Second Russian Civil War

Scenario: The USSR collapses into civil war in the late 80s/90s, a democratic pro-western government fights against a soviet loyalist or otherwise anti-western one.

This would be like any other civil war if it wasn't for the fact that it's in Russia. Could the different sides try to nuke each other? Would there be a large scale NATO intervention, or would the west fear nuclear retaliation from the side they are not supporting?
 
August Coup wont see Russian troops shooting at each other on a large scale, Russian society was far too stable at this point and the will simply wasn’t there to start a civil war. The factions would either work out their differences via negotiation or one side would just collapse.

A ‘’civil war’’ might break out insofar as varying ethnic enclaves like Chechnya might try to rebel and the Baltic States were already trying to secede ASAP, Azerbaijan and Armenia were too busy fighting each other to give much trouble to Moscow. But most SSR’s would return to the fold assuming a hardliner government was able to establish itself strongly in Moscow.
 
Perhaps the best chance would be a shorter original civil war, much quicker but more brutal. If enough supporters from the different factions survived then it's possible for another war to follow but it would have to be 5-10 years after. Thats the amount of time I would call in rebuilding the power behind the factions.
 
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