HOME | DD
ChaosOWL02 — Inverse Spectrum: Chaos and Resolve (Chapter1)
#alternatehistory #alternateuniverse #coldwar #economics #geopolitics #law #legislation #politics #revolution #russia #scifi #war #modernwar
Published: 2020-05-20 19:51:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 12811; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 2
Redirect to original
Description
Next:www.deviantart.com/chaosowl02/…
Disclaimer: This work is purely fictional and is not meant to attack any political figure, idea and/or supporter. Also, this work belongs to the author (i.e. ChaosOWL02) and may not be used without his consent.
Chapter1: Afterburn of A Cold War
In the year June 1991, the mother of Communism fell. Due to increased nationalism between the Soviet Republics, hyperinflation and extreme pressure on the struggling economy, the Soviet Union collapsed when all it's member States declared their independence from the union between 1989-1991. The shocked Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev could not believe that his policies – Perestroika and Glasnost, had led to the collapse of the Soviet Superpower. The U.S.S.R now ceased to exist. It had been outlasted by the ever prosperous United States of America through a Cold War that gave birth to the Space and Arms races that would slowly bleed the nation dry for almost half a century.
July the same year elections in Russia were held by the provisional government led by Boris Yeltsin so as to usher the Motherland into a new State of democracy, something it had lacked for centuries in history. In these elections, Boris Yeltsin shockingly loses, although marginally, to Nationalist Party candidate Anatoliy Popov, who becomes the first President of the newly born Russian Federation as of August 21,1991. A multi-party Democratic State with a total populous of 133 000 000 people and with the Kremlin in Moscow as it's official parliament. A new constitution was then drawn up by the Nationalist Party, officially converting Russia into a Capitalist State, ending what President Popov referred to as the "Long Soviet Nightmare" of Russia. Although many would argue that this new democracy was more of an Oligarchy, it didn't matter, the people of the Motherland were hopeful and believed that under this new Federation, they would prosper again. The USA was now the world's sole Superpower. The nation had defeated Communism in Russia and in Eastern Europe, it had also established diplomatic relations with China (a big Communist opponent themselves), whom to their delight had adopted some of America's Free Enterprise policies and where rapidly developing.
Although President Popov wished to ban the communists, it would not conform with the constitutional values of the newly formed Russian Federation. Fortunately for him there would be no need to as immediately after the flurry of events caused by the dissolution of the USSR, the Soviet Communist Party would be disbanded. Because of the Afterburn of the Cold War, the Nationalist Party was now tasked with attempting to solve problems that their communist predecessors were unable to do. This task was going to be much harder than before as due the Cold War, Russia was bankrupt. The Nationalist Party's task entailed the reparation of the severely damaged Russian economy. They were facing a million problems at once: Poverty, Unemployment, Corruption, Extremely slow service delivery, a rapidly slumping quality of life and crippling sanctions which other nations refused to lift upon Russia as consequence of increased US crucifixion due Popov's reluctancy 'to do business' with the Americans by agreeing to a series of unequal treaties between Russia and the United States. The 1992 boom in the oil production of the Middle East would continue to have a crippling effect on the Russian economy as oil prices collapsed. Things got so bad that by 1993, about 80% of Russia's population had fallen under the poverty line with an unemployment rate covering more than 73% of the adult population. After the dissolution of the USSR, Conglomerates had stolen chunks of Soviet public assets, leaving everyone else in poverty. The humiliation would be worsened when Russia's GDP per capita reaches an all-time low after Russia's total GDP mounts to a humiliating 570 billion USD (significantly lower than when the Soviets were in charge) whilst the Americans soared to around 5.97 Trillion USD.
Under Popov, things were significantly worse than before. The Americans controlled the prices to their biggest revenue creator – Oil, via the Petrodollar, and they continued to keep them at an all-time low, thus hurting the already weakened Russian economy. The people of Russia were tired of the new Russian government's incompetence and soon wanted change. As a result, Popov and his Nationalist Party would lose significant influence whilst their opponents gained it. Some were even calling for the return of the Soviet Union, citing that life under the federation was worser than before. Many political movements would as a result of Russia's instability begin jockeying for power. Of all involved, there was notable figure who had garnered massive amounts of support from the Russian people – Maksym Orlov. Former General turned politician, Maksym Orlov was born 1935, in the Ukrainian Republic of the U.S.S.R. He lost his parents whilst merely a six year old toddler due to Nazi Germany's ruthless Waffen-SS during the terrible events of WWII. During the ending stages of the Cold War, he had become a seemingly loyal member of the Communist Party and served as a major general in the Red Army. But after the Soviet Union collapsed, things had changed for him.
Although Orlov was staunchly anti-capitalist, he had grown critical of many Communist policies and believed the only way Russia could be saved from it's "Peril" is with the establishment of a Fascist Totalitarian State that would cleanse Russia off all evil and corruption by compromising individual privileges in return for absolute obedience to the state. He wanted to create a prosperous nation and wanted Russia to remain a Superpower. So he was incredibly shocked when the USSR was dissolved. As a result, he was extremely revanchist and called for the reunification of Russia with the former Soviet Republics, citing betrayal and incompetence from Moscow for allowing the Balkanization of Russia. Although he was fascist, due to his previous involvement with the Communist Party, he was strongly anti-racist and believed that "such nonsense will get Russia nowhere", and his sympathy for many Socialist policies meant that he did not despise Communism either. Orlov had many radical goals and was thus obsessed with taking over the leadership of Russia. To this end, he had created his own political party – UNAR (United Nationalist Alliance of Russia). The party became extremely popular in Russia, and although it faced tough competition, it's armed wing - the MF (Militsiya Force) was used to stamp out opponents through terror.
After two years of planning, on July the 23rd, 1996 the UNAR Premier Orlov would mobilize the MF to storm the Kremlin in the Russian Capital of Moscow after capturing key points of the city like Power stations, Railways and Government buildings. Funny thing was that the army offered little to no resistance when the MF moved to oust the democratically ruling parties of the country. The army supported Orlov and UNAR in their effort to overthrow the Nationalist Party for the mess it had made. The Coup for Revolyutsiya had been a success, and would stand as the new nation's motto - "Revolution is Forever", signed by Maksym Orlov himself. As a result of the coup, the captured President Popov and other high-ranking members of his NP party were executed the next day without trial, causing many Parliamentarians of the Constituent Assembly to be exiled, if not meeting the same fate. Russia's political status was now unknown.
With Russia's state unknown, many around the world believed that the nation was going to be Communist again. Meanwhile, although Maksym were eager to take over, seeing as how the army supported him, he would be negated by Russian generals, of whom insisted on free and fair elections to be held as although the Russian government had been overthrown, the Constitution of the Russian Federation was still in effect, and it was their duty as military leaders to uphold it. The UNAR had thus been turned into the Provisional government of Russia instead of being the ruling party like they had desired. As the country's provisional government, they were forced to host elections down the line. This was an absolute disaster in the eyes of UNAR Vice Premier Dimitrovo Putin, whom although a master in propaganda and manipulation, knew that if free and fair elections were to take place, they would obviously lose power in a parliament with no definite ruling party as a result of the incredibly tough political competition in Russia. But they had no choice and would thus allow elections to be held on November 1996.
In 1997, the Russian Federation was found to be corrupt after the holding of eventually rigged elections of which UFAR would win after false ballots elect Orlov as the President of the country and give his party 90% of the Kremlin. Although with evidence from the CIA, the Russian generals refused to believe the story, dismissing it as a US ploy to control the Russian government and it's people. In January 1997, President Maksym Orlov would with help from UNAR controlled Parliament, drop the title and the office of the President to become the Premier of the Russian Federation, declaring the beginning of what he called The Prosperous Age for Russia. He would first chop the large landmass of Russia, turning it into 45 comparably smaller provinces which he could rule and industrialize easier. He would then ban any and all organizations not affiliated with UNAR and with control of the Kremlin, this order would not be contested. He would then order the weakened Russian army (weakened by the Soviet-Afghan War as well as the Dissolution of the USSR, but still very strong) to immediately invade and annex the Baltic States (i.e. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia). He then closed the Parliament of Russia through an amendment of the constitution of the Russian Federation. A cult of personality would quickly develop around the Premier where a majority of arts, music, theatrics etc. had to glorify him and the revolution. This would lead to the heavy censorship of all forms of Media, including the internet's influence on the country, with a division meant to control information exposed to the Russian public through the internet being set up by Orlov's new Department of the Interior in Moscow. Opposition to the regime was to be brutally crushed by the new Russian Secret Police – Russian Investigations Bureau (RIB).
The USA quickly called for all lifted sanctions against Russia to be reapplied so as to stop what they ironically called "Russian imperialism" after in late February 1997, Kazakhstan was attacked and occupied by Russian forces, only to then be annexed into the growing Russian Federation. The government of the nation had been reluctant to capitulate, leading to a big military showdown between forces that had previously been allies under the banner of the Soviet Union. As a result, a furious Orlov had given orders for the Kazakh government to be hunted down by the RIB (Russian Investigations Bureau) and those captured alive, either killed immediately or sent to Moscow to be trialed for Treason, a trial which those captured would all be found guilty and executed via hanging or firing squad. These Moscow Treason Trials of 1997 would lead to further outrage around the world. The Russian Federal Premier had countered American claims of Imperialism by stating, "These nations as you call them were part of the Soviet Union and thus Russia. They were never autonomous nations to begin with, but merely gained independence because of Yeltsin's corrupt plan to plunge Soviet public assets". As a result of the bold statement from the Premier, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow would send out a decree for the indictment and thus inclusion of Boris Yeltsin into the Moscow Treason Trials, were if found guilty, death was imminent. To avoid this fate, he would therefore flee Russia with his family, taking refuge in the UK.
Many Asian, European and African nations had sanctioned Russia as a result of it's aggression towards former Soviet Republics, even so, some would not follow this route. Shockingly, Italy and Japan were one of those nations, and would soon become Russia's biggest ally. As a result, Russia would sign a Treaty of Friendship with both Italy and Japan in Moscow during the year of 1997. Although America had dictated otherwise, some North African Nations continued to trade with Russia, proving that although America was now a hyperpower (i.e. Sole Superpower), it had yet to establish absolute hegemony around the world. In April that year, Russia had begun a new trading Bloc with the world's second most-powerfullest economy at the time – Japan, of whom were hoping to regain lost territory from WWII. A sizable amount of people in Russia had begun opposing the regime due to it's repressive domestic laws and aggressive foreign policy, thus leading to a process the Premier referred to as "Cooling off". On May 1997, the Dictator of the Russian Federation would host the first Presidential elections since his coming to power the previous year. Even so, they could not threaten the Premier's power inside Russia. In June that year, all NATO countries would decide to sign the European Defense Agreement (EDA), of which would cause a sharp increase in the military spending of NATO in an effort to strengthen defenses against what the US President referred to as "Increased Russian expansion in the East". This was after Russia had simultaneously attacked Armenia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan the same month. All of these nations were the former Soviet Republics who had split with Russia, thus as part of the Russian Premier's reunification policies, were to be annexed into Russia.
Since these territories were technically Russian, and many in Orlov's government used the Soviet Referendum (where the people of the USSR voted for the Union to be kept together) to prove this fact, a sizeable portion of people in the UN General Assembly supported Russian delegates when they called for non-interference from the International Community as "Russia's internal conflicts, where a battle against the corruption of the previous government, not independent states", but still, treaties had been signed to dissolve the USSR, so another chunk supported America and it's allies when they accused the Russian Federation of breaking International Law. Even so, all this posturing between Russia and America before the International Stage would be exactly what the Premier needed, as it granted them enough time to finish their reunification program, plus after Russian intelligence revealed the White House's plans to extend NATO to the Russian border by signing the now annexed Baltic States, it humiliated and severely downplayed America's efforts, as now many accused the USA of being aggressive towards Russia.
Seeing themselves in a very vulnerable situation, the Ukraine had requested to sign into the EDA, which would allow them to join NATO. The Premier of Russia would be adamant in his mission to negate this as he did not want a NATO state so dangerously close to Moscow, plus he despised the Ukrainian government for giving away the 2000 Soviet Nukes it had inherited from the USSR in exchange for eventually ineffective Western aid. Thus, on July the 1st, the Russian armed forces would assault the Ukraine as part of their reunification policy. Amid the turbulent situation, NATO, which had been deliberating about whether or not it should allow the Ukraine, a nation plagued by unrest and on the verge of civil war, to join the military alliance through the European Defense Agreement (EDA), but the minute it became clear that the nation was going to be overrun by Russian forces, it would be decided on the 3rd of July that the Ukraine should be allowed to sign into EDA, which would allow NATO to declare war on Russia should it continue it's take over, thus ultimately forcing it's army to halt it's advance. But unfortunately, a Russian sponsored Coup would have the plane carrying the incompetent Ukrainian leadership to the Brussels, Belgium to sign the EDA, bombed that same day. With no definite leaders in the Ukraine, the coup ended up taking over the government and instantly surrendered the Ukraine to the advancing Russian forces, killing all arrangements made with NATO. As a result, on July the 4th, after three days of fighting in the Ukraine, the nation had been annexed into the ever growing Russian Federation. Thus the Premier would finally unite the Nation of his birth with the nation he ruled. Next on the invasion list was Moldova, a small nation now, and one that couldn't possibly hope to resist the Russian army.
Moldova had been invaded by Russian Paratroopers, and bombed by the Russian Airforce, and although it's small military would offer resistance, after it's their entire government was secretly held at gunpoint by Russian agents, the nation would also signed into annexation. The Premier would then sign a decree stating that it would declare war on Belarus (a former Soviet republic as well) if it ever signed into NATO. Thus throwing NATO countries into a bind as by signing Belarus into NATO, they would be painted as the aggressors and held responsible of starting WWIII with Russia. This decree by Orlov was also giving the nation of Belarus the ultimatum of either joining NATO whilst in a hopeless war with the Russian Federation, or not joining the Western military alliance at all in exchange for independence against Russia. The nation of Belarus would however be forced into the decision of requesting to join NATO through the EDA after the Russian Federation had attacked it on the 7th of July. Premier Makysm Orlov justified this use of brinksmanship by emphasizing the protection of Moscow, as like the Ukraine, Belarus was dangerously close to the Russian Federal Capital. Plus, many in the nation wanted to be reunified with Russia, although the government was very opposed to this. As the Russians made their advance onto Belarus, the White House in the USA would find itself amidst what was referred to as the Russo-Belorussian Crisis, where NATO had to decide whether or not the small East European State of Belarus was worth nuclear war with Russia. NATO unfortunately had taken too long to make a decision due to understandably intense debates on the crisis among it's members, and thus resulting in the total collapse of the nation of Belarus on July 21st, 1997 after the Russian military quickly overwhelmed it's armed forces as the response to the request of Belarus along with promised aid against Russia, never came. "The nation of Russia was finally whole again" said Dimitrovo Putin, the Premier's right hand man. Meanwhile, due to how poorly they handled the crisis, the USA and the EU was humiliated. It was clearly Russia's victory to enjoy.
With Russia fully unified with it's former Soviet Republics, on July the 25th, 1997 the Premier of the Russian Federation would forcefully draw up a new constitution with the annexed states, centralizing power into Moscow. As a result of the new Constitution, he would rewrite the borders of these former Soviet Republics in order to stamp out any feeling of foreign Nationalism, and would enforce the fact that all those who belonged to the annexed nations were now to be considered as being Russian before being Belorussian or Georgian etc. All 15 annexed nations along with the Russian Federation would form what was to be known as the Russian Confederated Union (RCU), with Moscow as it's Confederal Capital and with a population of 293 445 000 people. The nation had 65 large Oblasts (basically a name for all the Provinces that are a part of the Union). In addition, Maksym Orlov would declare himself as the Premier Supreme of the RCU. He would then purge the UFAR party for ten days in order to "Purify it of ALL evil Corruption" and further enforce his reign as the supreme ruler of the RCU by consolidating his power. Even so, he did allow some democracy as on the 26th of July 1997, the election results from the May elections would come out. The Premier Supreme's opportunistic right hand and now new Chairman of the UNAR party - Dimitrovo Putin would emerge victorious. Many in the West thus regarded the results as bogus. Even so, Dimitrovo was now the first President of the RCU (Russian Confederated Union), ranking below only to the Premier Supreme himself.
On the 30th of July, 1997, the Premier Supreme would sign Initiative 97, which he would use to nationalize most of Russia's big industries. Because of the initiative's provisions, the newly formed union was to focus mainly on massive Industrialization, so the RCU could better compete with American and Western Industries. Japan, angered by the rapid economic stagnation caused by 1985 Plaza Accords with the USA, had ascertained the world concerning their firm alliance with the RCU, a move that would immensely benefit them when in an exchange for the maintenance of Airforce and Naval Bases, Russia would decide to return the Four Kuril Islands to the Japanese on early August that year. Russia hadn't modernized them, so the Premier did not feel the need to keep them as they would hurt his relations with Japan anyway. Meanwhile, Japanese relations with the USA were rapidly diminishing as a result of new RCU military installations in the Kuril Islands, now a part of sovereign Japan. American interests were no longer being met, and due to tensions between the RCU and US officials in the country, the Americans were slowly decreasing their military presence in Japan, which would subsequently lead to the Yokohama Accords in 1999, a conference that would cement a permanent breaking of the strong ties between America and Japan. This was because the consensus of the Conference was that Japan was to no longer entrust it's defense to the US military, and instead of provoking the Americans by allowing the Russian military to move in from their place, the Japanese would maintain an independent military, one that Russian companies would arm through massive weapons contracts. Although the Japanese parliament had ratified Japan's involvement in the conference, many pro-Western Parliamentarians were skeptical about the giving of arms contracts to Russia, and refused to purse the whole thing due to fears that it would bloat military spending into uncontrollable levels, thus alarming it's neighbors and causing unnecessary tensions, as well as severely polarize already strained Japanese relations with western countries. This meant the Japanese military would remain under-funded, thus militarily unfit to fight major world powers. Although the Russians were not happy about Japan's disregard for the promised arms contracts, their economy was booming, and that was all that mattered.
To Maksym's luck, his Initiative 97 would gain enormous support from the heavens after the discovery of a new and extremely valuable natural energy source called Rareethrum on October 1997 inside Siberia. This mineral would become instrumental in supporting the massive Industrial projects of the Initiative. An emphasis had thus been put on the pumping out of the bright blue resource in order to fuel Russian Industrialization. By 1998, the economy had begun to boom after Russia (whom were one in only three countries to produce Rareethrum) was by this time producing more than 86.7% of the World's Rareethrum, well ahead of Japan and South Africa (the other two Rareethrum-producing countries). This boom had begun when upon the realization of the expensiveness of processing the mineral, the Russian government began to boycott the world off it's supply until trade embargoes against the RCU were lifted. This course of action had caused almost all international sanctions against the RCU to be annulled in an effort to appease the RCU, and this appeasement included most of the Western allies. Orlov was extremely smart, realizing that his country was bankrupt, he looked to strengthen the RCU's currency on the international market. To this end, his government's economic policies had made it mandatory for Rareethrum buyers to use the Russian Ruble, making it impossible to buy Rareethrum using the dollar or any other currency. This had led to the creation of the Rareethro-Ruble., which meant that the resource was now denominated in Russian currency. Many Westerners thus accused the RCU of breaking trade rules by refusing to accept dollars when selling the resource. Either way, Rareethrum was an efficient energy source, and demand for it over oil made every government around the world flock to the Central Reserve Bank of the Russian Union in order to buy Russian currency. This demand not only made the Ruble much stronger, but it also enriched the nation as it accumulated both hard currency whilst keeping it's own Rareethro-Ruble flowing back into the RCU via Rareethrum sales to the world. The American dominated WTO (World Trade Organization) thus accused the Russians of not playing fair, and some might say rightfully so as their economic policies granted them complete control over the international prices of Rareethrum.
With the Russian government strengthening the Russian Ruble on the international market, the Premier Supreme would spend billions at home in order to fund the costly Initiative 97, who's Mega-Projects immediately mobilized the Russian economy. The economy of the RCU was rapidly growing too due to massive infrastructure projects that would alleviate the poor by creating millions of new jobs, massive subsidies to Russian agriculture and industry in order to drastically increase production, massive tax cuts on the middle class so it could spend more on Russian businesses thus accelerating economic growth, the pumping of billions of Rubles into education and science, as well as a major crackdown on corruption from the grassroot level to the top. As a result of the economic reforms brought about by the Premier Supreme, massive industries,, major cities (including new ones in order to accommodate the rapidly expanding middle class of the RCU from both internal and external immigrants), commerce and agriculture had spread around the Motherland like wildfire. With a unified workforce because of the prosperity, Russia was entering a new age of rapid economic growth – The Roaring Cannonade Boom of the late 90s and early 2000s (RCB).
Although Russia was experiencing massive growth, the Premier Supreme was very paranoid about the west, fearing that in an effort to stop the RCU from overtaking economically, they would apply sanctions against Russia by mobilizing the international community against the Motherland. He thus wanted to make Russia a self-sufficient economy, that did not rely on it's "Enemies" for growth or the maintenance of prosperity. Even so, many of his policy makers felt that his concerns were pointless as the whole world was the consumer of Rareethrum, not the just the West and with good reason, heavily doubted that the world would comply with such sanctions, but there was nothing they could do about the Premier Supreme's paranoia concerning the Western world. As a result, Maksym Orlov's efforts to alleviate the poor were unprecedented, leading to "massively unnecessary costs" according to Russian economists. As a result of the spending, Russia's market was expanding rapidly as millions upon millions were pulled out of poverty by the Premier Supreme's mega-projects, and in order to make the Russian economy close to impervious to international sanctions, he would diversify the economy by pouring billions onto it's different sectors, thus ensuring that should there be massive sanctions against the RCU, Russian shelves wouldn't be empty, and Russian business would continue operate efficiently. As part of the diversification of the Russian economy, the 65 Oblasts of the RCU would be encouraged to compete against one another internally, thus making it less likely that what happens outside the country would have a big effect. As a result of these new sectors being added into the Russian economy, growth would be accelerated even more as the international demand for a wide variety of Russian products skyrocketed. From cars to toys, the Russian economy produced it all, and this had led to an intense rivalry with China, where every product a country's people was using was either "Made in China" and "Made in the RCU". The RCU was slowly becoming the factory of the world.
The expanding trade Bloc with Japan had also turned out to be the most profitable out there, as new partners (e.g. China) rushed in to get a piece of the action. By 1999, the trade bloc had reached the same level of profitability as the trade bloc between the USA and the entire EU alliance. These were profits worth trillions of USD. Meanwhile in 2001, as the RCU's economy continued to thrive into the new century, President Dimitrovo Putin would use Initiative 97 in order to recommence the race for technological superiority and military invulnerability, with the Premier Supreme's backing, he would use profits from the Initiative to pump billions of dollars into the Russian military, secretly focusing mostly on nuclear research. Relations between Japan and the RCU would become even better when in 2004, Japanese Cybernetics Engineer Mitsuko Kuji, along with young Russian Autonetics Scientist Andrei Zhukov, in the sprawling Megalopolis of Moscow, would develop a program abbreviated as BAPA(Bio-Anatomical Prosthetics Augmentation), which they also called the Cybernetic Cerebrum Project, or Cyber-Brain for short. BAPA primarily dealt with the provision of Cyber limbs for humans, also acting as a technological exterior to the human brain, allowing a Cyber-Brain for those lacking in brain capacity or suffering from brain disease. Even so, the two scientists needed a lot of money to get the project going, thus leading to them approaching the UN Social and Economic Council. It was a groundbreaking discovery, and even put Einstein to shame. The two scientists had thus received global hail for the program, which would pioneer humanity into the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" as proclaimed by Zhukov, who's involvement in the project had been used by the government of the RCU for international propaganda concerning the superiority of Russian technology, a move that attracted even more investments from abroad. As a result of BAPA, many countries ended up passing bills allowing a switch to Cyber Prosthetics and the legalization of Cyborg treatment policies that would allow many Russian and Japanese Multinational Corporations liberty to sell BAPA products all over the world. Russia had been enriched on a trillion USD scale because of this. The USA, envious and anxious about Russia's RCB era, was nevertheless forced to come to the party, slightly tenderizing relations between the two former Cold War enemies.
During the course of the RCB era, as Russian industry rapidly expanded, the heavily industrialized RCU had invested billions of USD into the improvement of the infrastructure of North Africa, a majority of South and Central American nations, including Mexico, as well SE Asia. This not only exponentially grew the Russian economy as it improved trade with other nations whilst allowing the nation to hold a lot of foreign debt, but it created new allies for the RCU. Even so, foreign investment was really a sideshow compared to what Russia was doing domestically, internal investments were the most staggering of all as the Moscow Stock Exchange soared to the top of global rankings as the world's largest and most profitable finance platform, with a market capitalization of more than 18 trillion USD, and thousands of listed companies from all over the world. The city itself was a growing cosmopolis of wonders, with an expanding cross-culture and an illuminating energy of modern prosperity and rapid industrial growth.
As predicted, in 2005 the Americans and it's allies looked to slow down the economic growth of the RCU. Under orders from the Premier Supreme, the Central Reserve Bank of the Russian Union had begun printing the face of Josef Stalin onto the 100 Ruble bill. Then, on February, "as a gift to the world", according to Orlov, the city of Vladivostok would be declared a 'Free City', thus being granted more autonomy from Moscow as it was now allowed to decide it's own economic policies as a result. But before doing this, the Premier would change the city's name – The Free City of Stalinsk. This was obviously an act of commemorating Josef Stalin, a villain to the West and a war hero to the RCU. The west was infuriated, or at least that would be a pretext to them instantly calling for Stalin's face to be removed from the Ruble bill as well as the restoration of the name Vladivostok for the city now named after the most successful of the leaders of the Soviet Union. A massive movement had begun all over the west, calling for the world to not accumulate the Rareethro-Ruble into their reserves so long as it's 100 bill had Stalin's face. In addition, there was a call for a series of trade embargoes against the RCU so long as the Free City of Stalinsk kept it's name. Although many Russians weren't bothered by these things, Americans, as always feeling like they knew what was best, took to social media to spread an opposite message, with many saying Russians were unhappy about this too. Meanwhile, Western Media instantly attacked the RCU for it's carelessness, supporting the series of embargoes presented, even going so far as to show older clips of rioting city dwellers in Russia from the 1990s, and painting these clips as being "the latest news". Ultimately, the initiative was a waste of time, and only succeeded in polarizing relations between east and west even more. The RCUs economy on the hand, continued to flourish, and the Free City of Stalinsk, dominated by BAPA enterprises and a growing robotics industry, would grow to become the Technological Hub of not only the RCU, but the whole of South Eastern Asia.
Meanwhile, on November 2006, due to many clashes with the American dominated WTO (World Trade Organization), of whom accused the RCU of violating international trade rules, would officially leave the organization, shocking the whole world. Immediately afterwards, the Russians would create the Neoteric World Trade Organization (NWTO) and encouraged every country in the world to participate. After an agreement with member-states, it would be agreed that the construction of NWTOs headquarters would be constructed in Moscow, and the RCU would bare the costs. With many countries flooding to join the organization in an effort to get more access to Russia's market (which was staggering but constricted due to the Governments protectionism and tight control). Even countries in the EU ended up joining the NWTO, as the RCU was clear that member-states weren't required to leave the World Trade Organization in order to join and participate. Russia could finally decide it's own trade rules, even so, it's authority on the organization was far from supreme, and trade rules where thus decided on a collective basis. Many Russian businessmen were thus happy to be free from the "ridiculous demands of the WTO", which particularly made trading for them difficult on the international market. With less restrictions from international rules, the RCUs Boom years immediately spiked into their peak, shocking the world. "Russia has to enact fiscal policy that will slow it down as it's growing too fast for it's own good" said a British economist once during an interview in the BBC. Russia's prosperity was become more and more visible, and myths of an imminent collapse where becoming increasingly unrealistic.
By the year 2007, the RCU had shockingly retaken it's position of having the second most powerfullest economy (overtaking China) in the world after having fallen all the way to No.17 in 1992. The GDP of the RCU was 8.98 Trillion USD against America's 9.2 Trillion. No nation had ever gotten so close to the US economy before since it's rise after WWI, and for the mere fact that Russia had a staggering annual GDP growth rate of over 45.9%, it was not only set to overtake America, but it was challenged by no country in the world in terms of economic growth per dollar. Plus, the 2007-8 global financial crisis had severely affected the growth of the Western economies, whilst Russia continued to takeover global economics unchallenged and undisputed. The year 2007 had therefore been known as the Peak Years of the RCB (Roaring Cannonade Boom) era of Russia as it's staggering growth rate, the highest in the history of economics, would not get any higher. Amid the financial crisis of time, the Russian Ruble had emerged as the second most powerfullest and most valuable currency in the world, behind only the British Pound Sterling after destabilization programs in the Middle East and North Africa by the CIA had caused the collapse of all the dinars, leaving the Pound Sterling at the top, although depreciating in value as well. Meanwhile, although the central bank of RCU had tried desperately to prevent the Ruble appreciating for fears that it would become too expensive thus affecting the competitiveness of Russian products internationally, due to how demanded the Rareethro-Ruble was internationally, it appreciated anyway, and had taken the second spot on the global economy, which stood as testament to Russia's economic prowess. This rise by the Ruble had caused the USD to fall into fourth place as the world's most valuable currency. Even so, the dollar would keep it's reserve status as the Petrodollar was still an important part of world economics.
Unsurprisingly, on May 2007, the Russian Confederated Union had been redeclared a Superpower, having great influence in North Africa, Asia, some parts of the Middle East and Oceania as well as major influence in South and Central America, and was even beginning to reassert control over Eastern Europe by slowly making their economies dependent on the RCU. Although America maintained the stronger global military, it was only by a margin. The US had a stronger Navy and Airforce, but it was clear the Russian Army was significantly better outfitted, more powerful and with way more firepower in the form of stronger tanks, artillery, better equipped infantrymen. The Russian even had better guns at this point after the introduction of the AK47-G1 Assault Rifle. The reason America was considered as having the stronger military was because most of Russia's military spending, which had exponentially grown again, and thus dwarfed the GDP of entire nations combined, was directed towards the army and improving it's technology and numerical superiority instead of Russia's other military branches, as Russian military's doctrine differed from America's. Even so, the military of the RCU was more than capable of taking on the US military, it had grown so strong that by this time it had begun producing Aircraft Carriers in order to improve force projection capabilities as well as to protect trade routes along with the US Navy, as well as show off it's naval capabilities so as to improve morale and prestige. But still, according to many analysts, although the RCU was dangerously close to the USA in terms of military capabilities, it was still slightly behind, particularly if NATO got involved. Even so, many considered both Superpowers to be relatively equal whilst another chunk proclaimed Russia's military fighting force as the best in the world. These conflicted views were understandable, as of June 2007, the militaries of both Superpowers looked something like this:
ARMED FORCES (USA vs RCU)
Budget
•USA-565 Billion USD
•RCU-890 Billion USD
Weapons of Mass Destruction
•USA
-Nuclear Weapons(A-Bomb/H-Bomb):7 450
•RCU
-Nuclear Weapons(A-Bomb/H-Bomb):8 300
N.B- The Cold War was over and both countries were decreasing the number of Nukes they had as they had better aiming systems and thus no longer needed quantity to cover up the lack of quality (although secretly, the RCU was building up a massive stockpile).
•USA
-Active Personnel:1 314 000
-Reserve Personnel:890 000
-Available for Military Service:73 560 790
•RCU
-Active Personnel:2 821 900
-Reserve Personnel:1 714 870
-Available for Military Service:94 234 000
Russian Confederated Army vs United States Army
•United States Army
-Tanks:6 834
-Armored Fighting Vehicles(AFVs):38 223
-Armored Personnel Carrier(APCs):28 756
-Self Propelled Artillery:852
-Towed Artillery:1 114
-Rocket Artillery:1 320
•Russian Confederated Army
-Tanks:23 520
-Armored Fighting Vehicles(AFVs):52 421
-Armored Personnel Carrier(APCs):45 570
-Self Propelled Artillery:6 710
-Towed Artillery:8 670
-Rocket Artillery:10 975
Russian Confederated Navy (RCN) vs United States Navy (USN)
•United States Navy (USN)
-Total Naval Vessels:490
-Aircraft Carriers:20
-Naval Battleships:0
-Destroyers:145
-Corvettes:0
-Frigates:63
-Mine Warfare Vessels:57
-Patrol Crafts:13
-Submarines(Whether Nuclear or not):83
•Russian Confederated Navy(RCN)
-Total Naval Assets:392
-Aircraft Carriers:7
-Naval Battleships:33
-Destroyers:45
-Corvettes:96
-Frigates:7
-Mine Warfare Vessels:45
-Patrol Crafts:14
-Submarines(Whether Nuclear or not):60
N.B Total Naval Assets section refers to the stated Naval Warships(e.g. Destroyers) together with other Naval assets the country owns (this includes e.g Cruisers; Missile boats etc.).
Russian Aerial Defence Force(RADF) vs United States AirForce(USAF)
•USAF
-Total Aircrafts:13 444
-Multirole Aircrafts: 3 199
-Fighter Aircrafts: 1 789
-Attack Aircrafts: 1599
-Gunship Helicopters:1 237
-Helicopters:4 555
•RADF
-Total Aircrafts:8 937
-Multirole Aircrafts:3 166
-Fighter Aircrafts:1 560
-Attack Aircrafts:492
-Gunship Helicopters:910
-Helicopters:2 009
N.B Total Aircraft section refers to the stated aerial mobility weapons(e.g. multirole Aircrafts)together with other Airforce assets the country owns(e.g Bombers; Cargo planes etc.).
Roscosmos Space Corporation (RSC) vs National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)
•RSC(Russian)
-Nuclear Powered Satellites:299
-Rareethrum Powered Satellites:97
-Satellites:456
-Predator/Hydra Drones:985
-Orbital Space Bases:0 (One under construction in Central Siberia)
•NASA(America)
-Nuclear Powered Satellites:325
-Rareethrum Powered Satellites:9
-Satellites:501
-Predator/Hydra Drones:678(Operated by the CIA)
-Orbital Space Bases:0
Military Bases vs US Military Bases
•US Military Bases
~Domestic Military Bases
-Total Domestic Military Installations:449
-Multioperational Bases:156
-Airforce Bases:67
-Naval Bases:40
-Missile Bases:101
-Military Research Facilities:85
-Secret Military Bases: UNDISCLOSED
~Foreign Military Bases
-Total countries with US Bases:70
-Total Foreign Military Installations:746
-Multioperational Bases:270
-Airforce Bases:72
-Naval Bases:33
-Missile Bases:134
-Military Research Facilities:237
-Secret Military Bases: UNDISCLOSED
•RCU Military Bases
~Domestic Military Bases
-Total Domestic Military Installations:550
-Multioperational Bases:170
-Airforce Bases:83
-Naval Bases:32
-Missile Bases:120
-Military Research Facilities:145
-Secret Military Base: UNDISCLOSED
~Foreign Military Bases
-Total countries with RCU Bases:40
-Total Foreign Military Installations:605
-Multioperational Bases:145
-Airforce Bases:52
-Naval Bases:55
-Missile Bases:103
-Military Research Facilities:250
-Secret Military Base: UNDISCLOSED
The Russians had a very powerful and far reaching armed forces indeed, although it's priorities were secretly nuclear research and a general stockpiling of nukes, it was still a conventional Superpower, of whom like the USA, had a completely indigenous military-industrial complex. Even so, unlike the Americans, the RCU had a doctrine that made it mandatory to carefully choose any conflict the country was going to partake in, thus meaning it was rarely used, and since the RCUs Oil reserves were mostly found inside the country, made it very unlikely that the military would be deployed all over the world for wars the Russians regarded as "pointless". Thus apart from UN Peace-Keeping missions (e.g. the deployment of Russian troops to Sudan in an effort to halt the genocide in the country after the EU and the USA had refused and the African Union's troops had failed miserably to maintain peace in the area). Although it was not regularly deployed to fight conflicts abroad, this military was literally more powerful than even the entire EU (a combination of European economic and military powers). In fact, it was virtually more powerful than all of Europe, and although the EU stood a chance against it's massive Navy and Airforce when considering sheer numbers only, it was utterly powerless against it's massive land army, with hordes of tanks and artillery. It felt like it was 1945 all over again, and although this army was smaller than the Soviet forces of the time in terms of numbers, it's still roused NATO member-states. Russia's insane military spending even became the reason why American President Joe D. Freeman had passed the Military Advancement Act the year before on March 2006, thus allowing the US Military better freedom in raising it's already massive annual military budget. It was as if the world was back into 1960s Cold War tension.
Due to the rapid expansion of the Russian Army, two of the European Union's main military powers, had sunk into paranoia, causing what would become the Finnish Missile Crisis of 2007. Although the EU still had some 512 nukes, all of those were virtually split equally between the UK and France and were still nothing compared to what Russia or the USA had. Even so, NATO had reason to believe that Russia's massive military wasn't just for defense, as a result the West rightfully believed that the Russians had expansionist designs when it came to Eastern Europe, as EU officials believed that was the reason why Russia was rapidly arming itself. The reason for this belief was because the Premier Supreme had always pronounced plans which entailed the re-installment of the buffer state system in Eastern Europe prior to his rise to power and during his time as a radical political activist, in an effort to make what was now the biggest and most prosperous city in Europe - Moscow, unhittable by nuclear MRBMs. To counter Russia's plans for the future, both the UK and France had arranged for about 62 Medium Range Ballistic Missiles(MRBMs) to be moved to Finland, a nation which shared a border with the Superpower, and had thus been battered and bitter as a result of increased Russian efforts to control it's central government. The nation refused to leave the EU at the behest of Moscow, and it's President – Sauli Koivisto, had been Orlov's enemy ever since and although the two nations still did business, it was particularly Russian companies that did, meaning tensions remained. So when the UK and France proposed the transference of nukes into Finland, Sauli accepted.
Unfortunately, they had underestimated the extent of Russia's surveillance of the nation. With virtually the best surveillance technology in the world, on May the 22nd of 2007, a Russian Spy plane would take shots of the Missile bases France and the UK were creating on Finnish territory. Now Moscow was within range of possible nuclear fire. As a result of the discovery, the Premier Supreme was utterly furious. What bothered the him the most was that the Americans had leverage on the RCU, as in the unfortunate chance of all-out war, the Americans could bring the war onto Russian soil much easier than Russia could in return as a result of American missile bases in Western Europe, now America's allies were adding fuel to the fire by building up offensive nuclear missiles in Finland. The situation was getting dangerous. De ja vu for Russia, this was the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 1960s all over again. To protect the national security of the RCU, the Russian Military would immediately assault Finland without even a warning, "Like gangsters" according to newly appointed US President Roland F. Spencer. Although the Finns received massive military aid from both France and the UK, the obviously more powerful Russian army swept through Finland like a violent gust of wind. Although the Finnish Army resisted the Russian advance, it was futile, and Russian Air Superiority instantly made the war on the ground unbearable for them. Finland was part of the EU, but it was merely for economic purposes and like all Eastern European nations who were part of the EU, their membership in the organization was not extended to the EU's military – NATO, as non of them had signed the EDA. This was obviously done in an effort tone down potential Russian aggression as Moscow was adamant that it did not want NATO to be extended onto it's border. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization thus could not intervene. Finland was finished.
Immediately after the attack, RCU diplomats advised both the UK and France to remove the missiles in Finland in order to end the onslaught of the nation. Both nations would take the advice by removing the missiles and terminating any further shipment of these weapons of mass destruction to Finland. President Spencer was furious at both countries and refused to involve the United States in the whole crisis. On the 30th of May however, the Russians not only refused to withdraw troops from Finland, but decided to continue the advance deeper into Finland, this course of action would be what prompts NATO to finally decide to intervene on the 3rd of June, but by this time, the Finnish military was about to collapse after thousands had been captured with massive encircling movements from the Russian army because of great strategists like General Vladimir Kremli. The Finn's were simply too shocked by the RCU's sudden attack and by the time the Finnish Armed forces could be mobilize for a response, the Russians had already driven too deep into Finland and the numerical and technological advantage the RCU enjoyed made the Russians look invincible on the battlefield. This certainly was very different to the Winter War of the late 1930s.
As a result of overwhelming Russian power, the same day NATO decided to mobilize it's forces and move into Finland in an effort to repel the RCU or at least halt it's advance, the Finnish President would, due to the insurmountable odds, sign the official unconditional surrender of Finland to the RCU. A Finnish general was reported to have blamed the devastating loss to what he referred to as "Aid that didn't come when it was supposed to". The surrender made sense, simply way too many Finns had already died in vain and Russian bombings of their cities had reached devastating levels due to them facing the full and undivided attention of the huge Russian military. With the surrender of Finland, the RCU would occupy the nation using a Martial Law policy due to the fierce Finnish resistance and some level of guerilla warfare in occupied Finland. There was to be darker days ahead for the inhabitants of the nation, although thousands fled to neighboring Norway and Sweden, almost the entire population was trapped back home by the Russians. As a result of Finland's rebellious nature, the Russian government felt uneasy about it's integration into the RCU, thus the Premier Supreme would decide to not annex it into the Union.
As a result of Orlov's aggressive stance, and refusal to relinquish his occupational control of an EU member-state, the European Union would decide to reinsert major sanctions onto the RCU as punishment. Unfortunately the sanctions would go South and the sting would be felt by the enactors as the sanctions quickly worsened the Financial Crisis of 2007-8, which in turn worsened the world economy. This was because with no more Rareethrum from it's undisputedly biggest producer, processor and exporter, it would cause the sanctions to eventually backfire when the RCU and it's allies counter-sanctioned the EU via a Rareethrum embargo. Although Italy was an EU member, it was a major RCU ally along with Japan, causing it to be the only nation in the EU to not be targeted by the RCU. Pressure from the EU for Italy to join the economically unsound sanctions would be what causes the Italian Government to shockingly break off from the alliance, with the nation's government officials stating that the "EU was interfering with the sovereign responsibilities that the Italian government has to it's people". To make a further statement, the Italian Parliament had instantly ratified Italy's exit from the EU, which would be in effect on the 1st of September that year. This course of action proved the importance of Rareethrum in the world. Unfortunately for the boot, after it exited the EU, a unanimous vote from NATO instantly led to the nation's expulsion from the North Atlantic Treaty, but it wasn't all that bad, Russia was no longer a threat to the nation anyway, in fact, it was the direct opposite.
Whilst all of this was taking place one had to wonder about one thing - Where was the United States of America? The Military Advancement Act the US Congress passed in 2006 unfortunately could not be implemented properly because of devastating circumstances the USA was in. As of March 2006, an event preceding the Financial Crisis and what ultimately caused it to be almost as worse the Great Depression of the 1930s, America was at war with itself. The United States of America had been plunged into a long and bloody Civil War (2006-2009). A war the RCU would forever be suspected of having started.
To be Continued...
To my fans/critics
Although I own this work completely, I'm more than open to suggestions and/or questions. Please do review so I can improve the content. Also, do note that this story was initially posted on (Due to a lack of platforms), although for obvious reasons, I intend to take it off since I claim copyrights to it (so don't be confused if you find it on google should you search for it, it's basically the same author i.e Me). Again, thank you to all the readers.
Also, I do have work on that you might wanna check if you're interested [since apart from two stories i.e. This story (and it's series/sequels if you will) and another titled - Clandestine: Elizabeth Victoria's City of Sin, my work there is on a fanfictional basis and thus I claim no copyrights to those pieces]. Of course some of them are a bit rough on the edges (Due to my tight schedule, which truly gives me miniscule time to practice my art) since I haven't really gotten much time to edit them, but I still think you'll find them entertaining empirically.
I am a young writer (so I'm still learning), so please don't be too harsh on me (although I do appreciate criticism because it helps improve ones art). Anyways, ENJOY.
