What if other nations seized territory during the USSR/Yugoslavia's Collapse?

Saudi Arabia and Iran are unlikely to co-operate.
Remember than Iran and Saudi Arabia are on opposite sides of Islam.
Saudis are Sunnis who back the muslim generals who staged a coup d'etat shortly after then death of the Prophet Mohammed. They murdered the favourite nephew of the Prophet Mohammed.
Meanwhile, Iranians are Shiites who back the nephew who was the designated heir of the Prophet Mohammed.

The two sides of scism fear and hate each other with a passion far exceeding their hatred of Jews, Christians, Bhuddists, etc.
 
Difficult one this. There are a few potential ways territorial conflicts could have started. The premise of this is that the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern Block is significantly messier. The most probable way this could happen is that there is a coup against Gorbachev in reaction to the events of 1989, causing massive civil discontent within Russia. The new junta state can be formed, as the 'Democratic Russia' movement was not well enough backed or developed to re-instate Gorbachev as it was in 1991, but it bubbles under the surface. The USSR leaves East Germany alone (the West is too interested for the USSR to safely to oppose re-unification) but extensively deploys troops across the Eastern Bloc, especially in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to prevent the communist regimes from falling. The result is protracted fighting between the USSR and liberation movements in the Eastern Block (esp. in Poland) and the USSR is too weak and divided to quickly end the conflict, and insurrection continues. The harsh international backlash, as well as the reversal of Gorbachev's economic reforms, leads to boiling discontent within Russia- and nationalist feelings begin to spread across Soviet borders, and the war exacerbates the economic situation. Eventually the USSR itself begins to collapse against the backdrop of massive popular uprising- but is likely to be a messy collapse. A federal government is proclaimed around 1991 claiming sovereignty across the whole Soviet Union, but it face hardline communist insurrection as well as nationalist opposition. Against this backdrop of confusion, Soviet troops have to leave the Eastern block. Independence movements begin to spring up: by June 1992, all but Belarus and Uzbekistan have left the Soviet Union.

For two years, anti-Soviet forces have been fighting across the Eastern Block, united by a common enemy. With that common enemy gone, nationalist movements have been hardened and contain a myriad of militant forces willing to pursue nationalist goals. Old tensions begin to rise again. Amidst the collapse of law and order the USSR, Poland and Romania decide to occupy small areas of WW2 to partially re-claim their WW2 territorial loses and to prevent extremism on their borders. A small Polish force is dispatched to Lwow/Lviv and parts of Western Ukraine; Romania occupies Moldova, set in limbo by the collapse of the USSR. Those occupations begin to start a domino chain of events. Hungarian nationalists, who exercise considerable hold of the government, agitate for the return of greater Hungary in Southern Slovakia and Northern Transylvania and Carpathian Ruthenia (in Ukraine). although the government is unwilling, these activists still call for insurrections and join them in these areas. Czechoslovak troops clash with Hungarian rebels in Southern Slovakia and Romanian troops clash with Hungarian nationalists. Old conflicts re-surface and simmer. A Polish local uprising helped by Polish partisans take Vilnius. Ukraine is a particular area for conflict. With the Russian Federation finally emerges from the ashes of the old USSR, it takes advantage at clashes between Ukrainian and Polish forces and incites uprising in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine and it helps Belarusian forces (newly independent) evict Polish forces from Brest. Poland responds by occupying Kaliningrad, which pushes Russia and Poland to the brink of outright war, avoided by a heavy deployment of peace keepers and threats from the US to Poland, who do not want to see a potential key ally weakened with outright conflict with Russia. The combined pressure means that Poland backs down and evacuates Kaliningrad. Romania must deal with Moldovan nationalists and their annexation of the area is one of high international disagreement.

The USA wants to contain Russian aggression and thus funds the Ukrainian effort in Eastern Ukraine extensively. Ukraine begins to become more successful and begins to beat back the Russian militants in its East, although Crimea remains occupied. Ukrainian pressure on Poland is thus intensified and the US makes it clear to Poland that they should withdraw from the contested territories, or they might accept growing German demands for the restoration of 1919 borders. The Peace of Bukovina recognises the border between Poland and Ukraine to be that of what it was before the collapse of the USSR, although Lwow would get a referendum; they voted to remain Ukrainian. Russia, in response, begins to escalate its war in Ukraine.

The Hungarian War also begins to escalate. Hungary pushes its claims to Vojvodina and occupies the area, allying with Croatian and Slovene forces in the Yugoslav wars, and begins to directly sanction the war in Slovakia and Transylvania. Hungarian expansionism alarms the US, and NATO authorises air strikes to force the Hungarian government to surrender. They do so, under huge pressure from Czechoslovak, Rumanian and Serb armies, renouncing all claims in exchange for autonomous zones to be set up within Serbia, Romania and Slovakia. This impacts the Balkan War significantly as Serbia partakes in an operation which allies itself with the US, but the increasing crimes of Serbia's prosecution of the Bosnian war sours the relationship. The USA launches airstrikes in 1999 to stop Serbia's crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

In the present day, several problems persist. Vilnius is still the de jure capital of Lithuania, but it is brimming with Polish militiamen and is therefore a highly contentious issue. Relations are poor between former Eastern block countries and border clashes are common. Eastern Ukraine and Crimea are demilitarized, but effectively controlled by Russia. Russia is far more assertive about it's territorial claims; it formed a union agreement with Belarus in 2000. President Putin also used Russians troops to incite revolt in Rumania, aimed at forcing Moldova out of Romanian hands- the conflict is still ongoing. The US plays an active peace keeping role in the region (or at least until the election of President Trump), with extensive ties to Poland, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Kosovo and Bosnia- although only Czechoslovakia has been admitted to NATO (the threat of war and instability in Eastern Europe means that there is a reluctance to expand membership, especially given that it might provoke Russia. Hungary and Russia are now close partners, and Romania is in the line of fire; in 2019 after the US forces pulled out the region, an insurrection occured in Northern Transylvania as well as Moldova, and the "Romanian War" is starting to escalate, with the potential of Russian and Hungarian involvement. The situation in Eastern Europe is still occuring.

Anyway, that's my two cents.
 
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@Taxationistheft I can see this sort of stuff helping out the Communist Parties of Romania and Russia, as they can now point to the past suppression of the Hungarians as an attempt to prevent fascists from taking over. Would the Hungarians explicitly avoid mentioning claims on the small areas they used to own from Slovenia? I have to wonder what Hungarian group would go for all this though, as they didn't want yet more authoritarians in charge. The Russians may also find it ironic to give up claims to the pro-Russian Rusyns, but that was int he past I suppose. Looking at the independence referendum, they and the minorly Romanian populated areas to the east has lower votes for Independence than nearby regions, but both were still over 90%. Hell, everything was over 50%. A bit confused about Brest, though. Did the Poles invade?
 
Did that example also explain what the Soviet troops in former East Germany (which were there until 1994) would do in that case?
Yeah, unless anyone can think of a way Germany can retake Kaliningrad, it would be better with Poland or Lithuania. I might edit the original post.
 
@Clandango Sorry I forgot to mention in the post- Poland occupies some of Eastern Belarus on the pretext of security (like Eastern Ukraine) and also historical claims (1922-39 borders).
 
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