Here we get our Pellegrino, integrating actuality into a TL like noone else. Great update!
Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
Great update.
But I do have a question: I understand why Lazio would be targeted by the UIS, but why wouldn't they also target John Engler? ITTL, Engler has established himself as a formidable, non-submissive man who can handle crisis. I would bet the UIS would want to bring him down, so a weaker Republican would get to be the nominee.
But I do have a question: I understand why Lazio would be targeted by the UIS, but why wouldn't they also target John Engler? ITTL, Engler has established himself as a formidable, non-submissive man who can handle crisis. I would bet the UIS would want to bring him down, so a weaker Republican would get to be the nominee.
PM me an email and I'll send you a word document with the entire TL. I'm still working on the thread marks now. There are 151 updates in the original TL and I'm up to 66 so it may be awhile before I catch up
Most likely he will just be doing The Apprentice at this point in this TL. What he chooses to do in 2016, well we will have to wait and see on that.
Please say the one word title completely intentional!
Haha, no I can't say that it was.
I don't think the UIS has a preferred candidate. Maybe Tancredo but he isn't exactly a front runner here. Rather, they probably have an "anyone but Lazio" mentality. Engler is seen as a politician who feels that Al-Qaeda is the greatest threat to the United States. Sure he isn't seen as being a close ally to the UIS, but to them he is at least not seen as the mastermind of the disaster that was Chechnya and could be someone who the UIS feels that they can work with in their fight against terrorism and in Afghanistan.
But nevertheless, Engler will be a very tough partner. Engler is aware of how Bush's blunder at Crawford both enabled Zhirinovsky's crimes against the Pashtuns, and damaged the reputation of the GOP. Engler will thus act as tough as possible with Lebed to avoid making the same mistake. He might even make noise about "Russian interference in the election". Also, being a Michigan governor, Engler needs to heed the influential Muslim vote, which certainly has nothing positive to say about Russia.
This will only lead to more tense moments in the coming years.
FieldMarshal
Banned
IIRC, at the end of the original ZRE it was mentioned that he was a leader one of the many splinter factions of the LDPR after the Revolution of 2002 ousted Zhirinovsky.
I doubt he would do to well, though. From what I understand, he advocates an almost multicultural fascism, and promotes a "Russo-Islamic Alliance". That might make him a little unpalatable in a country in which anti-Muslim sentiment runs rampant, and also had to deal with an even worse Chechnya, Belsan, 9/11, a Second Russo-Afghan War...
Some (but not all) of his ideas I could see gaining popularity among the foreign policy elite of the UIS, especially considering their love for creating ethnic strife. He advocates using Armenians and Kurds to destabilize Turkey; Uighyrs, Tibetans, and the like to destabilize China; and black radicals to create racial violence in the United States itself.
That latter one makes me want to bring up a potentially controversial point I've thought about for a while - would the UIS support Black Lives Matter? Regardless of what you think of the group (I don't think very highly of it, but that's another can of worms), I think the UIS would support them in some fashion, not out of a true support for the goals of BLM, purely for the aim of causing racial tensions within the US. Furthermore, I've seen quite a few people here think of the UIS as a "white supremacist" nation, but one must take in mind that ITTL the UIS helped to stabilize a number of African countries.
Now, I don't think the majority of BLM would accept UIS support, seeing as the UIS is largely and rightfully seen as a horrible genocidal dictatorship by nearly everyone in the US. Black radicals with heavy ties to Islam would probably be the most fervent in their objection to the UIS attempting to influence racial issues in America. However, it wouldn't be too inconceivable if some of the more radical strains of BLM and black militant groups such as the Huey Long Gun Club or the New Black Panther Party actually accepted UIS aid and started going around saying things like "the Russians have done more for blacks than America has ever done" due to the aforementioned UIS stabilization of African allies.
Rant aside, I enjoyed the update, though your post about this TL being simply a spinoff rather than a full TL makes me wonder how long it's going to be. Will we get to see any more of the Second Korean War, or some of the other things mentioned by the BBC reporter to Putin in the intro, like the implied collapse of Saudi Arabia or the alternate Syrian Crisis?
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Redcoat
Banned
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-72#post-7458774
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-74#post-7475153
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-74#post-7477523
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-75#post-7482474
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-76#post-7491097
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-78#post-7511853
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-79#post-7515558
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-83#post-7530624
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-83#post-7538673
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-85#post-7543020
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-87#post-7555251
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-89#post-7563638
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-90#post-7602387
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ys-russian-empire.245924/page-91#post-7646884
Well now that number is 80.
It reminds me of that post early on in the TL, when General Varrenikov was scared to death that Zhironovsky had gotten 8% of the vote and how he paralleled that to 'Hitler getting like 7% of the vote in Germany in 1930'. While Lazio's chances of winning the nomination are of a similar small percentage, I'm getting the sense that the same kind of thinking here is taking place.
Plus, Engler seems like the sort of person who would be able to state that the 'UIS hacked our elections' and be able to speak it with a significant level of credibility. However, though his forte in foreign policy seems to be with terrorism, Engler doesn't seem like the kind of president who would let the UIS off easy either.
Well, things can go really bad for Engler too...
Right?
After all, people may think that the UIS helped him to "clear the road". It's obvious that the UIS hates Lazio but, that can hurt Engler too.
People could think something like; "Oh man, Lazio gave those russkies a nasty time huh, perhaps he was the only one capable of fighting them, I bet Engler will be soft against them."
Or something similar, who knows, but the UIS got a victory once again.
Right?
After all, people may think that the UIS helped him to "clear the road". It's obvious that the UIS hates Lazio but, that can hurt Engler too.
People could think something like; "Oh man, Lazio gave those russkies a nasty time huh, perhaps he was the only one capable of fighting them, I bet Engler will be soft against them."
Or something similar, who knows, but the UIS got a victory once again.
Engler will certainly have his ups and downs during his presidency, but I highly doubt that Engler would ever crater like Bush did. He'll never get a 80% approval rating, but at the same time I don't think he'll get to say 30% either, but generally keeping on a more even keel. Given that Engler has gained a reputation on being tough on terrorism, I think its also reasonable to expect that he would be perceptive enough to see the hazards of working with the UIS as well.
O'Neill spells it out, the Russians may see Engler as a very tough partner, but they see Lazio as an outright anti-Russian war criminal because of his role in the Powell doctrine. See the Warren Christopher autobiography parts of chapters 58 and 60 for how even moderate Russians see the arms smuggling to Chechnya thing.
This is such a great tl, the only possible quibble i can have is how in heck did bush junior win the republican primaries much less the general. The shadow of his fathers term will loom over him for the entire election.