villages and town in the Heights being welcomed by the Syrian and Circassian population whilst being shunned by the Jewish population.

    The Russian government has announced that they shall send observers to Lebanon and Syria to insure that no hate crimes and war crimes will be conducted by the soldiers of both nations, as somewhat understandably, both countries have a lot of grief to pour onto Israel, which could take a dark turn if the mind wanders. The Russian government has also however sent an ultimatum to Israel, with tacit support from China in the Security Council demanding the following:-

    • State freely on the fact whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons.
    • If Israel does have nuclear weapons, what is the doctrine of the military on the nuclear weapons?
    • If Israel does have nuclear weapons, sign the Treaty of Non-Proliferation.
    The United States has condemned this ultimatum, however the Russian government has stated that this ultimatum will expire on the 31st of May, and until when if Israel does not answer, then the Russian government, and the entirety of CSTO and the Eurasian Union will be embargoing Israel. This is an unprecedented move from the Russians and the members of the CSTO, however the Russian government, aided by the CSTO and the Eurasian Union has resolutely stated that these measures are necessary.

    We are still in the dark. The Levant and the Middle East have been sparks for multiple conflicts in the past seventy years, and with another crisis unfolding before our eyes, we must take precaution. One mistake, and the entire region can go up in nuclear hellfire, and that is something we cannot, as a whole society afford. If Israel has nuclear weapons, then she must come to terms with the responsibilities of having nuclear weapons, or else she doesn’t deserve them. Her keeping it a secret makes the lives of 120 million in the region hazardous, and the economic, political, diplomatic, military and geopolitical fallout of something going off in the region would be absolutely enormous, and something the world will never recover from.” – Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky on the issue.

    1603709190175.png

    Yavlinsky announcing the ultimatum.

    Many countries from around the globe have shown some similarities in their statements as well. The Swedish government in particular has called for calm in the region, and has asked the Israeli government to submit to the Russian ultimatum, and has stated that the ambiguity regarding nuclear weapons would be the worst ambiguity in history. The Chinese government has supported the Russian position, and the Pakistani government has also backed the Russians. The Indian government has declared itself neutral on the issue, however has called for a ceasefire and calm in the region. The Japanese government, surprisingly has supported the Russian ultimatum, stating that the lives of millions were at stake due to this war and the Israeli policy of nuclear ambiguity.

    Israel itself has a lot to lose should the CSTO and the Eurasian Union embargo Israel. Israel depends on the CSTO for around 41% of their imports, and 37% of their export markets, and losing access to all of these lucrative markets would spell a massive recession in Israel, and that is something that many in Israel itself are not willing to endure as the tensions rise.

    Meanwhile in the north, the Lebanese have not made any such gains as their Syrian counterparts, however the Lebanese armed forces have managed to tie down several thousands of Israeli troops, and the small Lebanese navy is managing to use gunboats to conduct hit and run tactics on Israeli naval assets in the region in tandem with the Syrian naval assets in the region.

    In the east, the Iranian government has announced that ‘volunteer regiments’ will be sent to Syria to fight against Israel. This has been condemned by Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and multiple smaller Arab states, however for the time being, no one is really challenging the decision. Even though sending volunteer troops to a conflict is an outdated move, it isn’t exactly illegal, and something that at least on paper, can be done.

    ***

    www.africantimes.com

    Somalia Announces New Offensive alongside Britain and Russia

    May 26th, 2007

    As tensions continue to rocket in the middle east, with Israel fighting against the Syrians and Lebanese, the Somali government has announced that their forces will now concentrate on the north, which is still in majority held by warlords and jihadists. The British and Russians armed forces present in the area will aid the Somalis in a massive offensive into the north which will include around 40,000 Somalian troops, some 2000 Russian troops, and some 2,000 British troops as well. This offensive which has been named, the May Offensive, has already started, and has been touted to be the offensive which will end the war in Somalia once and for all. The British government and Russian government have both announced that they will be aiding the Somalian government in the offensive, and will be conducting special operations in the area.

    The Royal Navy and the Imperial Russian Navy in the area have both announced that they will be conducting massive anti-piracy activities in the region to take care of the pirates that have emerged of the coast of Somalia as a result of the Somalian war.

    The British government, and Prime Minister Tony Blair have stated that a second series of negotiations with Russia and Somalia will take place this time in Naples with the third party being Italy in the proceedings to decide the fate of Somalia in the future after the war.

    The British position is firmly backing the independence of Somaliland after the war, which is something that Russia has until recently been unwilling to consider. However with all sides in Somalia and the Horn of Africa being war weary and tired of the bloodshed, the Russian government has changed its tunes. The Somalian government, and the Ethiopian government have agreed to the Addis Ababa Accords signed last week between the international recognized federal government of Somalia, and Ethiopia which states the following points:-

    • A referendum to be held in the region regarding independence.
    • Should the referendum pass on the notion of independence, then the two statelets to form a ‘two nations, single bloc’ style of governance in which there will be a free border between the nations, and a shared market between the two.
    • The Somalian government will not object to any Somaliland attempt to join the Commonwealth of Nations if Somaliland votes to become independent.
    These accords have been widely acknowledged as a lasting solution in the region, and the Somalian government has backed this accord. The Russian and British governments will be discussing the final issues regarding the accords in Naples next week, in particular, one topic that has come up is Somaliland’s perspective future in the newly active Commonwealth of Nations.

    1603709246713.png

    A Royal Navy Frigate active in the Red Sea attacking Somali pirates.

    ***

    www.spacenews.com

    Russia Announces New Class of Space Launch Vehicles in Development.

    May 30th, 2007

    Whilst the world keeps its eyes glued on the now almost expired Russian ultimatum to Israel, we have our eyes glued to one news that has been issued by the Russian Ministry of Aerospace.

    The Russian government, and the Russian Space Agency alongside the Eurasian Space Agency (ESA) has announced that they are working on a new type of space launch vehicles, partly because of the fact that most of their equipment are old soviet equipment, and also partially because of the newly budding rivalry between Russia and the NASA. This new type of space launch vehicle is being called the Angara Rocket Family.

    1603709296465.png

    Design of the Angara Rocket Family.

    The Angara Rocket Family is a family of space launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow based Khrunichev Royal State Research and Production Space Center. The rockets are to put between 3,800 and 24,500 KG into the low Earth Orbit, and are intended along with the Soyuz-2 variants, to replace several existing launch vehicles. The estimated cost of this family of rockets will be between $90 million to $105 million in cost.

    The specifics of this new type or space launch vehicles are:-

    • Height: 42.7 meters to 64 meters (depends on variant)
    • Width: 2.9 meters to 8.86 meters (depends on variant)
    • Mass: 171,500 kg to 790,000 kg (depends on variant)
    • Stages: 2-3
    • Capacity Payload to LEO mass: 3,800 kg to 24,500 kg
    • Capacity Payload to GTO mass: 5,400 kg to 7,500 kg
    • Associated Rockets: Naro-1
    • Boosters (A5) – URM 1
      • No. of Boosters: 4
      • Engines: 1 RD-191
      • Thrust: 1,920 kN at sea level
      • Total Thrust: 7,680 kN at sea level
      • Specific Impulse: 310.7 seconds at sea level
      • Burn time: 214 seconds
      • Fuel: RP-1/LOX
    • First Stage – URM 1
      • Engines: 1 RD-191
      • Thrust: 1,920 kN at sea level
      • Specific Impulse: 310.7 seconds at sea level
      • Burn Time: 214 seconds to 325 seconds
      • Fuel: RP-1/LOX
    • Second Stage: URM-2
      • Engines: 1 RD-0124A
      • Thrust: 294.3 kN at sea level
      • Specific Impulse: 359 seconds at sea level
      • Burn Time: 424 seconds
      • Fuel: RP-1/LOX
    • Third Stage (A5) – Briz M
      • Engines: 1 S5.98M
      • Thrust: 19.6 kN at sea level
      • Specific Impulse: 325 seconds at sea level
      • Burn time: 3000 seconds
      • Fuel: N2O4/UDMH
    • Third Stage (A5) – KVTK
      • Engines: 1 RD-0146D
      • Thrust: 68.6 kN at sea level
      • Specific Impulse: 463 seconds at sea level
      • Burn time: 1,350 seconds
      • Fuel: LH2/LOX
    The testing and production of the Universal Rocket Modules and the Briz-M upper stages will take place at the Krunichev subsidiary, Production Corporation Polyot in Omsk. The government has reportedly already funneled $1 billion in Angara Production lines. Design and testing of the RD-191 engine was done by NPO Energomash while its mass production will take place at the company Proton-PM in Perm.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    Israel Accedes! Announces Ceasefire in the region!

    June 1st, 2007

    As the Syrians manage to liberate the Golan Heights, and using Lebanese soil, Hezbollah continues to attack Israeli civilian targets, the Israeli government has announced that they have accepted the Russian ultimatum, and has reached a ceasefire agreement with Syria and Lebanon.

    With majority of the Golan Heights under Syrian control having been liberated by the Syrians ending their 40 years long occupation on part of Israel, the government of Israel has finally sent a memorandum to the international community called the ‘Papers of Haifa’.

    The Papers of Haifa have acceded to the Russian ultimatum, and Israel has stated that they do infact have nuclear weapons, with 140 warheads in total with 85 being in active service. The mode of transportation of these nuclear warheads are via land based ICBMs, submarine launched ballistic missiles, and airplane bomber missiles. The Israeli government has finally dropped its nuclear ambiguity policy in the face of the ultimatum and international condemnation, as well as Syrian advances.

    1603709440915.png

    An Israeli Nuclear weapon.

    The United Nations has announced that they shall send observers from the United Nation’s subsidiary agencies to comprehensively list and tabulate the Israeli military capability in regards with nuclear weapons. The Israeli government has also reluctantly agreed to sign the Treaty of Non-Proliferation.

    In recent days, the Israeli government has come under much attack from many in the international community for keeping their nuclear power under wraps, and some, mostly from the Arabs and the Muslims, have even compared it to the North Korean Nuclear Program, stoking massive anti-Muslim riots in Tel Aliv itself. However what is for the first time, the Israeli military has been defeated in battle.

    Not quite so straightforward as that, however it is reality.

    The Syrian armed forces have been undergoing ten years of modernization dating back to 1996 when the Syrians bought several Russian weapons, and accepted Russian supervision in the modernization process. The Lebanese armed forces themselves are already pretty modern and advanced, however small in numerical amounts, thus not being able to push their advantage. Lebanon was defeated in this war by the Israelis during the Battle of Adamit and the Battle of Shlomit, destroying the Lebanese capability of offensive actions. However in comparison to the Syrian theatre of war, the Syrians defeated the Israelis during the Battle of Odem and the Battle of Eliad. However as the Syrians tried to enter Israel proper itself, the Israelis handed a gross defeat to the Syrians at the Battle of Dafna, which saw the Syrians retreat back into the Golan Heights.

    Nonetheless, the Golan heights have been liberated by the Syrians, with only a small strip of land, in Had Nes, and Beit Tsaida Zachi remaining under Israeli occupation. The recent ceasefire has stopped all fighting, however both sides of the frontlines look at each other warily.

    The final agreements regarding peace in the region will be taking place in Benghazi, where the Libyan government has welcomed all sides for negotiations, which somewhat promise to be humiliating for the Israelis.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    Peace of Benghazi signed!

    June 6th, 2007

    After five days of massive amounts of protests, negotiations, and compromises, the Israeli government, and the Syrian government alongside the Lebanese government have signed a peace in their recent short war. This short war saw the Israelis defeated in the Golan Heights, however managing to come out on top in Israeli proper. The war has been costly for all sides, with the Israeli nation loosing 2761 killed, and over 8000 wounded, and the Syrian nation has lost some 4523 killed, and some 10,000 wounded. The Lebanese nation has lost some 3000 killed and 6000 wounded in the fighting. Numbers from Hezbollah and Palestine are not available. The material losses of this war has also been massive. The Israeli government has lost some $3 billion in investments and local economies, and the Syrian government has had to partially default on its loans. The Lebanese nation has come out in the best condition economically from this war.

    The peace of Benghazi outlines the following:-

    • The Syrian government to retake control over the majority of the Golan Heights.
    • The Israeli government to keep the part of the Golan Heights that are still under occupation by Israeli armed forces.
    • The Lebanese government to receive $500 million from the Israeli government as reparations.
    • All sides to agree to a population transfer of displaced peoples from the war.
    • All sides to loan and fund displaced economic investments.
    This peace was mostly brokered by Libya, France and the UK, with both Russia and America eying each other in distrust throughout the entire ordeal. Many have called Syria and Lebanon Russian proxies during this fight and the Israelis have been called American proxies in this fight. Many call this a new proxy war, and the war, now dubbed the ‘May War’ is being labelled as a proxy war. Both America and Russia have disputed this label however.

    1603709049466.png

    Golan Heights left from the red line have been ceded back to Syria.

    As the short two week war comes to an end, in a partial and pyrrhic victory for the Arabs, the outreaches of this ordeal will be far reaching, and only the future will tell us, what waits in the future as a consequence of this.

    ***

    Vignette #2: Alexander Smirnov.

    Alexander Smirnov wasn’t exactly the most stellar spy or member of the FSB. He was a Belarusian and had joined the FSB in 2003 after years of training, yet his capabilities, which were just barely passable enough to join the FSB weren’t looked at comfortably by the higher ups in the government. His fighting was average, stealth was fine, and well average in all other areas. He didn’t really stand out much.

    However, as Alexander deflected a kick from the amierykanski he groaned in slight pain and flipped over behind and skid across the marble floor in this small outpost in Anchorage. The small deck of papers inside Alexander’s coat hung heavily on him as Alexander looked around him to see anyway to get out and kill the American agent in front of him.

    Thank god, only that single agent had seen him steal the data, or else Alexander would have been in deep trouble, and he knew it, he would have to take recourse training after he returned to Russia.

    The American snarled at him pushing his blonde hair back and raised his fist and attacked. Alexander caught the fist with his left hand and twisted it, making the man groan in pain, as Alexander kicked the man in the stomach with his right knee, landing a direct blow. The American tumbled back and moaned in pain slowly getting back up.

    Well, about that Alexander wasn’t going to give up this moment of opportunity. He slowly aided his leg and smacked the American’s face with a kick sending him tumbling back. As the American groaned out in greater pain, Alexander took out his knife, and sat atop the American.

    “Look man.” Alexander stated in English accompanied with a thick Russian accent. “This isn’t personal. But what can you do when your countries are rivals?”

    And his knife slashed down and cut the man’s throat. The man slumped immediately dead. Alexander breathed a sigh of relief and looked to the sides. Thank god they were next to the forest. It would be easy to drag the man into the foliage and let him rot there with the bears coming to him to have breakfast or lunch, or dinner, or whatever.

    And besides, Alexander needed to hurry. He had American military secrets on which he had got his hands on to pass on to the Russian government. Vladivostok, here did Alexander come!

    ***
     
    Chapter 40: Ecology and Politics.
  • Chapter 40: Ecology and Politics.

    ***
    French 2007 Presidential Elections

    wikibox for france.PNG


    ***

    www.bbc.com

    Eurasian Union Sign Aral Sea Restoration Agreement

    June 10th, 2007

    The Aral Sea is perhaps the greatest example of the Soviet Union Flouting the environment and ecology which has resulted in ecological disaster. The once vibrant Aral Sea has been home to one of the worst desertification process in the world, with the once abundant water resource area in the world becoming one of the most deserted areas of the world.


    1603855109598.png

    Aral Sea Degradation.

    Nonetheless, post-Soviet states have tried to revive the sea, though to no or only limited success. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the biggest drivers in the process, however only two countries working together for this, have shown limited options on what the countries can do to make the Aral sea better and many Ecologists have lamented that the end of the Aral sea is near.

    However, in a surprising tone, the Eurasian Union Environment Summit in Kazan, Russia, yesterday announced that the Eurasian Union and its members states had signed a massive environmental deal in which all the states of the Eurasian Union would contribute towards the revitalization of the Aral Sea. The Ukrainian government has pledged $1 Billion, the Russian government has pledged $5 Billion, the Moldavian government has pledged $250 million, the Armenian government has pledged $300 million, the Azeri government has pledged $375 million, the Georgian government has pledged $450 million, the Kazakh government has pledged $500 million, the Uzbek government has pledged $475 million, the Tajik government has pledged $100 million, the Kyrgyz government has pledged $120 million and the Turkmen government has pledged $150 million in what will become, the world’s largest environmental revival plan, in known history. This total project, with a starting budget of nearly $9 billion dollars, will incorporate massive projects to make restore the Aral sea.

    This plan that has been inaugurated is called the ‘Aral Sea Restoration Project’ with Russia funding just over half of the total budget, states clear in its goal to revive around 60% of the Aral Sea by 2020, and all of it by 2035 latest. This plan is extremely ambitious, and will take years to implement, however foreign observers and international experts state that if implemented properly then the ramifications of this would world shaking.

    The Aral Sea Restoration Project has the following objectives with which they intend to restore the Aral Sea:-


    • Improving the quality of irrigation canals so that excess water isn’t used and is preserved in the region.
    • Cotton is the most widespread crop in the region, and as the crop is very water thirsty, is one of the major reasons why the water levels in the sea are drying out. The current Cotton species in the region are to be replaced with BT Cotton, and Organic Cotton and other species of cottons that take up less amount of water by the net harvesting season.
    • This will be done through agricultural grants, loans and subsidies from the Eurasian Agricultural Department and the ministries of finances of all nations involved.
    • Promoting new businesses and enterprises in the region that require non-agricultural economics so as to reduce the amount of cotton farming in the region.
    • Using fewer chemicals in cotton. This will be implemented by imposing harsh tariffs on chemical fertilizers and chemicals related to cottons and by imposing a tax of 25% on it.
    • Creating crop rotation in the region to remove dependence on cotton. Alternatives that will be introduced will be Banana for the Banana stems, Pineapple for the Pineapple leaves, Bamboo, Hemp, Tencel, etc which can all provide the materials for clothes like cotton on the same level of quality for much lesser amount of water consumed.
    • Creating new irrigation networks from the Volga River, Ob River and Irtysh rivers to flow into the Aral Sea, to increase water levels at a sustainable rate, slowly and steadily.
    • Creating a medium sized pipeline from the Caspian Sea into the Aral Sea to pump a steady amount of water so as to raise the level of water in the Aral Sea and to keep the Caspian Sea itself secure.
    • Coordinated planting of trees in the region to reduce the rate of desertification.
    • Improving the quality of soil in the region, by encouraging less herd grazing in the region and by providing alternative sources of grazing for farmers in the region, preferably the fields next to the new irrigation networks. This will again reduce the rate of desertification.
    1603855156344.png

    BT Cotton takes a whole lot less water than normal cotton grown in Central Asia.

    This is a massive project, and if successful, will result in the full revival of the Aral Sea. Observers have stated that the reasons why this is done is economic as well. Much of the agricultural reforms included in the package would only do better for the economies in Central Asia, as the predominant agrarian economy in Central Asia will slowly loose root, and these projects will increase innovativeness in the Russian and Ukrainian economies whilst employing people, and encouraging students to take more technical students, which will in turn increase the professional manpower of the countries.

    Only the future will tell if this project will be successful or not.

    ***

    www.russiatoday.com

    Eurasian Unionist Party Strikes rock the Eurasian Union

    June 13th, 2007

    In recent years, the Eurasian Union has seen unprecedented growth in their economies, in their militaries, and in their cooperation with one another. When it comes down to it, however, whilst the benefits of the Eurasian Union is for all to see, with it basically functioning as the European Union of the East, all member states of the Eurasian Union are independent sovereign states, and Article 19 of the Eurasian Union Constitution explicitly states that on the jurisdiction of a popular referendum, member states of the Eurasian Union can leave the Eurasian Union.

    However under Alexander Lebed, a military man in the Russian Czardom, he has been encouraging a new ideology of Pan-Eurasianism within the members of the Eurasian Union. He has mostly stuck in Russia for this, however in the past years, the Eurasian Unionist Party of Ukraine, the Eurasian Unionist Party of Kazakhstan, the Eurasian Party of Uzbekistan etc have all cropped in member states of the Eurasian Union encouraging pan-Eurasianism. Unlike the European Union, in which the proposed ‘United States of Europe’ has no historical basis for unification, the members of the Eurasian Union do in fact have a historical basis for unification. As ex-members of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, all of these countries have been a part of the same country for centuries. And the older and middle generations, often look back with nostalgia when their nations were united. Being full citizens of a united nation and free borders are very different things, after all, as good as they may be. The younger generation as also been receptive of the idea, as stories from their parents, and the influence of Eurasian Union within day to day things have managed to push many in the younger generation towards this as well. When the Russian government and nation restored the Russian monarchy as well, the monarchism movement in Ukraine and Kazakhstan also cropped up, in which many advocated for a Commonwealth Realm style monarchy with the Romanovs in which the states remain different, however sharing a monarch. These proposals haven’t reached anywhere, despite having some amount of good publicity, however the Eurasian movement also takes this in, creating a semblance of a mixture of Republicanism and Monarchism in a proposed Eurasian Federation, much akin to Indonesia and Malaysia in a sense.


    1603855324462.png

    Alexander Lebed, the fiercest proponent of Eurasian integration.

    In the recent last few days however, people who support the idea of a unified Eurasian state, be it under the monarchy or a republican system, have staged ‘strikes’ and ‘protests’ in favor of a Eurasian Federation in Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Kharkiv, Lviv, Astana, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Yerevan etc. These protests haven’t exactly been widespread, however they haven’t been small enough that they pass through normal gaze. They stand out enough with enough (minority as it may be) support to be seen in the streets.

    On the question of a unified Eurasian Union, the Russian State Duma has rejected the idea unless a referendum is conducted in tandem in all Eurasian States, and the Parliaments of the other Eurasian States have all replied with the same answer. According to Eurasian Union Secretary, Kassym-Jomar Tokayev,

    Eurasian Federation is not a new concept, however it is only now that it is gaining traction. On the issue, well, nothing is certain, and admittedly the Eurasian Union has thought of it at times, however such a scenario requires upending the entire political systems of various nation states to the level it may not even be feasible. However such a program and integration will only happen, and I reiterate through a massive referendum in all member states. We will not push through this agenda without democratic popular support. –Tokayev

    According to Alexander Lebed, the most popular proponent of the ideology, he has stated,

    Eurasian Integration will take a fair amount of time. No doubt about that. However even now as individual states we flourish, however as one, the path for prosperity lays wide open, and together the prospects of our good futures are endless. I can understand that many in the other countries fear Russian demographic domination, however a unified country will be able to counterbalance Russian demographic domination, and with recent trends, with the massive growth in Central Asian population, which makes ours pale in comparison, the people have nothing to fear from Russian demographics. – Lebed.


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    The Flag of the Eurasian Union.

    As medium sized protests encouraging Eurasian Unionism, the countries move forward, however the world watches gluing their eyes to the current situation. Russia, together with the Eurasian Union has returned to the world stage in a time period of a decade, exercising considerable global influence, with Eurasian Economics, and the massive Russian military and armed forces. A United Eurasia would be a force to be reckoned with. However for now, that situation is unlikely.

    ***

    www.politicstoday.com

    Emilia Slabunova wins Yabloko Party Leadership.

    June 19th, 2007


    1603856341115.png

    Note: Please ignore the flag. My Wikibox skills are horrendous.

    Last week, Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky announced that he would not be running for the leadership of the Yabloko Party in Russia, as he would not be eligible due to the laws of Russia, in which a Chancellor could not run for a third time. Becoming the leader of Yabloko would make the Presidential candidate for a third term, which is something that Russian law forbids explicitly.

    In his absence, two contenders rose for the top position in Russia’s most powerful party. Economist, and former Senator for the St. Petersburg Era, Yury Boldyrev and the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, Emilia Slabunova rose to the occasion.


    1603855926377.png

    Emilia Slabunova

    Both candidates have their pros and cons, however the progressive platform on which Slabunova ran on, most notably of which was a female leader, allowed he to gain a 10% lead in front of her opponent. Slabunova’s economic policies that have been presented fall in comparison to the economic policies presented by Boldyrev, however Boldyrev’s social policies themselves fall in comparison to the social policies being presented by Slabunov. Considering that the Russian economy is doing so well, Slabunov’s position won in the end of the day, and she has been elected the leader of the Yabloko Party. She was congratulated by Chancellor Yavlinksy earlier in the day when Yavlinsky called it a historic day for having a woman lead the party.

    ***

    University of Harvard

    June 29th, 2007

    “We are in a state of Cold War. This diplomatic phase we are going through is a second Cold War, make no mistake of it. We believed the Cold War to be over in 1991, and that American Global Dominance had been fulfilled. However with the current state of affairs, we have to say that, that notion is false.” The Professor stated as he looked as he looked at his audience.

    “How did history lead to this situation?” The Professor asked as he looked around and spread his hands. “We must look behind towards the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis. Yeltsin used the military to suspend Parliament and take direct power in terms that was against the Russian constitution. However, vast quantities of the Russian Military protested and moved against Yeltsin himself, and the battles that raged in Moscow after that led to the deaths of around 4000 Russians, civilian and military both. That was perhaps the deathblow to Yeltsin and his popularity. His poor handling of the Chechen Crisis certainly didn’t help. His opponents, in particular Gennady Zyuganov, and Grigory Yavlinsky took this opportune moment to shore up their own support, and in the 1996 Russian Presidential Elections, Grigory Zyuganov became the President of the Russian Federation.”

    “Now, all of these politics aside, we must look at the economical side of things. When the USSR developed its economy and resources, they didn’t do so with the notion that the USSR would fall apart one day. The fall of the USSR was as surprising to the residents of the USSR as it was for us in the west. However that meant that Russian industries, which has subsidiaries and resources allocated in Non-Russian parts of the USSR were all hit hard, and were not able to replace the resources and industries allocated out of the Russian SFR. This of course, created economic problems, and from the 2nd Largest Economy of the world, Russia plunged down to somewhere in the top 20 or so. Grigory Yavlinsky changed this. His economic policies have seen a massive resurgence of Russian economic capability, on the scale that is only being seen in tandem with China. The Russian economy has continued to grow, and it doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. During the National Bolshevik Insurgency, growth dimmed by 3%, however the nation quickly recovered soon enough.”

    “This increased economic stability, also led to peculiar social changes, which in the end we all know restored the Russian monarchy, the second restoration of a monarchy in Europe after Spain and Yugoslavia. This is of course a part of the European Purple Revolution, which saw the monarchies of Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia and Georgia restored. The effects of the Purple Revolution are immense, and even in republican countries where the majority of the population doesn’t support restoration, the minority support for the monarchies became large enough to be visible in society. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy and Portugal all have large Monarchical factions, even though they may never reach the majority cross line. In fact, the American Monarchical Society was established in tandem with the Purple Revolution, which at its height shows a poll in 2005 stating that around 8.7% of the American population would support a monarchy in the nation. With whom as Monarch? Well no one knows that answer, however the fact that support had been there is enough to show us the pull of the changes in the world on a global scale.”


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    American Monarchist Society Logo.

    “Of course, economic and social stability has now led to Russian exercising the CSTO and Eurasian Union to its capabilities, utilizing a mixture of soft power and hard power to gain leverage in the international community. As this continues, Russian power and influence as grows, and I reiterate, the Second Cold War has begun. I shall dive into depth with this even further…….”

    ***
     

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    Chapter 41: Assessment of War.
  • Chapter 41: Assessment of War.

    ***
    Note: This chapter is very text heavy and is 10,000 words long, so bewarned!

    Some Acronyms:-

    LIC - Limited Intensity Conflict
    RMA - Revolution in Military Affairs.
    ***

    Beijing Institute of the People’s Liberation Army (北京解放军学院)
    Document: Classified. Please note that should non-authorized personnel read, this document, it is liable to get you imprisoned for life. Please do not resist. (文件:分类。请注意,如果未经授权的人员阅读此文档,则有可能被判终身监禁。请不要抗拒)



    Chinese Assessment of the 2007 Golan Conflict. (中国对2007年戈兰冲突的评估)


    Introduction
    The 2007 War between Lebanon, Syria, Hezbollah, Palestine and Israel can be traced back to the 2006 Lebanon war in all essentiality. The poor Israeli performance in the war made tensions in the region unable to dissipate as the enemies of the Jewish state continued to plot against the government based in Tel Aliv. The Lebanese people, and government as such also became inflamed by the massive amounts of Lebanese casualties that the IDF had claimed in the process of trying to eliminate Hezbollah, and many in Lebanon called the 2006 war an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty.

    All of this of course leads to another fact. The Egyptian Civil War. Under Hosni Mubarak, the country of Egypt has remained a one man dictatorship without many standing in the way of the government from what they wanted. As such political dissidents have been mysteriously disappearing for years, and the cyber-attacks in Egypt, simply ignited what as already an ember of discontent in Egypt. As the economy plummeted and hundreds of people, some without connection to politics as well, were imprisoned under the government, the country erupted into protests, protests that without being addressed, and with a response that left hundreds dead, and many widowed, the people took up arms against the Egyptian government, and formed the so called Egyptian Army of Liberty, which is now embroiled in a state of civil war with the Egyptian Armed Forces and the Egyptian government.

    This, combined with popular dissatisfaction from the 2006 war, and the mobilization of Israeli forces, for perhaps a pre-emptive strike into the Sinai, which would threaten the Syrian positions, and create a trade flux with Lebanon, both governments warned Israel that mobilization would not be accepted by the powers of large in the area. And of course, as history has shown us, the artillery strikes led to the conflict. This conflict has led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis, Syrians and Lebanese, and an unknown, probably in the thousands again, amount of casualties both in the Hezbollah group and Palestine. The war was a limited success for Syria, as it saw the majority of the Golan Heights reclaimed by the Syrians, which has made President Bashar Al-Assad extremely popular in the Arab region for liberating a portion of his state and nation that has been under unpopular occupation from the Israeli armed forces for the past 40 years or so, which has been subject to much condemnation from many governments and nations throughout the world.

    In this work that has been compiled by our spy intelligence, espionage, and critical analysis of the events, beforehand, we will provide the paramount leader with a clear picture of what happened, and how it happened, and how Israel blundered in the war.

    Syrian Economic Preparations

    Syria wasn’t in particular prepared for a war in the sense that they wanted one. However, Hafeez Al-Assad, was the dictator of Syria, and a man who detested Israel with all of his fiber, according to the data of what we know of the man. Consequently he participated in multiple Arab wars against Israel, only to be defeated in battle, by the Israelis, and have the Golan heights occupied, which is a huge blemish under his reign. However, despite this, the man remained popular with the average Syrian, and the upsurge of Syrian prosperity in terms of economics in the 1980s made his position secure.


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    Hafez Al-Assad.

    However in the late 1980s, as the Eastern Block of the Cold War began to disintegrate, the economic block that Al-Assad had made for himself under the guidance of the Soviet Union, and its satellite states in Eastern Europe. The economic situation worsened when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. This was perhaps the deathblow to the perhaps prosperous economic stability that Syria had managed to gain in the 1980s. Agricultural production declined by 28% in 1992, and the country experienced a lack of proper food. Unemployment ran rampant, and for the moment, Al-Assad himself wasn’t much better as he tried to find a successor for himself after his imminent death.

    However as the position of his son, Bashar Al-Assad became secure, in the latter half of 1996, Hafeez Al-Assad decided that it was perhaps time to turn the Syrian economic position around, and to make gains on the economic position in Syria, and by extension, the military situation as well. In December 1996, Al-Assad contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting bilateral talks between the two nations, which could in theory allow both sides to start trading with each other on a more open platform, and through hard work create a better Syrian economy. In December, 1996, Grigory Yavlisnky had just been able to make sure that the economy of Russia would be able to resist the downfall of the Soviet Economic Structure, and had introduced a market economy in Russia, and back then, the Russian nation wasn’t interested in propping the Syrian nation up. However, still, recognizing the strategic location of Syria, most importantly its, province of Latakia, which could be a gamechanger in Russo geopolitical interests in the eastern Mediterranean. However, Russia was in no condition to fund Syrian economic interests, when its own interests weren’t being covered in the full. So in order to compensate, in late December, 1996, economical supervisors, and economical assistants were sent to Syria on part of Russia, most importantly of whom was Yury Boldyrev, who became the leader of the Russian Economic Mission in Syria.


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    Yury Boldyrev.

    Yury Boldyrev was an astute economist, and alongside Yavlinsky had planned the continued growth of the Russian economy, and he clearly imprinted it in Syria as well. Economic liberalization in Syria had been conducted in 1991, however had been done in a half-hearted manner with the liberalization being more or less an extremely mixed affair that showed no particular success either. Boldyrev and the Russian team managed to analyze the entirety of the liberalization program, and instead offered Hafeez Al-Assad a new economic program that mirrored the Russian economic progress on many levels.

    The 1997 Syrian Economic Plan made by the Russian Economic Mission in Syria consisted of the following measures:-

    1. A governmental supervision body akin to GOSPLAN, to be accountable for investment in and around Syrian companies and the Syrian economy.
    2. The creation of a National Investment Board to make sure that the economic measures taken by the GOSPLAN equivalent in Syria will be accountable, and sufficiently done in an equivalent manner.
    3. The rationalization of multiple smaller companies into larger companies to make sure efficiency is secured in the economy.
    4. An investment plan of around $300 Million to be secured from the Russian Federation.
    5. The creation of special economic zones in the region.
    6. To reduce the rate of poverty from 60% of the population to around 25% in 2005 through massive economic innovation plans, and vocational training to increase productivity in the sector.

    This basic outline and plan was adopted by Hafeez Al-Assad quickly, and the Syrian National Economic Board or the SNEB, quickly became the GOSPLAN equivalent in Syria, and in tandem with the National Investment Board of Syria (NIBS) quickly started to re-direct funds and create a measure of liberalization that had been unable to be fully implemented in 1991.

    This was good for the Syria leader, as a lot of previously wasted efficiency and wasted potential in the Syrian economy was highlighted and brought to the centerpiece, and rationalized Syrian industries gave more economic productivity and manufacturing capability in the nation, which in the end, allowed for greater flow of money into the Syrian coffers.

    However the Syrian economy continued to run into a single problem throughout the remainders of Hafeez Al-Assad’s reigns and tenure as President of Syria, which Boldyrev continued to speak about. The Corruption present in the Syrian Economy made it hard for the Syrian economy to flourish, and whilst 1989 levels had been achieved by the end of 1998, the corruption present in the Syrian economy made it extremely hard for the Syrian economy to cope with the burden of liberalization.

    This basic outline and plan was adopted by Hafeez Al-Assad quickly, and the Syrian National Economic Board or the SNEB, quickly became the GOSPLAN equivalent in Syria, and in tandem with the National Investment Board of Syria (NIBS) quickly started to re-direct funds and create a measure of liberalization that had been unable to be fully implemented in 1991.

    This was good for the Syria leader, as a lot of previously wasted efficiency and wasted potential in the Syrian economy was highlighted and brought to the centerpiece, and rationalized Syrian industries gave more economic productivity and manufacturing capability in the nation, which in the end, allowed for greater flow of money into the Syrian coffers. However the Syrian economy continued to run into a single problem throughout the remainders of Hafeez Al-Assad’s reigns and tenure as President of Syria, which Boldyrev continued to speak about. The Corruption present in the Syrian Economy made it hard for the Syrian economy to flourish, and whilst 1989 levels had been achieved by the end of 1998, the corruption present in the Syrian economy made it extremely hard for the Syrian economy to cope with the burden of liberalization.

    In 1997, the Syrian economy grew at a rate of 3.4%, in 1998 by 3.9%, in 1999 by 4.6% and in 2000 it recorded a high economic growth rate of 7.8%, a huge leap which shows the end progress of the Syrian economy.

    In terms of the military, that portion of the government took a largely back seat in the progress of the Syrian nation under Hafeez Al-Assad during his last years with us, however despite that he didn’t neglect that portion of the government either. The Chechen Conflict in Russia had opened a lot of eyes on the effectiveness of small marauding groups of soldiers, and small bands of units, and the importance of cohesion of units as shown later by the Russian High Command was noted directly by the Syrian High Command, and the improvement that the Russian involvement in the Chechen War had after the scrapping of multiple obsolete weapons was also regarded by the Syrian Armed Forces. In this measure, Hafeez Al-Assad cut around 10% of the Military Budget of the nation, scrapping the obsolete weapons in the Syrian Armed Forces, and using the money needed to maintain them to stimulate the economy. However despite how this may sound, the cut of the budget was in fact a proper incentive for the Syrian Armed Forces to slowly get into a more quality over quantity doctrine in their armed forces, and the smaller amount of troops were trained more rigorously, and Russian training methods were imported from Russia, with supervisors being mostly Russian, and members of the CSTO also sent various military advisors to Syria, in which case led to a rapid professionalization of the Syrian Military.

    When Bashar Al-Assad took command of the Syrian Nation in 2000, he was determined to continue the good progress in the military and the economy, and would continue to seek Russian help and the help of the CSTO in his endeavor. In October, 2000, Bashar Al-Assad opened his nation to full investment from both East and West, which did make his coffers grow full, and the Syrian economy was massively stimulated in this event, and the Russians, and the CSTO became the largest investors in the region, however closely followed by the UK, Italy and Greece in the region. The country also experienced a boom in population growth due to the good fortunes of the country briefly before the economic realities of the economic growth such as women employment made the growth rate slow down to a normal level. Al-Assad’s progressiveness, for an Arab dictator at least, was good for the economy and by the end of 2000, the massive economic growth rate of the nation in that year is attributed to him.


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    Bashar Al-Assad.

    He became involved with the Russian government’s schemes of economical and agricultural development and mirrored the Russian schemes within his own nation, and passed the Syrian Economic Improvement Act of 2001 in the government, which was simply a copy pasted version of the Russian 3 year plans designed for Syrian economic problems. On the large scale, the 2001 Economic Act in Syria was largely successful, and poverty was largely cut down, and the Al-Assad regime enjoyed a lot of popular support in the country. The economy flourished even more, when Russo-Ukrainian investment entered the ports in the Latakia province to make increase the viability and importance of the port, and the ports saw an increase in trade and commerce by 18% by the end of 2001, which was a massive increase.

    Under the act of 2001, the Syrian economy also needed to be diversified from their reliance on petroleum products, and in order to end this dependence, Assad emphasized the service sector, and provided improvised schemes in the private and service sector, which allowed the economy to become even more stimulated, and the subsequent projects that Syria embarked on saw Syrian agriculture flourish as well, and the revenues of the nation started to improve as well. By 2004, when the Economic Act of 2001 had expired in Syria, the Syrian economy had grown by 6.1% in 2001, 5.7% in 2002, 7.1% in 2003 and 6.9% in 2004 making sure that the first four years of Bashar Al-Assad’s rule were economically prosperous for the nation. In early 2004, around 43% of the Syrian population was impoverished, which was much better than the 57% he had inherited in 2000.

    On the ground level, Bashar Al-Assad was more realistic in his economic goals than his father. Al-Assad the younger was more focused on uplifting the Syrian peoples from poverty and increasing the purchasing power parity of the Syrian economy, which even if he had a small economy, would enable him to buy more than what people may expect and be able to afford it. Such goals were realistic, and the fast drop in poverty in Syria is often attributed to Al-Assad’s realistic economic goals. Whom many think was influenced by Grigory Yavlinsky himself and his book The Economics of Day to Day Life which was published in 2001, which provides an extremely insightful insight into the Russian economic recovery from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Bashar Al-Assad also kept realistic goals for himself, and the Syrian economy as well. He sent students on scholarships made by the Syrian government on lucky draws in schools to western schools and universities in Russia to become more learned in the topics, and when the returned to Syria, these students found their starting jobs and occupations within the Syrian government itself where they would put their knowledge to use for the benefit of the economy. In particular, the Russian School of Economics, was a most popular destination for Syrian economical students to pursue, and when they returned, they also created more productivity in the economy by in turn increasing the innovativeness of the economy.

    The transportation sector of the economy was also aggressively attacked by the Syrian government to improve it, and the following goals were kept in place:-

    • Development of underground metro in major urban areas linked to above ground rail in outskirts to ease congestion and smog which was becoming major issue.
    • Expansion of the bus service both urban and rural to provide citizens with proper means of transportation.
    • Development of National Road System connecting major economic and urban centers together. Assist provinces in developing provincial road system connected to national system as well as provide for local transportation needs.
    • Expansion and rationalization of all rail services in country so that it serviced Syria’s needs first and foremost. Distinguish Syrian rail service from foreign rail service by establishing all internal rail service to use Syrian gauge.
    • Expansion of Syrian ports and distinguish internal ports from external ports (import/export) with simplified rules and regulations as opposed to ports dealing with import and export out of country.
    • Ease of transportation of people and goods between various provinces geographically apart.
    • Development of air transportation infrastructure and technology to speed the movement of people and goods between various provinces.
    These large scale transportation projects, which were largely successful on part of the Syrian economy, was mostly funded by Russian aid, International aid, and some amount of loans from the IMF to complete. The Impoverished population of Syria continued to benefit from these aggressive policies of economic uplift on part of Bashar Al-Assad.

    To be sure, Bashar Al-Assad is a dictator. Anyone even entertaining the thoughts of taking the man out of power suddenly dies or disappears without an explanation over the country is absolute and sometimes this can be a hindrance to the development of the economy, however despite this, the country, with aid from CSTO, continues its economic expansion and goodwill. Along with Iran, and Pakistan, Syria became the third Muslim nation in 2004 that was designated as Russia’s preferred investor locations, which aided the continued growth of the overall economy as well. The Syrians also continued to develop their civilian dockyard capabilities and started to make some improvements on their already pre-existing dockyards to make trade with the outside world even easier, and to increase employment. By the start of 2007, the Syrian economy had the following statistics:-

    GDP (nominal): $58 billion
    GDP (PPP): $174 billion
    GDP per capita: $2917
    Unemployment: 12%
    Exports by proportion: Petroleum – 34%, Bituminous distillates – 9%, Agriculture – 15%, minerals – 8%, cotton – 5%, live animals – 5%, products manufactured – 5%, dockyard output – 4%, others – 15%.
    Exports by money: $8 billion
    Imports by money: $7.4 billion
    Revenue: $0.600 billion (sent into reserve funds and poverty alleviation programs)

    In comparison to the dismal state that Syria had been in 1996, the Syrian economy was flourishing in comparison to that and the Purchasing Power of Syria had risen exponentially. Their reducing of their dependence on oil and petroleum products was also massively beneficial to the Syrian economy in terms of competition and production as well as innovation on the long run.

    Syrian Military Preparations?

    The Syrian military in 2000 was a small but professional force, and a one that could hold its own weight in battle, however it was still mainly an ill-equipped force, mainly in the area of the technology. The consequent military reforms passed by the Syrian High Command mirrored the 1999 Russian military reforms, as well as the military reforms being conducted by Iran and Israel at the time. This in turn meant that Syria would have a small, but professional pool of NCOs, and new military academies were funded by the Syrian government. In a measure of reducing unemployment, the Syrian government also encouraged unemployed men to join up in the military to serve the country and unemployed women to join up in non-combat roles in the military, which allowed the military to slowly start to rise again in terms of numbers, and as this was done in an orderly fashion, the Syrian military remained a highly professional force, in terms of training. The Syrian military at this point, only had two real opponents to face, and the Syrian high command recognized Israel, and Islamic militants as the opponents of Syria, and the Syrian military was trained specifically to counter both of these, in mountain warfare (aimed at against the Israelis) and in desert warfare (aimed at the Islamic militants in the region).

    In 2002, the Syrian military was also reorganized into Brigades and a proper divisional form, and the nation was divided into:-

    1. Southern Command (facing Israel and Jordan)
    4th Infantry Division
    1st Armored Division
    6th Territorial Division (reserve)
    9th Territorial Division (reserve)

    2. Northern Command (facing Turkey)
    3rd Armored Division
    7th Infantry Division
    10th Territorial Division (reserve)
    11th Territorial Division (reserve)

    3. Eastern Command (facing Iraq)
    5th Infantry Division
    2nd infantry Division
    3rd Territorial Division (reserve)
    5th Special Operations Brigade

    4. Western Command (facing the eastern Mediterranean)
    1st Marine Brigade
    2nd Marine Brigade
    15th Territorial Division (reserve)

    These reorganizations meant that the former haphazard manner in which the Syrian military was organized into was no more, and it gave clear and concise ideas of what the Syrian military was aiming for. In Damascus itself, 4 more divisions, of which 2 were armored divisions were kept in reserve as well. This reform, with the divisions including multiple brigades, made the Syrian army much more mobile, and capable of working independently on the field.

    In terms of equipment, the Syrian army of 1996 was ill-equipped, and using obsolete weapons. The Syrian army of 2000 was in a much better shape than in 1996, however it was still lacking in many areas. In November 26th, 2000, Syria signed a memorandum and deal with the CSTO in which they sold a vast majority of their old obsolete weapons back to the Russian companies, which had once been Soviet companies which had produced vast amounts of said obsolete weapons, and using the money generated in the selling, plus extra money, the Syrians bought just enough weapons to equip their military with new weapons, modern and state of the art. However as the Arabs showed multiple times in Israel, having the weapon, and using it are two different things, and the Syrian High Command by this point having lost three wars knew this abundantly well, and instead started to use their new weapons in training as well, making the men and soldiers more accustomed to these weapons and making them capable of using these weapons.

    In terms of equipment, by early 2007, the Ground Forces of the Syrian Military had the following weapons on themselves individually:-
    1. Gsh-18 (small arms)
    2. AK-74M (assault rifle)
    3. OSV-96 (sniper)
    4. Sayyad-2 (anti-material rifle)
    5. RPD and RPK (Light Machine Guns)
    6. Kord (general purpose machine gun)
    7. RG-6 Grenade Launcher
    8. MILAN Anti Tank missile
    9. 9M119 Svir Anti Tank Missile
    10. 9M113 Kornet Anti Tank Missile
    11. Toophan Anti Tank Missile

    The Special operatives of the Syrian ground forces were also equipped with the Ratnik system, which was a serious pluspoint for the Syrian army as well. In terms of heavy weapons, the Syrian army knew that they couldn’t match the Turkish one or the Israeli one, and instead chose to 2 armored divisions only in active service with 2 reserve armored divisions. The active armored divisions of the Syrian Armed Forces in early 2007 consisted of 325 tanks each in one single division, making the Syrian army have a total of 650 tanks in active service. Out of the 650 tanks, around 150 of these tanks were T-72 tanks, and around 400 of these tanks were T-90 tanks. The remainder 90 or so tanks were the Black Eagle Main Battle Tank, which had been sold by Russia since the beginning of 2006, and had been scooped up Syria as soon as it was announced.

    Speaking generally, the T-72 tank is a mediocre tank, however the T-90 Tank and the Black Eagle both are excellent tanks that rank among the best in the world, however the Syrian maintenance level of these tanks were suspect. Nonetheless, the tank force of Syria, was mediocre in comparison to Israel or Turkey, however for its size, the Syrians employed a large Tank force that was surprisingly mostly modern. According to the data released, the Syrians managed to gain this by selling the vast majority of the T-62 tanks and T-54 tanks that they had stored up over a vast period of time. Tank exercises in 2005 also show that the Syrian military was largely adept at using the tanks presented to them.


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    Syrian T-90 Tanks.

    The infantry battalions and infantry brigades that Syria uses consists of 5 battalions, of which three are infantry battalions, and one is Recon Battalion and the final one is a signal battalion. The Infantry battalions have been equipped each with one company of anti-tank missiles, which makes one Infantry Brigade itself an anti-tank drive. This was largely done with the massive amounts of Tanks in the command of the IDF and Turkish Army in mind, it seems.

    In terms of the navy, the Syrian navy was perhaps the most looked over portion of the Syrian Armed Forces, however that doesn’t mean that developments did not occur there either. The Syrians have abandoned any thoughts about having a massive surface fleet or anything of the sort, however went with a pragmatic approach. Missile boats are cheap, and not expensive to man or buy, and the Syrians have constructed and bought a good amount of Missile boats as their primary equipment of naval warfare. At the start of the year 2007, the Syrian navy consisted of 26 missile boats, mostly of the Russian Osa class missile boat (17) and the Iranian Tir-II missile boats (9). The Syrian navy aside from these also had 8 patrol boats, and 7 minelayer and minesweeper boats

    Apart from the Army, it was in the air that Syria made a lot of investment into. In 2001, it was decided that the old obsolete Soviet airplanes like the MiG-21 which was the majority of the Syrian Air Force would be demilitarized, deconstructed and sold to military complexes in need of them. Through this manner, the Syrian armed forces generated a good amount of revenue, mostly by selling MiG-21 parts to India, who still used a good portion of them, and began to shop for planes so to speak in Russia and the CSTO. It was decided that the MiG-29 would become the main warplane of the Syrian Airforce, alongside a smaller number of Su-27s. In early 2007, the Syrian Airforce consisted of 122 MiG-29s and 67 Su-27s divided into 15 squadrons of effective strength as their offensive airforce capable of interception and raiding. The Mi-24 was used as the premium attack helicopter and the Syrians had around 87 of them during 2007.


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    A Syrian Su-27 intercepting an Israeli McDonnell Douglas F-15

    However despite this, the Syrians knew that effectively against Turkey or Israel, their air force would not be able to do much other than conduct hit and run attacks on enemy positions, and to counter this, anti-aircraft artillery was bought from Ukraine and Russia which made valleys and passes impenetrable for enemy aircrafts to wander into. In 2006 however Syria got the excuse it needed to buy heavy anti-aircraft weapons. The Lebanon War gave Syria good excuse to buy around 4 S-300s from Russia and get 2 on lease from the Russians as well, who were certainly not pleased with the actions of Israel. Israel who regarded the transfer as simply a business deal in response to their own attack in Lebanon, did not speak up against it, at least not in public. We have hints that the Israeli government may have protested lightly with the Russian government over the telephone however were rebuffed by the Russians.

    It was however in terms of cyber warfare in which Syria would shine. Close military ties with Russia had made Syria acutely aware about the advantages of cyber warfare, and it was quickly adopted by the Syrians. In order to mask the cyber warfare technology that Syria was massing in case of confrontation with Turkey or Israel, or espionage in Syria reveals that Bashar Al-Assad instead created a fake computer firm stationed in Homs, Central Syria, which was then used to train Syrians in the art of cyberwarfare. This part of Syria’s military development would be phenomenal in the 2007 Golan War.

    ***

    Our Analysis of the War Itself.


    On the early morning of May 20th, at around 5 am, the artillery shells on both sides of the border in Golan Heights began to attack each other as shells exploded, and destroyed each other’s position. The Syrians had mobilized the 4th Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division, 5th Infantry Division, 5th Special Operations Brigade, 6th Territorial Division and 9th Territorial Division, most diverted from the Western Sector in a bid to reclaim the Golan Heights.

    Around 400 Syrian Artillery pieces, and 250 Israeli artillery pieces opened fire at each other, and shelled each other’s positions. As this was going on, the Israelis launched an aerial attack into Syria to destroy their aerial capacity on the ground itself. The Israeli 109 Squadron and the 110 Squadrons took flight from the Ramat David Airbase and attacked key strategic assets in Syria, however found themselves under fire from the anti-aircraft artillery and the S-300s. The Syrians had massed their air defenses in positions they knew were key assets, and the operation that the Israelis undertook saw a maximum of 38% overall total losses of warplanes, as claimed by Syria or 27% total losses of the warplanes as claimed by Israel. The reality is probably 33% as claimed by the United Nations. Nonetheless, the loss of a third of the warplanes attacking Syria is a hefty blow that the Syrians were capable in hitting the Israelis with.

    From Hader, the Syrian 8th Infantry Brigade from the 4th Infantry Division attacked the Israeli positions of at the outskirts of the town of Majdal Shams which was guarded by elements of the 91st Territorial Divisions of the Israeli Northern Command. The 8th Brigade was defeated by midday on May 20th, however they were partially successful in probing the Israeli defenses, and made it extremely hard for the Israelis to maneuver as the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the Syrians showed to make a slow flanking maneuver in the north of the town. As the 8th retreated, the 3rd retreated only partially and stayed put, making the 91st stay in position as well.

    The central Merom Golan and Odem Plains in the Golan Heights had been chosen by the Syrians to be the position where the armored tanks would move through, and the 1st Armored Division began to move towards the area. Defending the area was the 36th Armored Division of the Israelis, which consisted of the 7th and 188th Armored Brigades which were extremely well equipped. However in the afternoon of that day, the Syrians sprung their trap. The Syrians at Homs began a massive cyber attack at Israeli lines and communications, and disrupted the electronic systems in Israel hacking into their server and destroying much of their communications, whilst taking as much information as they could. The destruction of communications for the time being made the orders being sent in the region disappear, and the decisions immediately passed to lower officers commanding the Division. However the loss of communication was too complete, and the confused commanders were unable to make a decision quick when the 1st Armored Division spearheaded by the Black Eagles entered Ein Zivan Area and started to attack Israeli positions. The 7th Israeli Armored Brigade was pushed back by the Syrians and the Syrians managed to capture the Avital Mountain Reserve, dangerously isolating the forward positions of the 1st Golani Infantry Brigade, forcing them to abandon the positions at Avital Mountain. The Syrians deployed the 3rd Motorized Brigade to conduct an encirclement of Golani Brigade, however whilst 1 company was successfully encircled by the motorized brigade the rest managed to escape successfully. The small Gideon Battalion was encircled, and however they up a brave fight fighting behind enemy lines, and would continue to do so.

    By the time the Gideon Battalion was encircled, the 36th Armored Division had regrouped, and had started to take independent command after the full implications of the loss of communications had taken place.


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    members of the Gideon Battalion that were encircled.

    However it is here that we become fully aware of the problem that Israel now faced. Many of the IDF’s weaknesses that were exposed during this war was derived from the fact that since late 1987, when the first Intifada broke out in the West Bank and Gaza, policing in the territories became the IDF’s main mission. Fighting a weak opponent for such a long time significantly weakened the IDF’s operational capability. In General Staff discussions during Yaalon’s tenure as Chief of Staff, at least two General Staff members, Major Generals Yishai Bar and Yiftach Ron-Tal, warned that as a result of the preoccupation with missions in the territories, the IDF had lost its maneuverability and capability to fight in mountainous terrain. In a meeting of senior IDF commanders in January 2007, Chief of Staff Dan Halutz admitted that as a result of years of police type operations in the territories, the IDF commanders had become accustomed to thinking that nothing was more important than saving the lives of the troops, even if it came at the expense of accomplishing their missions. Major General Yoram Yair, who came across this phenomenon whilst investigating the 91st Divisions functioning during the Second Lebanon War explained,

    We have not had a war for 24 years now. Commanders from the division level downwards have no war experience. They had a lot of tactical and operational experience in Gaza, Lebanon and Judea as well as Samaria, and were basing their action on that experience. They took it with them to the war, although they should have acted in a totally different manner. We used to say that in the territories a casualty rate of 1:0 was better than 3:1 in other words, that we had better kill only one terrorist instead of three, as long as none were killed on our side. In current security situations, this may be acceptable, as there is always a chance to re-confront terrorists at a latter stage, but in war there is no such chance. The luxury of the current security does not exist, and one should try to achieve battlefield decision as quickly as possible."

    The Battalion commanders in the Gideon Battalion quickly dissembled into bickering with one another, trying to find a way through the battle whilst trying to spare as many of their men as possible, using tactics that would apply to only terrorists and not a professional army. Whilst the IDF soldiers defended with all of their capabilities, their commanders were rendered frozen with indecision on the issue. Finally as the IDF in the Gideon Battalion were unable to properly react to the encirclement, by the evening at 5 pm, the battalion had to surrender or else face complete destruction. It is evident from this action alone that the IDF was not in position to fight a force that had been doing the exact opposite of what the IDF had been doing for the past years.

    We, the generals in the People’s Liberation Army can thus conclude, the many problems in the IDF that the Syrians exploited, like the one written above to win the war, at heavy cost to themselves, however still win the war. The problems present in the IDF which the Syrians exploited, with aid from Russia we believe are as follows:-

    1. The Cult of Technology

    RMA advocates argue that the combination of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; advanced command, control, communications, computers and intelligence and precision strike weapons can promise rapid decisive victory very low casualties, and collateral damage, and strategic results. Airpower proponents believe that it can save enemy lives through ‘use of precision to minimize noncombat deaths and fatalities’. In their LIC thinking, armed forces of highly technological countries often demonstrate naïve belief that their technological edge would enable them to cope effectively with the irregular challenges with low cost. They tend to put their faith in airborne systems, pointing out their qualitative and operational advantage, particularly their superior firepower, higher maneuverability, and greater flexibility comparison with ground counter insurgency forces. Airborne weapons are also believed to reduce the number of casualties inflicted, thereby gaining legitimacy for conducting LICs, which is particularly open to Western societies.
    Only a decade ago Israeli senior commanders held a balanced approach, which reflected prudence regarding the impact of technology. On the one hand, they looked for the best weapons systems to be acquired in order to ensure the technological edge over the Arabs; while on the other hand, they understood the danger of over-reliance on technology at the expense of the human factor.

    In recent years Israeli military thought has been following in the footsteps of the technology oriented RMA, being inspired by such concepts as ‘information dominance’, ‘dominant maneuver’, precision strikes, ‘focused logistics’, etc. The former director of the Research and Development (R&D) directorate at the Ministry of Defense, Major General Isaac Ben-Israel, advocated a technology-focused military doctrine, force design and military buildup for Israel, identifying military quality with high technology capabilities. ‘Here in Israel we have realized that our relative advantage in frustrating terrorist attempts is carried out mainly through technology. Our success rate is very high’, Ben-Israel explained.


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    Shmuel Gordon

    Similar views have been expressed by other Israeli military experts. For example, Shmuel Gordon, an Israeli military analyst, presented technological sophistication as a state-of-the art substitute for Liddell Hart’s indirect approach, which unlike the traditional one is based on firepower rather than maneuver. The IDF’s new operational doctrine that was issued in April 2006, a year before the War, was heavily technology-oriented. Stressing the ascendancy of firepower over maneuver, it focused on achieving battlefield success via a combination of accurate, stand-off fire and limited operations on the ground; the need to affect the enemy’s consciousness; the central role played by airpower; and the diminishing role of large-scale and deep ground maneuvers. Whilst in comparison to 2006, the 2007 military of Israel was less focused on technological supremacy, this problem still remained at large, and was one of the flaws that led to Syrian asymmetric warfare succeeding against them.

    The operational order issued by the General Staff on 19th May 2007, which still referred to the confrontation as a campaign (codenamed ‘Just Reward’), described the upcoming operation as a stand-off, firebased protracted offensive, reflecting the IDF’s technology-based approach. According to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, an IAF officer by origin, believed in obtaining decision via massive firepower, and never changed his mind until the end of the war. Halutz did not deny it, admitting that not preparing for a ground operation had been a mistake, affected by his failure to foresee that the operation would last 11 days instead of the supposed 7.

    Experts have already pointed out that the cult of technology has had a weakening effect on traditional military capabilities such as close combat or combat intelligence. The war seems to have proved that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to destroy a sophisticated guerrilla force by a new type of RMA warfare. Paradoxically, in LICs a massive traditional army is necessary in order to capture the terrain from which guerrilla warfare is conducted. This is also the lesson learned from Iraq.

    Conducting the war over plasma screens may have been compatible with the assumption that on a battlefield where enemy forces are destroyed by stand-off precision fire, optimal command and control is achieved from control centers. At the same time, however, ‘it may have changed the focus of our command’, Halutz admitted. Vilnai’s diagnosis was that what the IDF had lacked in that war was a simple command system. ‘You can run McDonald’s using plasma screens, not a battle’, he said. Major General (res.) Yossi Peled criticized the new state of mind that had permeated the IDF: ‘Something very bad has happened to the IDF in recent years. We have lost the balance between the arms, giving credit to the IAF’s ability to solve any problem. A golden calf was created and named technology; many believed it could win the war.’ Major General (res.) Amiran Levin, too, pointed to the over-reliance on precision technology as one of the major reasons for the IDF’s malfunctioning in the war, second only to the impact of the long occupation of the territories.

    The assumption that due to the IDF’s ‘Ground Forces Digitalization’ program (ZAYAD, in Hebrew), ground forces would have access to much more precise intelligence, proved problematic, whether due to gaps in intelligence (which will always exist), outdated intelligence, or failure to distribute intelligence to troops on the battlefield in general or in real time. Forces often operated blindly, were occasionally surprised by enemy munitions (e.g., advanced Kornet and Fagot anti-tank missiles and the C-802 anti-ship missile), and fell victim to Syrian asymmetric tactics. To the credit of Israeli ground forces it must be said that their transformation into a digital Army has yet to be completed, but doubts regarding the expected effectiveness of this development already exist. Of particular concern was Syria’s success in playing on the technological playground against Israeli electronic warfare. The organization was eavesdropping on Israeli communications networks and mobile telephones, including Israeli soldiers’ conversations from inside Lebanon and the Golan Heights. According to the CSIS report, American electronic warfare (EW) experts came to Israel to find out how Syria’s Iranian and Russian systems neutralized Israeli EW. They were interested in four areas: (1) The Israeli EW systems’ failure to block Syria’s command and communications and the links between the Lebanese and Syrian command and the Syria-based Iranian headquarters; (2) How Iranian technicians helped Syria eavesdrop on Israel’s communications networks and mobile telephones; and (3) How Iranian and Russian EW installed in Lebanese Army and Russian Army coastal radar stations blocked the Barak anti-missile system aboard Israeli warships, allowing Syria and Lebanon to hit the Israeli corvettes. Syria also had advanced night-vision systems, such as thermal imaging night-vision equipment, which made IDF troops movement transparent.

    2. Reliance on Air Power (over-reliance)

    For many years Israeli military doctrine considered the Army to be the backbone of any large-scale military operation, both in conventional/ symmetrical war against regular armies of state players as well as in asymmetrical war against nonstate players with irregular or semiregular forces. Airpower was considered a major factor in creating the necessary conditions for battlefield success, and the structure of the IDF’s force maintained a balance among its components that would guarantee the ability to achieve a variety of objectives and carry out a variety of missions. The ascendancy of firepower on the battlefield, strong post-heroic tendencies, and many years of airpower advocates preaching in favor of investing the bulk of available defense resources in airpower, which has been presented as the wisest thing to do in accordance with the principle of relative advantage, have accounted for the spreading of the flawed belief that airpower could decide the outcome of the war by itself. Although Chief of the Army, Major General Benny Gantz, denied that anyone in Israeli military leadership has really ever held the view that airpower alone can decide, the belief was not merely in the back of their minds. In a discussion at the National Defense College in January 2001 then IAF Chief Dan Halutz argued that:

    Many air operations were generally implemented without a land force, based on a worldview of Western society’s sensitivity to losses. A land force is not sent into action as long as there is an effective alternative. Small forces, in commando format, have been utilized. The IAF is a partner in or decides wars. This obliges us to part with a number of anachronistic assumptions. First of all, that victory equals territory. Victory means achieving the strategic goal and not necessarily territory. I maintain that we also have to part with the concept of a land battle. We have to talk about the integrated battle and about the appropriate force activating it. Victory is a matter of consciousness. Airpower affects the adversary’s consciousness significantly.

    In 2002, still as IAF Chief, Dan Halutz referred to the IAF’s capabilities: ‘Airpower alone can decide, and let alone be the senior partner to such decision.’ In his testimony before the Winograd Commission Halutz reiterated his belief that given the ascendancy of firepower on the battlefield, the Air Force, thanks to its outstanding fire capabilities, could play a dominant role on the modern battlefield. He was so confident that airpower could do the job alone, or almost alone, that he did not provide the government with any real alternative plan until the latest stage of the war.

    Halutz either ignored or was not aware of the fact that battlefield decision at the strategic level has never been achieved from the air, only at the tactical level. Kosovo, which was so often referred to, was a grand-strategic decision, achieved by denying the Serbian society the ability to carry on the war – not that of the Serbian Army, which remained almost unharmed. Lebanon and Syria differed from Kosovo: the Americans would not let Israel target the democratically elected and relatively independent from Syrian influence fearing that Syrian influence and Russian influence would rise in Lebanon as a result, Lebanese government and the Israeli civilian rear, unlike that of the countries attacking Kosovo, was under attack throughout the war, with the IAF unable to stop it. Syria too was different in the sense that as a Russian Ally outside of CSTO, America feared that too much attack would see Russian retaliation or keeping their word on the ultimatum, which American did not wish seen, and as such reigned Israel in, leaving Israel without a proper coherent strategy in regards to air except ‘target key assets’ and the term remained as vague as ever that it wasn’t until pilots were in their planes that they were informed what to target. As a result of the priority given to airpower, army budgets were cut, one of the results being Israeli tanks lacking active protection systems, smoke obscuration equipment, etc.

    As the war progressed, it became evident there was a great disproportion between the unprecedented number of combat sorties carried out by the IAF – 11,897, more than the number of sorties during the 1973 October War (11,223), and during the 1982 First Lebanon War (6,052)78 – and their impact on the achievements during the war and its outcomes, particularly on Syria’s capability to carry on the fight and to keep launching hundreds of rockets onto Israeli territory daily, despite improved hunting tactics applied by the IAF. After four days of war the IAF completed the attack of all the targets on its target list. Thousands of Syrian positions were left unharmed as the IDF’s intelligence did not know their exact location.

    Counterfire by conventional artillery was marginally effective, too. 170,000 artillery shells were fired during the war – more than twice the number fired during the 1973 October War, which was waged against two regular armies, and 10 times the number fired against the Palestinian Liberation Organization during the 1978 Litani operation. This, too, should not have come as a surprise. In February 2004 Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the rocket threat from Lebanon, stressing that diminishing the rocket fire without operating on the ground might take weeks. Head of the Committee, Member of the Knesset Tzachi Hanegbi, informed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz of Yaalon’s briefing.In a discussion convened by Sharon, Chief of Military Intelligence Aharon Ze’eviFarkash warned the political echelon from being misled into believing that a complete solution existed for the problem of the rockets and missiles. In a publication of the Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies former IAF chief and former Deputy Chief of Staff Major General David Ivry wrote that airpower could not be victorious by itself in the war against terrorism.

    It didn’t help the Israeli position that the Syrian Airforce itself, whilst small, was qualitatively on par with the Israelis, and they launched multiple hit and run tactics with the IAF, swooping in, destroying a good portion of their warplanes and then escaping into the cover of the Syrian air defenses, making warplane losses for the Israelis disproportionately higher.

    3. Over-reliance on the notion of diffused warfare.

    Israel has traditionally relied on strong and large ground forces for achieving battlefield success. Increased reliance on airpower, however, was soon accompanied by the cultivation of special units as another expression of a new, ‘small but smart’ military, within the framework of the transformation the IDF was supposed to undergo, that was along similar lines to the US armed forces’ transformation. Instead of capturing territory – the traditional role of ground forces – the special units were expected to operate as small, independent units, in cooperation with the IAF. As a central component of a network centric joint, but ‘defused’ warfare, they were supposed to shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop to near-real time, and create various kinds of ‘effects’.

    The notion of diffused warfare, according to Yedidya Yaari and Haim Assa, is based on the assumption made by many RMA thinkers, that a fundamental shift is taking place from campaigns consisting of horizontal collisions between rival forces, breaking through the opponent’s layers of defense and conducted along distinct lines with distinct starting and end points – to diffused confrontation that takes place, simultaneously, on the entire battlespace, distributing the force’s mass to a multitude of separate pressure points, rather than concentrating it on assumed centers of gravity.

    The cumulative effect of the special units during the War and their contribution to the war effort was very limited. Raids by Israeli commandos in the Baalbek area near the Lebanon–Syria border on 21–22 May, and assaults by special forces units on rocket launchers and command posts were marginally effective, too. Attacks on launchers by airpower were moderately effective inasmuch as they degraded the accuracy of the rocket launchers and pushed them out of the optimal launching zones against Haifa. Thus, downtown Haifa was not hit during the later phase of the conflict, except during the last day (30 May) when Hezbollah and Syria staged an extra effort for this purpose.

    4. The Idea of Control rather than Capture.

    With the increased emphasis on firepower, as opposed to maneuver, new concepts began to permeate Israeli military thought, among them that of ‘control’ – a theoretical concept that until recently was reserved for air and sea contexts where conquering territory is irrelevant. ‘Control’, however, is insufficient for purposes of destroying infrastructure or preventing the launching of missiles and rockets. According to the aforementioned operational plan ‘Country’s Shield’, which was prepared a few years before the outbreak of the war, IDF troops were supposed to refrain from capturing territory in Southern Lebanon and eastern Syria. Instead, they were to ‘take control’ over the area and to destroy the missiles and rockets via precision fire and raids by small units. There is no point in entering Bint Jbeil or any other town or village or running after each rocket and missile, the planners argued. The strategic importance of the town of Bint Jbeil in the central region of Southern Lebanon or anywhere in the Golan notwithstanding, Brigadier General Shuky Shachrur, the Northern Command’s chief of staff, said the Israeli troops never intended to conquer the town or the areas in the Golan and the neutral zone. Rather, he said, their goal was to ‘control the area from outside’ and raid specific targets based on intelligence. ‘We have complete control of the area’, 91st Division commander Brigadier General Gal Hirsch told a Cable News Network correspondent.‘[We can] direct precise fire at every point that is needed and to bring the forces to a situation of minimum risk’, an Israeli Colonel explained the notion of controlling the area. Golan was strongly associated with Syria’s military presence and status in the Levant. Not only was it a point of contention, it is also one of the most important areas in the region.

    As such, it constituted a center of gravity, the defense of which would have been essential for physically harming Syria’s infrastructure in it and demoralizing its fighters and would have provided a boost for the Israeli war effort. ‘Defending the heights in every area has no tactical significance but it does have a symbolic meaning’, Chief of Staff Halutz explained on 26 June why it was necessary to attack the heights. When the IDF eventually managed to defend portions of the heights, however, it did so in a transparent and expected movement, with its troops easily being ambushed and surrounded, and eventually the fighting claimed the lives of some 17 soldiers. The IDF’s retreat from the Heights, a few days later, with the same belief that controlling the area was sufficient, was correctly interpreted by Syria as a great victory for the organization.

    5. Re-organization of the Logistical Situation

    During the mid-1960s the IDF underwent a major logistical reform, which was supposed to support its maneuver-based blitzkrieg-oriented operations. In the new decentralized system the division or the brigade was directly in charge of ‘pushing’ supplies to its own forces along the lines of operation. The motivation to do so was higher, the lines of communications were shorter, and personal acquaintances between the supplies’ providers and the fighting forces made the mission simpler. The system was put to test during the 1967 Six-Day War. The fact that spearhead tank battalions could advance continuously since they were sustained by the supply units that followed in their wake proved the efficiency of this ‘linear integration’ system. With the increased emphasis on firepower as opposed to maneuver since the 1980s, the IDF once again decided to reorganize logistically. The current system, based on modularly structured area logistic units, is meant to allow for the allocation of logistic resources to the combat units in accordance with operational planning and developments on the battlefield in real time, while their modular structure is supposed to provide availability, flexibility, and efficiency.100 In the War, in addition to missing equipment and supplies from depots, as well as old or inadequate equipment, there were also noticeable shortages of food, water and ammunition for units operating in Syria and the Golan Heights with one major reason probably being the centralized nature of the new system.


    1603943253116.png

    a Member of the Syrian Logistics Cell working near Homs.

    It may have improved control over logistical resources, and ‘saved’ personnel and stocks, but it crippled the combat units’ logistical autonomy and went against strategic logic, which is different from non-military logic. ‘We have found ourselves operating without a logistical tail’, complained an IDF field commander. It is unclear whether the new logistic system would have met operational requirements had the war involved large-scale ground maneuvers. Israel also suffered from shortages in smart munitions, having to rely on airlifts from the US during the war. On the other side, Syria’s logistic system managed to provide munitions for the organization’s fighters, enabling it to sustain its war effort. As the CSIS report explains, ‘The lack of a rigid and hierarchical supply system, with a more decentralized system meant that dispersed weapons and supplies – the equivalent of ‘‘feed forward logistics’’ – accumulated over ten years [by Syria] ensured their ability to keep operating in spite of IDF attacks on supply facilities and resupply.’

    6. Reserve Units

    Only two decades ago some three-quarters of Israeli ground forces were comprised of reserve units. The emphasis on airpower and on small high-quality forces, the assumption that the era of traditional ground war is over and that ‘control’ can replace capturing territory, the reliance on the new logistical system to meet operational requirements, the IDF’s emphasis on policing missions in the territories, and budgetary constraints – have in recent years resulted in the creation of two armies within the IDF. There is the regular army, which is more professional, better equipped, and better – although not always sufficiently – trained; and the reserve units, which are less professional, not as well-trained and inadequately equipped. The IDF’s best infantry units hardly trained, and brigades and regiments hardly exercised. Armor and artillery units did not train at all and spent most of their time carrying out policing missions in the territories.

    In the war, three out of the four divisions that were supposed to occupy parts of Lebanon and the Heights were reserve divisions, which were far from being ready for this mission. According to the CSIS report, reservists went to war without proper equipment, including such vital items as night sights for sniper rifles, and were missing basic supplies. Most reserve units required a refresher course in training, and many units complained of the lack of forward area supplies. As a result of these problems, the events of the recent war reopened the debate regarding the structure of the IDF’s forces.

    7. Poor Professionalism in the Officer Corps

    IDF officers have never been ‘intellectual soldiers’, let alone ‘military intellectuals’ – to use Morris Janowitz’s terminology. Instead, they have been ‘practical soldiers’, basing their professional performance on experience, intuition, flexibility, imagination, initiative, and audacity. Military history and military theory have been studied in Israeli military academies and colleges, but were not believed to have any direct practical dividend. This has worked well for many years, to the point of creating the impression that senior IDF commanders were really Liddell Hart’s best pupils, as the great thinker himself said having watched the IDF performance in 1948–49, 1956 and 1967. But, as already pointed out, since 1982 experience in conducting war or large-scale operations has hardly existed, as most of the IDF activity has long been of a policing nature in the territories.

    To make matters worse, in recent years the IDF has undergone a process of superficial intellectualization, the manifestations of which have been a pretentious post-modern approach and a tendency to imitate American military thinking in an absorptive rather than competitive form. One of the outcomes of this process has been a weakening commitment to one of the cornerstones of Israel’s traditional defense doctrine – battlefield decision. According to former Chief of Staff Lieutenant General (res.) Dan Shomron, who investigated the military conduct of the War, had the IDF decided to revert to its traditional doctrine during the war, it would have been impossible, given the depth of the commitment to the new thinking.

    8. Pretentious Post Modern Approach.

    The IDF’s Operational Doctrine Research Institute, which was very influential in the training of the officer corps before the war, believed that delving into non-military post-modern theories would equip senior officers with the tools necessary for dealing with the complex and changing realities of war. According to the Institute’s director Brigadier General (res.) Shimon Naveh, ‘[. . .] We read Christopher Alexander, [. . .] John Forester, and other architects. We are reading Gregory Bateson; we are reading Clifford Geertz. Not myself, but our soldiers, our generals are reflecting on these kinds of materials. We have established a school and developed a curriculum that trains ‘‘operational architects’’.’ In his lectures Naveh was using a diagram resembling a ‘square of opposition’ that plotted a set of logical relationships between certain propositions referring to military and guerrilla operations. Labeled with phrases such as ‘Difference and Repetition – The Dialectics of Structuring and Structure’, ‘Formless Rival Entities’, ‘Fractal Maneuver’, ‘Velocity vs. Rhythms’, ‘The Wahabi War Machine’, ‘Postmodern Anarchists’ and ‘Nomadic Terrorists’, Naveh and his team often referenced the work of Deleuze and Guattari. ‘War machines, according to these philosophers, are polymorphous; diffuse organizations characterized by their capacity for metamorphosis, made up of small groups that split up or merge with one another, depending on contingency and circumstances.’ Classic military thinkers became no more than names, whose sayings were occasionally cited, but whose writings were not read or studied in-depth. Inspired by this institute, IDF officers in military academies and colleges started learning the writings of great architects instead of the writings of the masters of war.

    9. Absorptive Limitation of American Military Thinking

    American military thinking has been received in the IDF enthusiastically with little skepticism, and has affected IDF commanders’ thinking and modus operandi. One major influence pertains to the notion of ‘effects-based operations’ (EBO). Not only is the idea of effects elusive by adopting it IDF senior commanders have distanced themselves from the old but simple notion of centers of gravity, which has united military thinkers for centuries, except for the dilemma where and against what it would be best to concentrate forces or power in order to achieve battlefield decision. One of the lessons learned from an exercise (‘Firestones-9’) carried out two years before the outbreak of the War was that in order to stop the launching of rockets onto Israeli territory it was necessary to affect the enemy’s capabilities rather than its ‘consciousness’. ‘Leverages and effects’ applied against Syria, and many organizations working against Israel proved ineffective in bringing the organization ‘to acknowledge’ its bad condition within a few days. The IDF nevertheless concluded that the ‘leverages and effects’ should merely be improved. The ambiguity of the language used in reference to EBO has been another problem. Major General (res.) Yoram Yair, who investigated the 91st Division’s functioning during the War, found out that using terms like ‘swarmed, multi-dimensional, simultaneous attack’ in orders issued by the division’s commander came at the expense of a simple and straightforward definition of objectives and missions.

    10. The Weakening Commitment to Battlefield

    Another military thinking deficiency pertains to a weakened commitment to battlefield decision on the part of IDF senior commanders in recent years. In October 2004 the IDF’s publishing house issued an edited volume whose title was Low-Intensity Conflict, in which senior military practitioners and researchers analyzed the phenomenon and recommended how to cope with the challenge more effectively. The volume reflects skepticism about the chances of achieving battlefield decision in LICs. Reflective of this new state of mind, which may have disseminated among IDF generals, were also the views expressed by Brigadier General Eyval Gil’adi from the IDF’s Planning Branch in an interview before retiring from service, less than three years before the War, that one would not expect to hear from a professional officer:

    When I started my job, I found in the plans the term, ‘defeating the Palestinians and Arabs.’ I asked myself, what is that nonsense? Whom exactly are we supposed to defeat? What does defeat mean? We tried to think of alternatives to defeating the enemy. Initially I talked about a ‘victory image’, which is merely an appearance. It then became a matter of producing a victory show.

    Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon himself expressed skepticism about the ability to land a decisive blow on an asymmetrical force that was of Syria, in the recent years that Syria had built up its military. Chief of Staff Halutz did not believe that a knockout score was an option in the War or that ‘defeating Syria in proper detail or holding onto Golan’ was achievable. He therefore thought battlefield decision was irrelevant. No wonder that when the War broke out, Chief of Operations Major General Gadi Eisenkot said that defeating Syria in detail was unattainable. ‘The military does not even pretend to achieve battlefield decision’, was Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s impression of the military’s state of mind during a Cabinet meeting held on 28th June.

    In Conclusion:-
    The PLA advises the government to think clearly on the issue. We have noted that Israel went in to the war with an image of near invincibility when in fact they were far from it. They have managed to defend Israel Proper from the Lebanese and the Syrians, however they failed to hold their forward positions in Southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights which has led to this defeat in detail. Extremely forward thinking behavior that has no place on the battlefield, and weak decisions, and unable to cope with Syrian attacks, which came more ferociously than they expected, and Hezbollah, Palestinian and Arab assistance, as well as the ethnic Syrians of the Golan Heights aiding the Syrians as spies, made it perhaps a foregone conclusion who would win the conflict, even if it may have been blind to us during the starting stages of the conflict.

    Many of the problems that Israel faced, we also face, and the PLA would like to submit a memorandum on the reform of the PLA, the PLAN, and the PLAAF with due course of action to the party and the Paramount Leader.

    ***

    Author's Note:-

    Israel's IDF was historically at an all time low from 2006-2009, with all of these problems, and with Russia taking a hardline stance against Terrorism after the Chechen Wars ITTL, the Hezbollah did not fare as successfully as they did in the 2006 Lebanon War, making much of their problems still hidden, which the Syrians exploited ITTL, along with their own economic and military modernization.

    My sources for the chapter are:-

    1. The Israel defense forces in the Second Lebanon War: Why the poor performance? by Avi Kober
    2. Transforming Israel's Security Establishment by Alon Paz
    3. Military Capabilities for Hybrid War Insights from the Israel Defense Forces in Lebanon and Gaza by David E. Johnson
    4. 34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon by Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
    5. War Diary: Lebanon 2006 by Rami Zurayk.

    I have done a lot of research for this so comments would be appreciated.

    ***
     
    Chapter 42: The Environment is Precious God-damn it.
  • Chapter 42: The Environment is Precious God-damn it.

    ***

    www.bbc.com

    Russian Royal Family announces a new heir to the throne as the Queen gives birth to twins!

    July 4th, 2007

    The Russian Queen, the consort of Tsar Mikhail II of Russia, Queen Lioba, has yesterday announced from her room in hospital that she has given birth to twins, with the eldest now becoming the heir to the Russian throne.

    The elder twin, and the crown heir to the Russian throne has been named Alexander, a son, and the younger twin, a girl has been named Princess Anastasia.

    ***
    nepalese election wikibox.PNG

    ***

    www.russiainsight.com

    Russian State Duma and the Federal Assembly pass multiple laws after months of debate and political maneuverings with one another.

    July 7th, 2007

    The Russian government and both houses of the legislature have been debating with each other over multiple laws for a good deal of months by this point, and we have received news that the laws have been approved by a majority of the State Duma and the Federal Assembly as well. We shall list the new laws put into place and their provisions down below.

    1604040075104.png

    Russian Federal Assembly Building.

    • Paycheck Protection Program and Private Healthcare Enhancement Act.
    The major provisions of this act are as follows:-

    • Appropriates about $250 million for the funding of the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides low interest for payroll costs and other expenses to small businesses that are forgivable under certain circumstances. Of that amount, $60 million is for purchasing power parity loans made by small banks, small credit unions, and community financial institutions. Within 6 months, the original appropriation will be raised to $500 million, and the loans will be increased to $120 million.
    • Appropriates around $12 million for emergency economic injury disaster loans.
    • Expands eligibility for emergency economic injury disaster loans to farms and agricultural businesses.
    • Appropriates $750 million for small business administration disaster loans.
    • Appropriates around $1 billion dollars to both the Federal Healthcare Service of Russia (FHSR) and the private health companies of Russia to save health care provider’s expenses or lost revenues regarding diseases.
    This act is total is being used to enhance the healthcare system and welfare system of the Russian nation, and is being used to increase investor confidence in the Russian economy and state. The future will tell us if it has been successful or not.

    • Pensions Act 2007
    The major provisions of this act are:-

    • New powers for the Pensions Regulator to intervene where employers, directors and majority stakeholders were perceived to be avoiding their responsibilities to pension schemes and where employers were insufficiently resourced to support the pension scheme.
    • New notification requirements for transactions of pensions to reduce the number of illegal pensions.
    • The establishment of the Pension Protection Committee and Fund to provide benefits for the pension scheme members had gone into winding up with insufficient resources to fund scheme benefits and no employer to make good the underfunding.
    • The abolition of the minimum funding requirement and its replacement with scheme specific requirements.
    • Modifications of the protections for existing pension scheme benefits and of the requirements for pension schemes to have member nominated trustees.
    This act came into action as citizens launched multiple complaints into the Russian government stating that the pensions of the Russian government were very loose and not very secure. This act will certainly strengthen the pension situation in the Russian country and increase the welfare state in Russia.

    • Green Energy Promotion Act 2007.
    The major provisions of this act are:-

    • Promotion of microgeneration.
    • Creation of proper Green Energy technological firms, both private and government owned to make sure Green energy is worked upon.
    • The allocation of $3 billion from the budget annually to make sure that the green energy is being worked upon.
    This act comes as no real surprise as Russia is currently the frontrunner in the Green Revolution throughout the world, and this act will certainly simply expand upon that role.

    • Road Safety Act 2007.
    The Road Safety Act is an act of the Russian State Duma. The provisions contained in the act are designed to improve the road safety and to help achieve casualty reduction targets. The government’s strategy was set out in the yellow paper of the government’s papers. The aim is to improve road safety and achieve casualty reduction targets of 40% of those killed and seriously wounded and 50% reduction of children in road accidents by 2010. The act creates new criminal offenses of causing death by careless, or inconsiderate driving. This offense was introduced due to public concern about deaths on roads and the minimal sentence allowed under law as it was before the introduction of the act. A person can now be sentenced summarily to 16 months of jail or fine or both or on indictment of 5 years for such acts/ The act also increased the penalty for the use of hand held mobile phone or similar devices whilst driving a car. This act covers Drunk Driving, speeding, driver training, driver fatigue, driver and vehicle licensing and finally motor insurance as well.

    These four acts that have been passed in the Russian State Duma and the Russian federal assembly have been addressed towards social demands, public demands as well as the economy. The nation will move forward, and new acts will come, however these four acts will perhaps take the center stage in the coming recent years.

    ***

    www.timesofarabia.com

    Israel erupts into protests over the government’s failure in Syria and Lebanon.

    July 14th, 2007

    The nation of Israel and its people have experienced massive upheaval after their loss in the 2007 Golan War. The Syrians defeated the Israelis by exploiting their weaknesses and the near invincible image of the Israeli Defense Force has been shattered in its full. The Palestinians become more and more bold in their attacks against Israel, and Hezbollah laughs at Israel and the country is suffering a national humiliation, added to that was the fact that the nation had to bend over to the Russian ultimatum to the government of Israel to admit that the nation did have nuclear weapons.

    israel wikibox.PNG

    Things have to a head in Israel, as the people have started to protest against the government, calling for new elections, and to accept blame for the Israeli loss in the Golan War. It is unsure how the events will unfold, however the current situation doesn’t stand so good for the government. Veterans of the war have also largely turned against the Israeli government and in their poor execution of the war, and their diplomatic situation, which of course leaves much to be desired. Israel is currently diplomatically isolated, and the country suffers from their loss. The government has remained in power, however with their foundations weak, and could break apart any time of the day, the country will remain embroiled in protests for the near future.

    ***
    turkish election wikibox.PNG

    ***

    www.timesofsouthasia.com

    Pakistan Announces New Economic and Military Reforms

    July 23rd, 2007

    The Pakistani government under Prime Minister Nisar Ali Khan has managed to move past much of the dogma of the Pakistani past. However the Pakistani government, whilst still in a much better position than what could have happened, and still enjoys above average prosperity in the nation, however Pakistan still lags behind its enemy India in the region.

    1604040264055.png

    Nisar Ali Khan announcing the reform package.

    Prime Minister Nisar Ali Khan has proposed a new package in the Pakistani legislatures which will bring about major reforms in the Pakistani political arena, which has been regarded as a good move on the part of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s package, which was made with the aid of the Prime Minister’s cabinet includes:-

    • The strengthening of the anti-corruption programs in Pakistan and to peacefully purge corruptive officials in the government.
    • The creation of a new economic body to conduct economic surveys in the country.
    • The allocation of $6 billion towards the construction of new roads in the mountains of Balochistan and the Himalayas to create more transportation networks in the country and to improve the basic status of transportation in the country.
    • The opening of funds and the loosening of investment quotas to invest into the Gwadar Port and to create a general megaport in the opening of the Persian Gulf.
    • The upgrading of the old irrigation system in Pakistan for greater agricultural yields.
    • The creation of new service sectors, mainly in the aforementioned transportation, port and agricultural sectors for greater employment opportunities for the people of Pakistan for greater economic innovation.
    • The allocation of $5 billion in education for Pakistani youths in the sectors they wish to pursue and to stop brain drain of Pakistani youths to western countries.
    In terms of the military, the package includes the following reforms:-

    • The creation of the Army Anti-Corruption Program and the Army Supervision Command which will oversee over the course of the next three years to end the characteristic Pakistani corruption in the army itself.
    • The cutting of excessive funds in the army where it is not needed, and the funneling of these extra freed up funds into military sectors which are required, most especially, Pakistan’s lagging Navy and Cyberwarfare capabilities.
    • The expansion of Pakistani naval dockyards in the region for greater military maneuverability in the naval sector.
    • Conduct a program to see if a Pakistani naval aircraft Carrier.
    • The upgrade of the logistical systems of the Pakistani army.
    • Creating higher standards in the Pakistani Military Academies for higher concentration of professional NCOs, and troops as well.
    This economic and military reform package has been touted to be a gamechanger for Pakistan which will veer the country into a way that is much more economically and military beneficial for the nation. Currently the SAARC nations are looking into these developments in Pakistan with unveiled interests, not the least India, who looks at it with some amount of distrust as well, however Nisar Ali Khan has shown himself to be very unwilling to be a belligerent, even though he is willing to be a militarist, and has stated that the Kashmir dispute will not be solved through war, and has stated that he would not initiate a grandiose mistake like the ones committed in 1999.

    ***

    www.environmentnews.com

    European Heat Wave Passes over Europe. Eurasian Union least hit from the Heat Wave.

    July 26th, 2007

    The European continent has recently experienced a massive heat wave as a result of the climate change currently going on in the atmosphere. The 2007 European Wave affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans. The phenomenon affecting Italy and Turkey on 17 June and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans and Ukraine by the 18th of June. A week later the heat wave has died down. The costs of the heat wave have been estimated to be 2 billion euros. The Adriatic Coast has been subject to massive forest fires, and the Italia agricultural yields along with Spanish agricultural yields have been extremely low as a result of the heat wave.

    The country that came of the least scathed would be Ukraine and the Russian Crimean Peninsula who were affected as well. However due to the massive eco-friendly laws put in place in Russia and the CSTO and Eurasian Union as a whole, the Russian regions and Ukrainian regions experienced only a mild temperature that was only a little hotter than usual. The ecologists of the world have hailed it to be the success of the Russian and Eurasian Green Revolutions that they managed to conduct themselves in such a manner.

    1604040385648.png

    a chart showing the heat wave move north.

    One anonymous ecologist working in the United Nations remarked yesterday, (he wished to keep his name silent),

    The collective efforts of the Eurasian Union for the environment stem from their belief of the fact that they degraded the environment when they were under the Soviet Union. In this case they have acted with prudence, and the recent heat wave proves that their efforts can at least reduce the effects of climate change if it cannot stop it. Nonetheless, they can stop it, and the heat wave was predicted to enter the Caucasian Mountains and the Volga River area as well. It didn’t. The temperature remained the same and the weather remained the same. The Eurasian Green movement has been successful, whilst the rest of Europe has fallen behind. The countries must follow the Eurasian model if we are to weather, pun intended, climate change away.

    The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stated openly that the European Union must follow in the footsteps of the Eurasian Union in terms of green energy and sustainable resources, and has encouraged coordination and cooperation with the Eurasian Union in regards to this. According to her, she has stated,

    Diplomatically we may in time, become enemies, or at least foes on the global stage. However we are all humans, and for the better of earth, we must work together on this issue, if nothing else.

    Many in Western Europe have agreed with her. Most notably, the Italian government, the Spanish government, Portuguese government, Greek government, Bulgarian government, Croatian Government, etc have all voiced their support for closer cooperation with the Eurasian Union in regards to the environment. However the most dogged opponents of this move remain as France, Poland, Romania, and Hungary who all oppose this move. They agree that moves regarding the environment must be conducted, however they blanch at the prospect of working together with the Eurasian government, or more specifically, the Russian government.

    The Turkish government on the other hand, has also stated its willingness to *tentatively* cooperate with the Russian government and the Eurasian government in regards to climate change. This statement is vague and has not been followed up, so we do not know what they mean however.

    1604040466678.png

    Blair Announcing the Commonwealth Green Initiative.

    In regards to Britain, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he and his government will be pursuing a green policy with in tandem with the Commonwealth. The Canadian government, Australian government and New Zealander government have all agreed to work with the United Kingdom in regards to their green and environmental policies, and the other nations of the Commonwealth have also shown interest in it, especially after the European Heat Wave.

    ***

    www.timesofafrica.com

    SOMALIAN WAR ENDS AFTER DECADES OF WARFARE!

    July 31st, 2007

    After decades of fighting, which can be traced back to the proxy wars of the Cold War, the fighting in Somalia has come to an end. The May Offensive that had started in late May has come to end, and while small pockets of militants, and warlords till conduct a guerilla war against the Somali government, the main fighting that has devastated the country has come to an end. The nations surrounding Somalia heave a sigh of relief, as Somalian troops, aided by British, Australian, Kiwi and Canadian troops together with Russian troops eradicate the wars that have plagued the Somalian nation.

    Now all that remains is the question of Somaliland. A referendum will be taking place by the end of next week which will determine the future of Somaliland. The Accords signed between Somalia and Ethiopia will define the future of Somaliland, as the accords do provide a common market, and a free movement border between Somaliland and Somalia should Somaliland vote for independence. The Somaliland politicians have made their position clear that they unanimously support the accords, and that they support the independence. The Somalian government, while it certainly doesn’t wish to lose land, which government does, however has finally ended decades of war, and isn’t particularly interested in extending the war even further. Therefore, they have agreed to back the referendum. The Commonwealth who have been involved in the area have all supported the accords, and even Russia has reluctantly approved the accords, and has stated that they will support the accords.

    ***
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    www.timesofafrica.com.

    SOMALILAND VOTES FOR INDEPENDENCE AS PER THE ACCORDS!
    ***
     

    Attachments

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    Chapter 43: Character Profile #1 – Alexander Lebed.
  • alexander lebed wikibox.png


    Chapter 43: Character Profile #1 – Alexander Lebed.

    ***
    www.wikipedia.com
    ***

    Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ле́бедь; 20 April 1950 – ) was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed fourth behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 11% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yavlinsky administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position.

    He participated in most of Russia's military conflicts in the final decade of the Soviet Union, including the Soviet–Afghan War. From 1988 until 1991, General Lebed served as the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and later became the deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops. The general also played a key role in ending the military phase of the conflict in Moldova between Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan government in 1992, as the commander of the Russian 14th Army. Popular among the army, when he resigned his commission in 1995 to enter politics. Lebed was also regarded as being charismatic by the public, in contrast to other Russian politicians in the 1990s, with polls showing his popularity being ahead of Yeltsin's for some time. As the Secretary of the Security Council in the president's administration after the 1996 election he also led the negotiations that ended the First Chechen War.

    Although Lebed was compared by some Western and Russian analysts to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte, he was considered to be the most popular candidate for the presidential election of 2002 during the first term of President Yavlinsky. After getting elected as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 1998, however, he decided to stay in that position and did not run for president, despite calls for him to do so. Instead as the Eurasian Union as a counterforce to the European Union in the economic arena emerged, he founded the Eurasian Unionist Party calling out for union between all the Eurasian states within the Eurasian Union.

    Early Life and Service.

    Alexander Lebed was born in the Cossack town of Novocherkassk, in the Rostov Oblast, in 1950. In his youth he was not a bad student but preferred boxing and chess. He grew up in poverty. His father was a carpenter who was sentenced to seven years in a Gulag labor camp for arriving late to work twice, and witnessed the Novocherkassk massacre in 1962. During that time he worked at a factory.He was determined to become a paratrooper and joined the Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School in 1969, becoming a cadet platoon and company commander while he was there. In 1982, as an officer of the Soviet Airborne Troops, Lebed became a battalion commander in Afghanistan during the Soviet war there. During his time in Afghanistan, Lebed became popular with the troops under his command. He held this position until 1982 at which point he attended the Frunze Military Academy. Among his duties was being a member of the funeral department during the period of many deaths among the Soviet gerontocracy, including three Soviet rulers.

    In 1988, Lebed became the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division. He and his troops took part in the suppression of uprisings throughout the Soviet Caucasus, in Georgia and Azerbaijan, in which he refused to use brutality to put down the protestors. By 1991, Lebed held the rank of major general and became second in command of the Airborne Troops. During the 1991 coup d'état attempt by Soviet hardliners against the new Russian government, he gained fame by refusing to follow orders to lead his forces against Boris Yeltsin at the Russian White House, contributing to the coup's collapse. It was also during that time that Lebed became a rival of General Pavel Grachev, Airborne Troops commander and future Russian Minister of Defense, due to what Lebed viewed to be his misguided military reforms. Grachev would thus become his main rival. It was reportedly because of Grachev that Lebed found himself deployed to Moldova in 1992, as commander of the 14th Guards Army. There, in the conflict between Russian and Romanian factions, he intervened and used his position to broker a peace agreement, also providing protection to ethnic Russians. Despite this, Lebed remained hostile to the separatist leadership, which he perceived as corrupt and stated that he was "sick and tired of guarding the sleep and safety of crooks." Nonetheless, he remained against President Boris Yeltsin's decision to withdraw most of the 14th Army from Moldova, as he feared it would bring back chaos to the region.

    General Lebed's actions in Moldova increased his popularity among the Russian public, and Russian nationalists in particular. The event, along with his past service record, ensured that Lebed was the most popular military officer in Russia during that time, and by 1994 he was considered to be a favorite candidate for potentially running against Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election. Lebed himself described Yeltsin's performance as a "minus."

    Entry into Politics.

    After catching public attention with his actions in Moldova in 1992, the general came to be perceived as being an honest, antiestablishment patriot who stood against government corruption and wanted to restore order. Lebed was not necessarily in favor of democracy and had a mixed opinion of it, but did praise both Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet—saying that Pinochet was able to revive Chile by "putting the army in first place" because "preserving the army is the basis for preserving the government"—and the French leader Charles de Gaulle. General Lebed ended up joining the centrist, nationalistic political movement known as the Congress of Russian Communities. He retired from the army in 1995 in order to enter politics and won a State Duma seat in December of that year.

    Presidential campaign

    Shortly after winning a seat in the State Duma, Lebed officially launched his long-anticipated campaign for the Russian presidency in the 1996 election.

    Lebed ran as a "law and order" candidate promising to curb both street crime and government corruption, as well as also promising to end the unpopular First Chechen War that had been started by President Yeltsin in 1994. For economic policy he hinted that he supported market reforms that were ongoing at the time, but remained deliberately vague. Due to his populist approach he was compared to Vladimir Zhirinovsky, but lacking the latter's aggressive nationalism. Lebed's style and personal charisma were considered to have been more important to his campaign than his political message itself.

    Up through May, Lebed flirted with the possibility of forming third force coalition with other candidates, however negotiations for this failed.

    In the end however, Lebed gained around 11% of the votes in the first round of the elections, coming behind Yeltsin and Zyuganov. In the end he gave his support to Grigory Yavlinsky and his government in exchange for Yavlinsky giving him a position in the cabinet that would be formed. And true to his presidential promise, Lebed played an important role in bringing an end to the Chechen War, in which he brokered the final peace deal on orders from President Yavlinsky.

    Career in Government.

    Shortly after taking office as chairman of the Security Council, following Yavlinsky's victory against Yeltsin in the July 1996 runoff, Lebed led negotiations with the Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov. They signed agreements in the town of Khasavyurt in Dagestan which ended the First Chechen War in late August 1996.

    In 1998, the general decided to run for governor of the Krasnoyarsk Krai (the second largest region in Russia), wanting to get out of the politics in Moscow after wishing to gain more political experience as he ended up being outmaneuvered by his political enemies. He believed that working outside of European Russia would give him the experience. He ended up winning the election for governor, defeating the incumbent Valery Zubov, despite being a complete outsider. There was speculation that he would run for the presidency in 2002, with Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov being projected as his main opponent at that time. However, in 2002 Lebed decided against running for president because he was satisfied with his position as the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai and later stated that he was fully satisfied with President Yavlinsky. Lebed held this position until 2004 when he did not run again for the governorship and instead returned to Moscow where the third cabinet formed by Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov announced him to become Minister of Emergency Situations.

    In 2003, Lebed also became the founder of the Eurasian Unionist Party in which he propagated and encouraged the unionism and integration of the countries part of the Eurasian Union. In it he has famously stated that such a union will become free, fair and equal to all members, regardless of size or demographics.

    Political Views

    During his time in Moldova, the general called the separatist Transnistrian government as "hooligans" and considered the Moldovan authorities as "fascists." He also called the fellow politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky "the Lord God's monkey."

    Lebed did not consider Ukraine and Belarus to be separate countries from Russia, nor did he consider the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages separate from the Russian. In 1995 he believed both countries would become part of a new state, on a confederal basis with the Russian Federation, at the end of the 20th century. General Lebed was also strongly against the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe initially, but by 1997 had changed his attitude to be more accepting of the idea. However, in March 1997 Lebed stated that he believed its expansion would destabilize the alliance and that it was the result of Cold War thinking, which would cause Russia to become authoritarian in response.

    Despite this in 1999, he acknowledged that Ukrainian and Belarusians were different ethnicities and languages with Russian, and instead amended his previous statements stating that Ukrainian and Belarusian ethnicity and languages were similar and linked extremely close with Russian, but not the same. His confederal stance led him to become a major proponent of Eurasianism, and he is seen as the best military man in Russia.

    His economic views are vague, however he has promised continued economic privatization and a balanced market economy. On social matters, he has stated that his party’s position is the same as that of Yabloko, which is that of a social democracy. Lebed has described himself as a Christian Secularist who supports the monarchical restoration in Russia to ‘unite all the peoples’ and has stated regularly that a balanced Christian secularist market economic nation with a powerful military to back it is the way forward for the Russian nation and Russian peoples.

    ***
     
    Last edited:
    Chapter 44: The Military Comes First as well as the economy.
  • Chapter 44: The Military Comes First as well as the economy.

    ***

    www.militaryjournal.com

    A Review of Russian Military Aviation in the past 6-12 months.

    August 8th, 2007

    The Russian military machine has evolved with its economic might and power as well, and there is no doubt about this fact. However the spotlight of the Russian military is currently being diverted to the Black Eagle Main Battle Tank as well as the in construction Russian Aircraft Carriers, which after being completed will give Russia a full Blue Water Navy after so long. However, whilst this is all being done, Russia is also quietly bringing it’s airforce to high standards as well.

    A few years ago, the SM-Boggrom came into the spotlight due to it being the first fifth generation stealth fighter in the world, and currently Russia has 15 squadrons of this beast of a plane in the air, and has already purchased around 60 extra SM-Boggroms for an extra 5 squadrons which will be delivered to the Russian Airforce by the end of this year. The Russian Stealth Fighter Program remains in the entire world, the most advanced one. However the SM-Boggrom is also expensive, and as such, the Russian aerospace forces are already investing into a cheaper, but still able version of the SM-Boggrom, which has till now been called the PAK-FA project. Yesterday, the Russian Ministry of Defense unveiled the true name of the project. The PAK-FA plane will be called the Sukhoi-57 which will be a cheaper, yet still deadly stealth fighter, which the Russian government will be able to produce at a faster and cheaper rate than the SM-Boggrom, by trading the hitting power of the plane for maneuverability.

    1604370693540.png

    Su-57.

    While most of the information of the Sukhoi-57 is classified by the Russian government, the basic characteristics and specifics of the plane have been released, giving the following information,

    General Characteristic of the Su-57.

    Crew: 1

    Length: 20.1 meters

    Wingspan: 14.1 meters

    Height: 4.74 meters

    Wing Area: 78.8 square meters

    Empty weight: 18,000 kg.

    Gross Weight: 25,000 kg.

    Max Takeoff Weight: 35,000 kg.

    Fuel Capacity: 10,300 kg.

    Powerplant: 2 x Saturn AL-41F1, turbofans with thrust vectoring, 93.1 kN thrust each dry, 147,2 kN with afterburner.

    Maximum Speed: Mach 2 at altitude, and 1.6 Mach at super cruise altitude.

    Range: 3,500 kilometers and 1,500 kilometers at subsonic range.

    Service Ceiling: 20,000 meters

    G limits: +9.0

    Wing Loading: 371 kg/m^2 typical mission weight.

    Thrust/Weight,

    AL-41F1: 1.02

    Armament:-

    Guns: 1 x 30 Gryazev Shipunov GSh-30-1 Autocannon.

    Hardpoints: 12 hardpoints (6 x internal, 6 x external)

    Air to air missiles:-

    4 x RVV-MD

    2 x R-73

    R-37 M

    Air to surface missiles

    4 x Kh-38ME missiles

    Anti-ship missiles

    2 x Kh-35E

    Anti-radiation missiles

    4 x Kh-58 UShKE

    250,550,1500 kg guided bombs

    Anti Tank Drill 500 kg cluster bomb + active homing.

    Avionics:

    Sh-121 multifunctional integrated radio electronic system (MIRES)

    Byelka radar (400 km, 60 tracks with 16 targeted)

    N036-1-01: Frontal X-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar

    N036B-1-01: Cheek X-band AESA radars for increased angular coverage

    N036L-1-01: Slat L-band arrays for IFF

    L402 Himalayas electronic countermeasure suite

    101KS Atoll electro-optical targeting system

    101KS-O: Laser Directional Infrared Counter Measures

    101KS-V: Infra-red search and track

    101KS-U: Ultraviolet missile approach warning system

    101KS-N: advanced stabilised navigation and targeting system

    101KS-N: optional external targeting pod.

    101KS-P: thermal imager for low altitude flying and night landing

    All in all the Su-57 remains a powerful enemy, even though it has given up a lot of the combat power of the SM-Boggrom for speed and maneuver, it is cheaper, and easier to produce, and will start testing by early 2008, and will probably enter service into the Russian Air Force by 2014, by which point, the Su-57 will be a force to be reckoned with.

    In terms of their attack helicopter, the Kamov-52 Alligator has already entered production lines in the Russian industries in Siberia and will start entering service into the Russian Air Force by the end of this year. It is a Russian single-seat attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1999, however due to other economic problems, and economic focuses as well as other military focuses on part of the Russians, it was finally approved in 2005 to enter service with upgraded weaponry. It is being manufactured by the Progress company in Arsenyev. It will be used as a heavily armed scout helicopter. It will also become the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system.

    1604370756922.png

    The K-52

    The general characteristics of this attack helicopter are:-

    Crew: 1

    Length: 16 m (52 ft 6 in)

    Height: 4.93 m (16 ft 2 in)

    Empty weight: 7,700 kg (16,976 lb)

    Gross weight: 9,800 kg (21,605 lb)

    Max takeoff weight: 10,800 kg (23,810 lb)

    Powerplant: 2 × Klimov VK-2500 turboshaft engines, 1,800 kW (2,400 shp) each

    Main rotor diameter: 2× 14.5 m (47 ft 7 in)

    Main rotor area: 330.3 m2 (3,555 sq ft) contra-rotating 3-bladed main rotors

    Performance

    Maximum speed:
    315 km/h (196 mph, 170 kn)

    Cruise speed: 270 km/h (170 mph, 150 kn)

    Never exceed speed: 350 km/h (220 mph, 190 kn)

    Range: 545 km (339 mi, 294 nmi)

    Combat range: 470 km (290 mi, 250 nmi)

    Ferry range: 1,160 km (720 mi, 630 nmi)

    Service ceiling: 5,500 m (18,000 ft)

    Rate of climb: 12 m/s (2,400 ft/min)

    Disk loading: 30 kg/m2 (6.1 lb/sq ft)

    Power/mass: 0.33 kW/kg (0.20 hp/lb)

    Armament

    Guns:
    1× mobile semi-rigid 30 mm Shipunov 2A42 cannon (460 rounds total, dual feeding AP or HE-Frag)

    Hardpoints: 4 (6 on Ka-52) under-wing hardpoints, plus 2 on wingtips for countermeasures or air-to-air missiles with a capacity of 2,000 kg,with provisions to carry combinations of:

    Rockets: 80 × 80 mm S-8 rockets and 20 × 122 mm S-13 rocket,

    Missiles: 2 × APU-6 Missile racks, able to accommodate a total of 12 × 9K121 Vikhr anti-tank missiles, Vympel R-73 (NATO: AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles, Kh-25 semi-active laser guided tactical air-to-ground missiles

    Bombs: 4 × 250 kg (550 lb) bombs or 2 × 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs,

    Other: 23 mm UPK-23-250 gun pods (240 rounds each), 500 L (130 US gal) external fuel tanks. Reportedly, twin Igla light air-to-air missile launchers under each wingtip countermeasure pod (total 4 missiles).

    Two pods on the wingtips with flare and chaff countermeasure dispensers, 4 UV-26 dispensers each (total 32 chaff/flare cartridges in each pod)

    Let us not forget the logistical aspects of any air force either. The air force in modern warfare plays an important role in the logistical operations of a military. As such, the Russian Air Force has recently entered into service the Antonov An-225 Mriya, which is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft. It entered into service in 1998, however in the recent years, the Russian military has taken keen to logistical aspects of their military, a heightened production of the An-225 has been observed by outside observers. In 2005, the Russians around 20 An-225 in service. Today, they have around 61 of these airlift cargo planes in service of the Air Force. This of course creates a lot of mobility for the Russians in transportation of goods, equipment and men throughout the vast expanses of Russia, which will be extremely beneficial in the logistical problems that they face, by virtue of their large size.

    1604370816341.png

    An-225

    On addition to the An-225, Tupoloev has already unveiled the Tu-330 which will enter service in the Russian Airforce in 2009, which will add another dimension of modern cargo planes into the Russian Air Force. The Tu-330 is to have a swept high-mounted wing design with two high-bypass ratio PS-90A engines mounted below the wings. An optional powerplant system has also been proposed, using NK-93 engines that can operate on LNG (liquefied natural gas) fuel. The aircraft was also designed for commonality with the Tu-204/Tu-214 civilian airliner series, in order to simplify production and minimize costs of manufacturing, maintenance and parts, which will make it easier for Russian production lines to produce the Tu-330 on a faster basis than normal.

    1604370860297.png

    The Tu-330 model.

    In addition to the above, the Russians have also been investing into the unmanned aerial vehicles en masse, and have announced that their first UAV will enter service into the Russian Air Force by the end of 2008. This UAV has been named the Orion. The Orion will carry four guided bombs or four missiles and will have a maximum payload of 200 kg. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, it will have a maximum altitude of 7.5 kilometers, maximum flight duration of 24 hours and a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

    1604370903624.png

    Orion UAV.

    All in all, the Russian Air Force is evolving. The introduction of a new stealth fighter, that can worryingly be produced on a larger scale than the Boggrom, and a new attack helicopter that is more modern than the previous Russian attack helicopters, as well as the advent of UAVs along with the Russian’s elevating their logistical capability in the air, the Russians are not taking their development in the air lightly. Only time will tell, how the west will respond, beyond what they have already done.

    ***

    www.economicforum.com

    American Mortgage Economic Crisis enters Russia!

    August 12th, 2007

    The American Mortgage Crisis which had slowly extended itself to Russia, as the Minsk Mortgage Company, one of the few Mortgage companies in Russia that caters to foreign mortgage needs in Russia has announced that it has had to default its loans due to the crisis. The American Mortgage Crisis had already entered Europe two months ago, however due to powerful Eurasian Union Tariffs and economic blocks, the Crisis had not been able to worm its way into Russia and the countries of the Eurasian Union. However with Russian economics being so closely related to Europe, it was inevitable that the crisis would enter Russian proper as well.

    Many Russians actually believed that the Crisis would not enter Russia, and some who thought it would, thought that it would not affect the economy by any noticeable margin, chief among these, Chancellor Grigory Yavlinsky.

    Yavlinsky, when the crisis broke out, stated openly that the crisis was the result of crony capitalism, which is a untenable mixture of capitalistic economics with governmental intervention, which is more like a unworkable system of socialist market economics, in reality. He also stated clearly that smokescreens over perceived safe loans were the cause of the crisis, which has now extended over to Europe.

    Unlike Europe and America however, the Russians have a more strict loan giving system and more supervised credit system, which prevent such fraudulent economics. As part of the anti-corruption and pro-economic policies that marked the early years of Yavlinsky’s government, back when Russia was still republican, the Russians had decisively cramped down on the Crony Capitalistic parts of their economy, blaming Crony Capitalism for the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis.

    Russia also doesn’t have deregulation or the lack of regulation in the banking sector like that of the USA or the western European nations. On the contrary, the Russians supervise and regulate their banking sector most especially, in order to keep the Russian inflationary rate on a balanced level.

    For example, the deregulation in America can be traced down to the following events:-

    1. Jimmy Carter's Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) phased out several restrictions on banks' financial practices, broadened their lending powers, allowed credit unions and savings and loans to offer checkable deposits, and raised the deposit insurance limit from $40,000 to $100,000 (thereby potentially lessening depositor scrutiny of lenders' risk management policies).

    2. In October 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which provided for adjustable-rate mortgage loans, began the process of banking deregulation, and contributed to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s.

    3. In November 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which repealed provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act that prohibited a bank holding company from owning other financial companies. The repeal effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and depository banks, providing a government stamp of approval for a universal risk-taking banking model. Investment banks such as Lehman became competitors with commercial banks. Some analysts say that this repeal directly contributed to the severity of the crisis, while others downplay its impact since the institutions that were greatly affected did not fall under the jurisdiction of the act itself.

    4. In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relaxed the net capital rule, which enabled investment banks to substantially increase the level of debt they were taking on, fueling the growth in mortgage-backed securities supporting subprime mortgages. The SEC conceded that self-regulation of investment banks contributed to the crisis.

    5. Financial institutions in the shadow banking system are not subject to the same regulation as depository banks, allowing them to assume additional debt obligations relative to their financial cushion or capital base This was the case despite the Long-Term Capital Management debacle in 1998, in which a highly leveraged shadow institution failed with systemic implications and was bailed out.

    6. Regulators and accounting standard-setters allowed depository banks such as Citigroup to move significant amounts of assets and liabilities off-balance sheet into complex legal entities called structured investment vehicles, masking the weakness of the capital base of the firm or degree of leverage or risk taken. Bloomberg News estimated that the top four U.S. banks will have to return between $500 billion and $1 trillion to their balance sheets during 2009. This increased uncertainty during the crisis regarding the financial position of the major banks. Off-balance sheet entities were also used in the Enron scandal, which brought down Enron in 2001.

    7. As early as 1997, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan fought to keep the derivatives market unregulated. With the advice of the Working Group on Financial Markets, the U.S. Congress and President Bill Clinton allowed the self-regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market when they enacted the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Written by Congress with lobbying from the financial industry, it banned the further regulation of the derivatives market. Derivatives such as credit default swaps (CDS) can be used to hedge or speculate against particular credit risks without necessarily owning the underlying debt instruments. Warren Buffett famously referred to derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in early 2003.

    1604371038704.png

    The complexity of Shadow Banking made it easy to go into recession.

    On the contrary to all of this the Russians have implemented extremely strict regulatory acts, coupled with free investment schemes to keep their economy regulated, whilst keeping it attractive for investors. The Russian Shadow Banking System is extremely minor as well, with the Russians using it only when necessary, as Yavlinsky himself stated that the Shadow Banking System had a disturbing ability to always associate itself to the reasons as to why financial crisis’s have happened throughout the 20th century. The 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, which has been attributed to Shadow Banking as well, simply solidified this view. Russia, with its technocratic economy is also a follower of Heterodox economics, and throughout the world stage, Heterodox economists have been raising voices about a commodity ‘economic bubble’ ever since 2004, which has only made Russia strengthen it’s market economy and regulations as well as boundaries of tariffs.

    1604371102110.png

    Heterodox Economics Family Tree.

    All in all, economists say that Russia will not be affected on the level that the crisis is unfolding in America, and Europe. Russia’s economic securities are too strong for the crisis to totally envelope. However it may signal the end of the rapid economic growth, and maybe lessen down to a slightly above than average level of economic growth. Yavlinsky and the Russian State Duma will convene tomorrow to discuss the crisis and the symptoms of its entering Russia.

    ***
     
    Chapter 45: The Economic Crisis
  • Chapter 45: The Economic Crisis

    ***

    [This chapter will cover the developments of the entire effects of the 2007-2009 Global Recession in Russia, there may be some holes in the topic, mainly because I can’t give up some of the spoilers.]

    ***

    www.wikipedia.com.

    The Great Recession in the Czardom of Russia.

    The Great Recession in Russia was a crisis during 2008–2009 in the Russian financial markets as well as an economic recession that was compounded by the plummeting price of Urals heavy crude oil, which lost more than 70% of its value due to loss in oil prices in the international and global economy. According to the World Bank, Russia's strong short-term and long term macroeconomic fundamentals as well as powerful regulations made it better prepared than many emerging economies to deal with the crisis, however stated that the Great Recession put an end to the massive growth rates the Russian nation had boasted, and instead made the Russian economy settle down to a mediocre economic growth rate.

    In late 2007 during the onset of the crisis, Russian markets plummeted and more than $0.7 trillion had been wiped off the value of Russia's shares although Russian stocks rebounded in mid-2008 becoming the world's best performers, with the MICEX Index having more than doubled in value and regaining half its 2007-08 losses.

    As the crisis progressed, Reuters and the Financial Times speculated that the crisis would be used to increase the Kremlin's control over key strategic assets in a reverse of the "loans for shares" sales of the 1990s, when the state sold off major assets to the oligarchs in return for loans In contrast to this earlier speculation, mainly in order to bring an end to the remainder of the oligarchs in Russia. Whilst oligarchs were becoming a rarity in Russia ever since Grigory Yavlinsky took power, some still persisted in rural areas of Russia. In September 2007 the Russian government announced plans to sell state energy and transport holdings in order to help plug the budget deficiency created by the crisis and to help improve the nation's rural aging infrastructure. The state earmarked about 5,500 enterprises for divestment and plans to sell shares in companies that are already publicly traded, including Rosneft, the country's biggest oil producer.

    From July 2008 – January 2009, Russia's foreign exchange reserves (FXR) fell by $110 billion from their peak to $986 billion as the central bank adopted a policy of gradual but strong devaluation to combat the slow devaluation of the ruble. The ruble weakened 11% against the dollar from the onset of the crisis in August 2007 to January 2009. As the ruble stabilized in January the reserves began to steadily grow again throughout 2009, reaching a year-long high of $752 billion by year's-end.

    Russia's economy emerged from recession in the third quarter of 2009 after two quarters of record positive growth GDP contracted by 4.9% for the whole of 2009, slightly less than the economic ministry's prediction of 5.7%. Experts expect Russia's economy will grow modestly in 2010, with estimates ranging from 3.1% by the Russian economic ministry to 2.5%, 3.6% and 4.9% by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) respectively.

    Background.

    Russia is a major exporter of commodities such as oil and metals and civilian goods, so its economy had been hit hard, at least by Russian standards by the decline in the price of many commodities. The Russian stock market declined significantly. Foreign investors had pulled billions of dollars out of Russia on concerns over escalating geopolitical tensions with the West following the military conflict between Syria and Israel, and the Russian stake in said conflict. By September 2008, the RTS stock index plunged almost 24%. Russian involvement in the US subprime mortgage crisis contributed to the volatility in Russia's financial system, as Russian private investors in America, were forced to be bailed out by the Russian government, making the impact of the crisis in Russia deepen even further. The Russian Central Bank owned US$100 Billion of mortgage-backed securities of the two American mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were taken over by the US government. This investment appeared to be bound for write-off.

    According to the Wall Street Journal and Gazeta.ru, as the Russian market declined in September, a conspiracy theory circulated within Russian leadership that the U.S. government had incited American investors to withdraw their capital from Russia, in punishment for the intervention in Israel and Syria. Though the Russian government themselves put an end to this conspiracy theory later on.

    Stock Markets

    On 24 July 2008, Mechel 's stock plunged by almost 38 percent after Russia's Prime Minister criticized its CEO Igor Zyuzin, and accused the company of selling resources to Russia at higher prices than those charged to foreign countries. This was partially true as a subsequent private inquiry made by private authorities as well as the IMF later discerned that the Mechel was involved in selling resources at higher prices to the Russian government due to the Russian government’s economic boom. On the following day, Mechel issued a contrite statement promising full cooperation with federal authorities while share values rebounded by nearly 15 percent. On July presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich then sought to restore calm, declaring that all parties would "act in a civilized way," and confirming that Mechel was cooperating with antitrust authorities. Later on, the Eurasian Stock Market was given a stimulus package of $150 million by the Russian government which most probably, according to analysts, saved the economies of the Eurasian Union from a contracting depression, rather than a stagnating depression that they now faced.

    On 16 September Russia's most liquid stock exchange MICEX and the dollar-denominated RTS were suspended trade for one hour after the worst one-day fall in 10 years as the Finance Minister accepted that the Russian government was facing a depression. Next day, trading was suspended for the second day in succession on Russia's two main stock exchanges (MICEX and RTS) after shares fell dramatically, forcing the Federal Financial Markets Service to intervene.

    The crisis continued on 18 September, as trading was suspended for the third day in succession on Russia's two main stock exchanges amidst fear of financial degradation. Deputy Finance Minister Pyotr Kazakevich asserted that "Russia is facing its worst stock market decline in a decade, we have lost our economic miracle, even though the economy is not contracting.".

    On 6 October the MICEX and RTS crashed by 6.6% and 8.1% respectively. The losses forced the Federal Financial Markets Service to suspend the stocks 1 time. Trading on both exchanges was suspended on the next day; Russian companies have augmented in price at London LSE. On 8 October the MICEX and RTS plunged 3.4% and 4.3% respectively, trading on the markets was halted until 10 October, respectively. However, on 9 October MICEX trading resumed ahead of schedule, and the stock market rose 14.7%.

    Money Markets


    The crisis in money markets was imminent since spring, when Central Bank of Russia warned the public of a gradual reduction in bank lending due to unfolding world liquidity crisis. However, the regulator preferred to combat inflation, raising the refinancing rate and bank reserve contributions. On September hike in reserve rate alone withdrew nearly 56 billion rubles from the money market.. The raise coincided with a seasonal peak in tax payments and left the banking system in a worse state of liquidity than ever seen before in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. A subsequent drop in ruble-to-dollar exchange rate and dollar-denominated prices of Russian corporate securities forced investors to crowd out, before the Russian government was able to use foreign reserve funds to inject a stimulus that made the exchange rate stable again, making investments in the nation stable again.

    Money market crunch passed its first lowest mark 15–17 September. 17 September the government lent the country's three biggest banks, Sberbank, VTB Bank and Gazprombank, 500 billion rubles for at least three months to boost liquidity, the Central Bank lowered the reserve requirement. This was followed 24 September by Central Bank loans to keep the current accounts afloat and prevent a bank run. The regulators also raised the cap for deposit insurance from 400 to 700 thousand roubles (equivalent to 25 thousand dollars). These actions served their short-term purpose and the Russian government then passed legislations that made the regulations of the economy stricter, but maintain proper investment standards, which allowed the economy to become slowly revitalized.

    17 November MosPrime interbank interest rate on rouble loans reached a record high of 12.67%, indicating another semi-shortage of liquid funds as the bank clients transferred funds overseas or paid taxes due. However soon enough the interest rate managed to retreat back to safe numbers after the aforementioned regulations came into effect within the Russian economy.

    Conclusion

    The effect of the great depression in Russia was of course massive. In 1997, the country showed an economic growth rate of 11%, 10.6% in 1998, 12.1% in 1999, 11% in 2000, 11.3% in 2001, 11.8% in 2002, 11.2% in 2003, 12.4% in 2004, 12.2% in 2005, 12% last year, maintaining one of the highest rates of economic growth, if not the highest rate of economic growth, only matched by China, and to some extents, Ukraine and Kazakhstan behind them. This dropped to mediocre levels. The Russian economy would not contract, as the Russian regulations and stimulus made that impossible, however the growth rate levels of the Russian economy fell. In 2010, the Russian economy grew by 4.9%, 5.7% in 2011, 5.2% in 2012, 5.9% in 2013, 6.1% in 2014, 7.2% in 2015, 6.4% in 2016, 6.7% in 2017 and 7% last year in 2018. All medium rates of economic growth and sometimes slightly above average.

    Inflation reached around 13% at their highest and unemployment reached 9.7% at its height during the crisis. After that they calmed down to around 6% inflation in 2010, and 3.1% unemployment in 2009. The Russian economy recovered, however it would not be able to maintain its extremely impressive rate of growth than previous to the crisis.

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    Updated Maps
  • I have done two more detailed maps for this TL. These files are zipped however, because they were too large to be uploaded normally.
    1. The first map is a simple world map (I wanted to also chow the EU and the CSTO but it didn't look very good)
    2. The second map shows the CSTO alliance and the Eurasian Union State.
     

    Attachments

    • World Map- Russia Resurgent.zip
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    • CSTO Map- Russia Resurgent.zip
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