The Russian Confederated Union (RCU), also referred to as the Russian Union, or simply Russia, was a totalitarian quasi-federal union made up of 65 oblasts (i.e. states tightly controlled by Moscow) and a single free city. This super-state encompasses all of northern Asia and 45% of continental Europe. This is where 64 of its contiguous mainland Oblasts lie, with the Sakhalin oblast being the only one found off the mainland. The nation's semi-autonomous city - the Free City of Stalinsk, is also found in the mainland, namely in the southern parts of the Primorsky Krai oblast in far eastern Siberia.
With a total land area of 22,402,000 km², the RCU was by far the largest nation in the world. This nation also had the globe's third largest populous, with early 2011 census data revealing a population size of about 395,000,000 people. With such a huge population, the RCU is one of the most diverse nations in the world, with about 20% of the said population composing of a wide variety of ethnicities, cultures and races. Its large population size is thus not only due to the nation's resurging birth rate, but immigration as well, particularly when the RCU began opening up its borders to the rest of the world.
Although the nation is largely considered a cold country, it's geography is massive and diverse, and is thus home to a wide variety of wildlife. Although Siberia was largely uninhabited before the RCU's creation, the new government had emphasized the maximization of labour and land use, and had thus not only built up Siberia's infrastructure to world class proportions, but had also built up Siberian metropolitan areas via a long list of expensive mega-projects in order to push people from the European part of Russia and deeper into the country. Development mega-projects meant specifically for public transit infrastructure in Siberia were particularly staggering, as the government wished to link the European part of Russia to the rest of Siberia in order to achieve the latter goal. These infrastructure projects not only bolstered the Siberian population, but improved logistics immensely, allowing the RCU to have the world's most efficient resource extraction apparatus for the distillation and trading of the country's natural resources.
Although the rulers of the RCU had taken over Russia Proper (considered the most integral part of the Union) on the 23rd July 1996 during the Coup of Revolyutsiya, the union itself was officially formed a year later on the 25th of July 1997, as a direct successor to the short-lived Russian Federation. After the Great Reunification had been a success, the Russian Federation had finally been reunified with its former Soviet Republics, paving way for the creation of what would be the RCU, and with the union formalized, all power had virtually been handed over to the UNAR (United Nationalist Alliance of Russia). The UNAR Party's founder and Supreme leader - Maksym Orlov, instantly became the Premier Supreme of the RCU, and his word was law. Although the Russia was a union again, the nation's Dictator was supreme.
The creation of the RCU would signal an end to Russia's short-lived democracy under Anatoly Popov and his Nationalist Party. The Constitution of the Russian Federation had been annulled, and the adoption of the nation's new one - the Constitution of the Confederated Union of Russia, 1996, eliminated many of the individual privileges many Russians had enjoyed under the Russian Federation, and absolute obedience to the state was expected, demanded and in many cases enforced. Although freedom of speech, expression and assembly among other things was heavily regulated and controlled by the state, the respect of fundamental human rights of minorities, including immigrants, were heavily protected so as to curb persecution. Even so, due to the Totalitarian Federation's policies, the RCU has clashed with the UN on multiple occasions, and as it rapidly grew wealthy, many Western countries had demanded free and fair elections (which the Constitution of the RCU did not permit) as well as democratic human rights for all, particularly when many Westerners chose to relocate to the RCU in search of untold riches in the Motherland.
After a multitude of powerful and efficient economic policies from the Premier Supreme and his party, the nation's economy had immediately exploded. The nation had discovered an extremely valuable brand new resource - Rareethrum, after all. With an instant international addiction to Rareethrum as an alternative to oil, which was far more expensive and pollution-prone in comparison, the RCU had amassed massive amounts of wealth in a short space of time, and the Rareethro-Ruble (Rareethrum sales denominated in Russian currency) had played an integral role in this as the international sales of Rareethrum (a bright blue liquid energy source) had to be done using Russian currency due to how the Central Reserve Bank of the Russian Union controlled international prices. Russia was by far the world's largest producer of the energy source after all.
After strategically stimulating the different sectors of the RCU economy, allowing it diversify and move away from its absolute reliance on oil, gas, arms and now Rareethrum, the country's GDP rapidly skyrocketed in what was known as the RCB Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, a time of bustling prosperity and record setting astronomical economic growth in the RCU. By the year 2011 (the year in which the Union was finally being converted into a new Russian Empire), this boom had culminated in Russia's rise as the world's foremost dominant economic power, with trading agreements and partnerships with almost every nation on earth. By the time the Russian Union was declared an Empire, the nation's quality of life was literally one of the highest in the whole world, with the globe's third largest GDP per capita and an extremely low poverty rate. Due to this success, for many countries around the globe, the RCU had become a model of rapid development, and an overall inspiration.
As the nation began to exhibit a high standards of living, a largely market orientated economy and a strong rule of law, the West had designated the RCU as a "Special First World Country" during a NATO conference in New York City, USA in 2007, with the reasons for not giving the nation the First World status outright being due to its "lack of a stable democracy, being a successor to the Soviet Union, and due to its non-alliance policy against the United States of America and its Western Allies" according to the papers of the conference. Even so, the RCU was largely unwilling to accept this status, reluctantly recognizing it on the 2nd of February 2008, during the World Economic Conference in Berlin, Germany. Although the RCU had accepted this status, like in the country's Soviet era, it was far from being friends with the West, and had maintained a foreign policy that clashed with "Western Interests" inside Russia and around the world.
As a Totalitarian Federation, the nation maintains a federal system under the complete control of Moscow, although oblasts are expected to take a wide variety of decisions independently. The nation encompasses all the former territories of what was the USSR, and although it has been further subdivided (from being 15 Soviet Republics to being 65 Oblasts), similar to the Soviet era, it remains under the complete control of one political party - the UNAR (United Nationalist Alliance of Russia), the only legal political party inside the RCU. Although the nation's ruling party refers to itself as nationalist, it is largely more absolutist as its rule over the country is no different from an absolute Dictatorship similar to that of the Franco Regime before it transitioned itself to a monarchy, which is why its policies are referred to as "National Centralism", or Socialist Maksymism (named after the RCUs founding father, and a regularly used representation of the RCUs national ideology and political system). Even so, the nation is considered more Socialist than it is fascist due to its economic policies, particularly due to the fact that the nation's leadership is staunchly opposed to Fascist figures like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as well as many policies related to them.
Although the nation has largely been at peace considering its short existence, large scale invasions of foreign countries, brinksmanship and aggression are the reason why the RCU came about, and although it largely avoided conflicts with foreign nations afterwards, it has been involved in a number of military skirmishes with other countries, particularly in Europe, with the most prominent being the invasion of Finland during the Finnish Missile Crisis of 2007. But its most daring and notorious military expedition is the simultaneous invasion of Eastern Europe and the Scandinavian Peninsula during The Great Trap. Due to an obvious resurgence in military tensions with the West, the RCU has maintained massive military spending for a majority of its existence, and due to the fact that in comparison to the USA, it did not necessarily maintain a huge global military presence, let alone use it to fight endless wars, the RCU had thus been able to maximize the benefits of its massive spending more effectively by allowing more money to spare for the development of new and existing military technology, the production of way more military assets, and the secret expansion of its strategic offensive nuclear capabilities. This effectively allowed the nation to not only vastly improve its military infrastructure, but to expand the already huge indigenous military-industrial complex of the RCU in an effort to rapidly enhance and stimulate the Russian military's capabilities. By the time the Russian Union was being converted into an empire, it possessed one of the largest fighting forces in the whole world, so much so that by 2011, the Russian Confederated Armed Forces (RCAF) was literally the world's foremost military power, rivalled only by the United States of America.
History[]
Dissolution of the USSR and the Creation of the Russian Federation[]
Simplification of the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1989 - 1991).
The defeat of Nazi Germany after the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had not only brought the Axis rampage in Europe to an end, but had also brought to an end, the wartime alliance between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics'(USSR) and the Western Allies. Due to ideological differences and opposing military, economic and geopolitical interests, it had become very apparent that the Allies would not get along with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy gone, and by 1947, they had reached a dead end. What followed next was a nearly five decade long conflict that would not only shape the modern world of post-WW2, but the era that would follow after it. The Cold War would see the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc embroiled in an ideological showdown with the United States and its Western Bloc. The Space Race would see both sides spend billions of dollars a year funding aerospace research and development in an effort to outcompete the other, thus achieving scientific dominance and worldwide prestige. Ultimately, the Americans made it to the Moon first, signaling an end to that scientific adventure, although billions continued to be poured by both sides into the aerospace industry. Another component of direct competition between the two sides was the Arms Race, which was far more deadly and serious. This apocalyptic contest would see both sides build up massive nuclear arsenals, with the United States fielding 70,000 nuclear warheads whilst the Soviets commissioned about 57,000 nukes at the height of the arms race before the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) and INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty) treaties de-escalated nuclear tensions.
A 1982 poster published by the New York Times, an American newspaper, criticizing and attributing the US government's expenditure in the Cold War as being a contributing factor to the ongoing recession at the time.
All in all, the Cold War had cost the US about US$8 Trillion by the late 1980s, with the USSR suspected to having spent a similar amount if not more. The Soviet Union had been clearly exhausted. The war in Afghanistan had become something akin to another Vietnam, and the USSR was at the receiving end of it, its effect on the economy of the Soviet Union was also becoming very apparent, and the boom in oil production in Middle East was not making things any better. Corruption within the Soviet Communist Party was out of control, shortages had become very rampant, and the economic stagnation which began during the Brezhnev Era, was showing its ugly fangs. By the early 1990s, the USSR maintained the world's largest standing Army and Air force, and up until 1987, had spent about 25% of the Soviet National GNP/GNI on defense, and even after defense spending was cut, the government still spent an exuberant 17-18% of the Soviet GNI on defense, which continued to have a crippling effect on the Soviet economy. As a result of the Cold War bleeding Soviet coffers dry via endless expenditure on foreign policy and defense, the quality of life inside the Soviet Union had become relatively bad, and a multitude of Soviet citizens dreamt of what life was like beyond the dreaded Iron Curtain, regardless of what Soviet propaganda instructed. After decades of Cold War tensions, in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev would become the General-Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and the Premier of the USSR. It would be his policies of Perestroika and Glasnost that would put the final nail in the coffin, and after a flurry of events, unknowingly lead to the dissolution of the USSR.
The full extent of Soviet influence in Europe in the beginning of 1989.
Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Restructuring (Perestroika) and Openness (Glasnost) would not only accelerate the dissolution of the USSR itself, but the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe as well. As part of his policy of Glasnost, the huge Soviet army would no longer interfere with the internal affairs of fellow Warsaw Pact members, this meant that Communist Parties all over the bloc were relatively defenseless against large scale insurrections, and without coincidence, the instance Soviet forces were removed from Eastern Europe, the Communist leaders of this continental region were overthrown one by one like dominos on a board. What's worse is that even amid such a crisis in the Soviet bloc, Gorbachev refused to intervene. Ironically, this wave of revolution was largely peaceful, although the Communist Dictatorship in Romania was removed much more violently. The Communist governments of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, East Germany and Albania would all be removed from power via extensive campaigns of civil resistance, demonstrations calling for an end to One-Party Communist rule, as well as a demand for political freedoms and progressive human rights. This call for an end in Communism coincided with what was happening inside the USSR itself, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as the subsequent reunification of Germany, standing not only as a signal to an end to Communist rule in Eastern Europe, but a symbol of the disintegration of the iron curtain.
A poster published by Pravda, a Communist newspaper, on June the 3rd, 1986, describing how the policy of Glasnost was a step by the Soviet Union in improving relations with the west and putting an end to the Cold War.
Due to the policy of Glasnost, dissent that had been boiling within the Soviet public would slowly find its way out. Soviet journalists could finally question government officials as well as the Communist Party itself, although Soviet newspapers and magazines remained state owned. Debates about the past even began to emerge, and since public debate could, in many instances, happen freely without government intervention, even harder questions concerning the Stalin era began to be raised. With the public being finally allowed to discuss and question government policies much more freely, dissent over Soviet rule, particularly within the different Soviet Republics which made up the union began to emerge. The Soviet public had successfully pressured Gorbachev to pull out of the Soviet-Afghan War by 1989, meaning the public was finally beginning to grasp the very power of the pressure they could put on the government. As a result, an even greater form of protest against the rule of Moscow emerged in response to the ever growing economic deterioration of the Communist Union.
Gorbachev meets Deng Xiaoping, the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, PRC, on the 2nd of February, 1988.
Gorbachev's policy of Perestroika is one of the most misunderstood economic reforms of all time. In response to the intensifying deterioration of the Soviet economy, Gorbachev (via the aforementioned policy) had moved towards the acceptance of some limited forms of private enterprise. Now it must be understood that his policies where in no ways a means of turning the Soviet Union into a capitalist economy, but an effort to improve the dire state of the centrally planned economy of the Soviet model. Many economists around the world (with the exception of China) felt that his policy of Perestroika was going to replace communism with capitalism. Many of them felt that like with Khrushchev's Berlin Wall, Perestroika was going to internationally humiliate the Soviet model of development and communism as a whole, thus their opposition to the policy. Even so, many of them acknowledged the need for reforms and gave Gorbachev, the current leader of communism at the time, a chance to carry out his experiment. Even so, Deng Xiaoping, the leader of the second most powerfullest Communist state at the time - the People's Republic of China is cited as having criticized Gorbachev's plans with Perestroika as "not being enough". Trapped in the middle, with communists on the international scene saying the latter policy brought about too many reforms one side, whilst on the other, the same communists criticized the reforms as not being in enough, it might be appropriate to say that Gorbachev was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and was taking a serious gamble with these new reforms.
McDonald's first outlet in the Soviet Union is opened in Moscow, and is met with swarms of Soviet citizens, whom line-up like protestors just to get a taste of the West. This was one of the main symbols of Perestroika.
As a result of Perestroika, the existence of private enterprises within the Soviet economy would be allowed. State owned businesses would no longer be mandated to sell products at fixed prices set by the government, thus allowing them to be sold more realistically via the doctrine of supply and demand. These free enterprises still had to fulfill state orders, but could dispose of any remaining output as they saw fit. Under Soviet law, enterprises were to become self-financing (meaning wages, supplies, services, taxes and debt had to be covered via revenues made), meaning the government would no longer be bailing out unprofitable enterprises with unsound business practices. As a result, bankrupt Soviet SOEs (State owned Enterprises) would instantly be shut down, and foreign investments would finally be allowed into the union. The 1988 Soviet law on cooperatives radicalized Soviet property laws, permitting the private ownership of businesses in services, manufacturing and foreign trade. Gorbachev's reforms would also reorganize Soviet ministries that dealt with the economy, decentralizing the economy in some respects. Initially, the law had imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but this was later changes so that the accumulation of private capital and activity could be encouraged. Under this law, worker owned cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufactories became a part of the Soviet economy, thus getting rid of the monopoly of Soviet communist party members in such aspects of the economy, although the Soviet Communist Party remained in control. Although Gorbachev's policies were indeed bold, they were in many instances, too late, and too little to meaningfully reform the Soviet economy.
Perestroika would not do much in revamping the stagnant Soviet economy. Although private enterprises were allowed to exist, they made up a small part of the massive Soviet economy, meaning large parts of this economy was still being centrally planned without any meaningful reforms. Also, although prices were finally being based on the doctrine of supply and demand, the government retained its control over the means production, and even though the system had been decentralized to some extent, price controls largely remained, leading to a continuation of shortages, and when Gorbachev began to get rid of these regulations in 1991, by this time the Soviet Union was not only dissolving, but his efforts instantly led to hyperinflation, skyrocketing prices for basic consumer goods, thus making them unaffordable. With the withdrawal of government subsidization, entire Soviet institutions and SOEs collapsed into bankruptcy due to skyrocketing labour costs, and the Soviet command model began to unravel amid the intensifying economic pressure. Soviet military would also be cut, although the cut is considered inconsequential as the USSR continued to spend big on its military. Direct Foreign investment was also hard to come by due to Western sanctions and Soviet counter-sanctions. As a result, the Soviet Union remained a relatively closed economy, meaning its currency - the Soviet Ruble, remained a closed currency due to its inconvertibility with the world's reserve currency - US$. The success of the Bush Administration in the Gulf War meant that the United States controlled the prices of the Soviet Union's biggest revenue provider - oil. With US military presence in the Middle East, America would keep the prices of oil to an all-time low, thus allowing it to be cheaply imported into the USA, whilst crippling the Soviet economy as oil prices crashed.
By 1990, the government had virtually lost control over the economic conditions of the USSR. Instead of going down, government spending saw a sharp increase as a number of unprofitable enterprises required state support, and as a consequence of price control regulations, which meant that the subsidization of consumer goods would remain. An even bigger nightmare for Gorbachev would occur when, under the festering spirit of autonomy, local governments as well as the constituent Republics of the USSR began to withhold tax revenues from the central government of the Soviet Union, leading to a massive decline in the tax revenue base of the Soviet government. This act of defiance was clearly undermining the unity of the union, and what was worse was that the withholding of this tax revenue, combined with the massive spending of the Soviet central government, was leading to bankruptcy. Under the Perestroika, the quality of life of a regular Soviet citizen had slumped to all time lows, and poverty, unemployment and government corruption was on the rise. Under Gorbachev's reforms, the state of the Soviet Union was even worse than before, and as a result of the economic deterioration, the USSR began to be slowly dissolved by its constituent Republics via a series of declarations of independence after the various forms of protest for autonomy from Moscow intensified.
In the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), on the 23rd of August, 1989, citizens had formed a massive human chain across all three Soviet Republics, spanning 675 Kilometers and made up of 2 million people. The demonstration was very symbol to say the least, as it marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow, between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which guaranteed the annexation of the Baltic States by Josef Stalin via the pact's secret protocols. The demands of the people of the Baltic States were pretty clear, they wanted independence from Moscow and the USSR. Such dissent had become common all over the USSR, and soon, people living in every Soviet Republic began protesting and demanding for autonomy from Moscow, whom many felt was not very representative of the different ethnicities that made up the Union, and thus favoured ethnic Russians the most. The Estonian SSR's Declaration of Independence on November the 16th, 1988, would stand as Estonia's official declaration of sovereignty and independence from Soviet jurisdiction, although this would not be officially recognized by Moscow until the 8th of May, 1990. The Lithuanian SSR's official declaration of independence on the 26th of May, 1989 would lay the foundation for the creation of the Republic of Lithuania on the 11th of March, 1990. Latvia had also declared its independence on the 28th of July, 1989, leading to the creation of an independent Republic on May 4, 1990.
According to decision No.16-XII of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan SSR would be renamed into the Republic of Azerbaijan on the 5, February, 1991. A symbolic decision taking into account the fact that this Soviet Republic would become a sovereign nation on October that year. In November 18, 1989, Azerbaijan's neighbour, the Georgian SSR would declare its sovereignty over Soviet laws, with Georgia becoming an official sovereign Republic the next year on the 14th of November, 1990,way before the official dissolution of the USSR on June the 30th, 1991. What historians consider to be the most significant declaration of independence during this dissolution, was that of the Russian SFSR on June the 20th, 1990, which officially signaled the end of the USSR. Following quickly after Russia's declaration, the Uzbek SSR and the Moldovan SSR would both declare independence on the same month of June, 1990, with Moldova declaring it on the 23rd whilst Uzbekistan doing so on the 20th. On the 16th of July 1990, the Ukrainian SSR would do the same whilst its northern neighbour - the Byelorussian SSR, would declare its independence on 27th of the same month and year. The Turkmen SSR would declare its independence on the 22nd of August, 1990, whilst the Armenian SSR would do so on the 23rd of August, 1990, with the Tajik SSR declaring its independence from the union the following day. On the 25th of October, 1990, the huge Kazakh SSR would declare its independence from the USSR whilst the Kirghiz SSR would wait until the 15th of December, 1990, to declare their independence from the union.
Although some might think that the USSR had gone down without resistance to disintegration, this was simply not the case. The December Coup of 1990 stands as testament to the unwillingness of some members of the Soviet Communist Party to allow an end to the union. During this coup d'etat, hard-line communists who were staunchly opposed to Gorbachev's reforms and the New Union Treaty (which, although never implemented, particularly due to the December Coup, helped to greatly decentralize power to the Republics, making the declarations of autonomy feasible). The coup began on the 19th of December, 1991, and lasted until the 22nd. Occurring in the Soviet Capital of Moscow, the coup had been initiated by the Soviet State Committee on the State of Emergency, led by Gennady Yanayev. The committee began its coup began when Vladimir Kryuchkov, Head of the KGB (Russian: Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnoti), ordered his KGB supporters to put Gorbachev under house arrest whilst he was on vacation in Crimea, after Gorbachev refused to resign, Yanayev and his followers would form the committee, assuming control of Moscow by naming Yanayev the acting Premier of the USSR. Unfortunately their attempts to take over the capital were being thwarted by constant civil resistance from Boris Yeltsin's supporters, who were being led on the front by Anatoly Popov, a staunch anti-communist figure inside the Russian SFSR. After three days of skirmishes between Anatoly and Yenayev's supporters in the army, the Committee had realized that the coup had been a failure, and decided to officially surrender. The failed coup as well as Gorbachev's reforms had been so devastating to the powerbase of the Soviet Communist Party, that on the 6th of March, 1991, it ceased to exist. Although when Gorbachev returned, he would be restored to power, he was basically the leader of a balkanizing state, which due to economic deterioration and increased separatist nationalism, he could not mend together.
Without Gorbachev's knowledge, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian SFSR (N.B. not the leader of the USSR, but the Russian SFSR, a Soviet Republic), and the figure who had been instrumental in the thwarting of the August Coup, had met with the Ukrainian and Belarusian Presidents in the Belovezha Forest near Brest, Belarus, where they would sign the Belavezha Accords, who's consensus declared the extinction of the Soviet Union, forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as its successor. Although Gorbachev was furious about the accords, there was little he could do to Boris, and he thus hoped the media of the USSR would rally the people of the Soviet Union against the idea of dissolution. But with Glasnost having ensured certain freedoms to the press, there was little he could do, particularly since Anatoly Popov, an anti-communist, had gained enormous support from the Russian people, and most importantly, major connections and strategic influence within the majority of the central newspapers of the Soviet Union, including Pravda (the biggest newspaper in the Soviet Union). Realizing that the was little he could do to restore the USSR, nor the Communist Party, Gorbachev would decide to officially resign as the Soviet Union's leading incumbent on the 24th of June, 1991, living the rest of his life in relative obscurity. Due to Gorbachev's abrupt resignation, on the 30st of June, 1991, just 6 days later, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would be declared dead by its constituent republics. In its place, 15 new countries had been born.
Meanwhile, Russia (the biggest and most influential Soviet Republic) was bracing for its biggest economic regression in history. Immediately on July, month-long elections would be held within the Motherland so as to usher the nation into a new dawn, a democracy. From the get-go, it was pretty much apparent who the main runners where. Anatoly Popov, the leader of the newly formed People's National Party (or simply the Nationalist Party) was jockeying for power against a former member of the Soviet Communist Party, of whom was now a political independent - Boris Yeltsin (although it should be noted that Boris was leading the hastily organized Provisional Government of Russia during these elections). The elections were not very long, but were certainly intense and very nasty. Both candidates went as low as they could in an effort to discredit the other whilst trying to increase their own support base. In fact, several attempts at Boris Yeltsin's life were made, but he survived them all. Ultimately, Popov would shock the world by actually beating Yeltsin by a narrow margin of 50.8% to 49.2% when the election results were released in the ending stages of August. What was even more shocking was the fact that of the 23 parties that participated in the National Elections of Russia, the Nationalist Party had won 73.2% of Russia's new Parliament, whilst the Russian Liberal Party, which Yeltsin is thought to have endorsed, only won 4.4% of the Parliament's seats.
Boris Yeltsin's refusal to fully endorse the Liberal Party had cost him. Anatoly's connections within the Russian media, his staunch criticism of Yeltsin's past with Communism, and his connections within Russia's most popular party, not only guaranteed him the powers of a President, but those of the nation's legislature as well. With the USSR dead, Russia had become a new nation. A multi-party democracy with a total populous of about 133,000,000. Its Capital, Moscow, would become the centre of government activity, with the city's Kremlin acting as the seat of the nation's new legislature. The country's economy was also going to take a major U-turn, the capitalism of the west seemed more appealing, and so Russia was to become a free market economy where everything was to be privatized. "Finally, the long Soviet nightmare is over, with capitalism, our country will flourish" said Popov during his first speech as President of the nation. The Kremlin (Russia's Parliament) had already drawn up and ratified the country's new Constitution, not only converting the country into a Capitalist economy, but giving liberal freedoms to the people of Russia. The USA was now the world's sole Superpower, the Mother of Communism was gone, and the Russian Federation was born.
The Overthrowal of the Nationalist Party and the Beginning of the Great Reunification Conflict[]
Although the nation was a democracy after the dissolution, it was a bit shaky in its initial stages. President Popov was backing the Anti-Communist Bill that Russian Parliamentarian - Radovian Rabinov, had introduced into the Kremlin. If the bill had been passed into law, then communists would have been banned from politically organizing themselves inside Russia, essentially banning all communist parties. However, Parliament refused to pass it due to fears that it would serve to undermine the new democracy by adding exceptions to its newly formed constitution (which the bill itself violated), but particularly the horrible press such an act would elicit. Ultimately, the bill would be declared unconstitutional by Parliament on July the 13th, 1991, but the President's support for it served to give Russia a bad name in the USA and Western Europe, particularly taking into account how anti-Russian media there was. Plus, after the flurry of events caused by the dissolution of the USSR, the Soviet Communist Party had been disbanded after its members had been split between choosing the new ruling party or the communist party itself. Consequently, the party had been split into multiple factions that would subsequently form their own parties on either a bid to challenge the new order inside Russia, or join it. Ultimately, after a vast majority of its members left, the severely shrunk communist party itself would be converted into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, whilst its members whom belonged to other former Soviet Republics would form similar communist parties e.g. Communist Party of Lithuania etc. A formal confederation of all these communist parties into a larger multinational body was negotiated, but ultimately dropped due to fears that it may be seen as a ploy to revive the Soviet Union and thus lead to further crackdowns from the governments of the new nations.
Although Russia was now a capitalist economy, it was far from prosperous. The Russian government had agreed to bear the former Soviet Union's international commitments. Now although these included perks like the Soviet permanent seat on the United Nation's Security Council, money owed to the Soviet government and so forth, these also included massive disadvantages like the Soviet governments crazy external debt, which towered to US$566.349 Billion. The fact that the nation was under the throes of its biggest economic regression in history did not make things any better. Ultimately, the government's corruption and unwavering belief on the capitalist system would lead to its failures. New Russian entrepreneurs, connected with the Nationalist Party would as a result make billions of dollars in profits whilst the economic conditions of the country continued to deteriorate. The national debt had continued to rise even under the new government, but due to corruption, this spending largely lined the pockets of government officials and the country's new businessmen. Almost all Soviet public assets had been privatized in order to achieve the latter condition, and many public officials had been bribed into dropping the prices well beyond the market value of said properties in an effort, by foreign moguls and rising domestic oligarchs, to buy them cheaply. Predictably this led to no increase in the country's public purse, depleting it instead, and debt continued to skyrocket.
The Russian Federation was clearly bankrupt, and what was left of its public sector would be completely liquidated for private use by foreign creditors. Impatient holders of Russian foreign debt would demand for austerity measures to be taken for purposes of repayment. Consequently, the Russian government would initiate one of the biggest austerity measures in history. Public spending would be massively cut, the many private and public companies that depended on government subsidies and spending would instantly fail, leading to one of the biggest job losses in human history. Millions would lose their jobs, being instantly swallowed by poverty. This austerity measure would symbolize the death of the public sector in Russia, and since Russia had just been recently run by an exclusive publicly owned economy, the nation's service delivery and quality of life would take a massive dip as the relatively small newly formed private economy failed to cope with the needs of the public. As the levels of demand overtook the supply, whilst taxes bubbled, prices for basic consumer goods skyrocketed to levels never seen before inside Russia. What made things worse was that other measures had been taken in an effort to reduce Russian debt, and they almost all had a similar ending to the aforementioned austerity measures.
The unending printing of money in order to supplement the reduction of the national debt had led to catastrophic levels of hyperinflation, and the country's currency plummeted like a stone on water. However, one of the biggest factors that had a crippling effect on the Russian economy were the continued sanctions by the USA and its allies on Russia after President Popov had refused to agree to a series of President George H.W. Bush's unequal treaties with the west on November 1991 (which included the transfer of free oil and gas to Western Europe for two decades etc.). With trade relations with the US worse than during the Soviet era, particularly due to the US President at the time, international trade for Russia had regressed rapidly along with their economy as the Western New World Order took hold and the Cold War ended. The 1992 oil boom inside the Middle East would continue to have a crippling effect on the Russian economy as oil prices collapsed due to US and EU (European Union) efforts to keep them at an all time low in the region, plus the overproduction of oil on its own had led to a fall in demand, thus a fall in prices. Oil production in the Middle East was already massive, and so the new boom drove buyers further away from Russian gas and oil. Shockingly, by May 1993, just two years since the Russian Federation had been declared, the UN Economic and Social Council in conjunction with the Census Bureau of the United States and the Federal State Statistics Services of Russia would declare Russia's poverty rate to be at an astonishing approximate of 80.3%, a humiliating revelation for Russia. Embarrassingly, the nation's GDP had shrunk to just US$570.343 Billion, although still big at the time, it was a far cry from the Soviet GDP of 1991, which spanned about 61.1% of the US economy at that time, and since Russia constituted the most developed part of the former USSR, its economy was expected to perform much than it did, but instead shrunk by a crippling US$745.888 Billion in the span of just two years after multinational conglomerates and Russian oligarchs proceeded to plunder Soviet public assets after the dissolution, during the nation's worse economic regression in history no less. Meanwhile the US economy had soared to US$5.97 Trillion since then, following the 1980s recession, which had led to major contractions within the US economy. Ultimately, the United States stood as the world's hyperpower, and the severely weakened Russian Federation slowly withdrew from world affairs.
It was clearer than the sky, President Popov and his Nationalist Party had failed to improve things inside Russia. In fact conditions had worsened. His government had been disastrous. With a cascade of failures, it was only natural that the flames of revolution and radical political opposition would soon follow. So much so that many even began calling for the return of the Soviet Union, with the Neo-Soviet Movement of 1993 being the most notable. Popov and his Nationalist Party were losing political influence inside the Russian Federation rapidly, and it was only natural that this loss of influence was feeding into their opposition at a relative pace. As a result, many political movements would be formed, subsequently leading to the formation of hundreds of political parties each jockeying for control, prestige and dominion over the Russian Federation. The fact that to counter this massive tundra of opposition, Popov would refuse to make preparations for the constitutionally scheduled and recognized 1996 elections, with the massive scandal caused by the Moscow Documents of December 5th, 1993 giving full details to this plan after the whistle-blower had exposed the Nationalist Party via the publishing of the documents in Western media outlets. The scandal was so widely known that even Russian press that was predominantly pro-Nationalist Party had been forced to publish them. As expected, the Russian public was utterly livid, and the political turmoil within the country worsened.
The most outspoken and popular individual to oppose Nationalist Party rule was undoubtedly Maksym Orlov, of whom opposed the party's rule from day one. A former Soviet General turned politician, Maksym Orlov had been born in 1935, inside Stalinist Soviet Ukraine. Having brutally lost his parents to Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS whilst at the tender age of six during WW2, he utterly despised the West. So it came as no surprise when he opposed the Nationalist Party's pro-Western policies when the Russian Federation was formed, and gained massive popularity after George H.W. Bush had imposed extremely harsh sanctions (such as e.g. any country that bought Soviet oil or gas would be barred from receiving loans from the US, EU, World Bank and IMF) on the already battered Russian economy. Orlov had served as a seemingly loyal member of the Soviet Communist Party, so much so that he had been ranked up to Major General in the Soviet Red Army during the war in Afghanistan. His opposition to the latter war served to be the beginning of his popularity within the then Soviet public, and his opposition to Nationalist Party rule would catapult him to the top of Russian politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union had led to a major change to his rhetoric, as he now had more liberty to criticize the government, and he did so endlessly. Although Orlov was staunchly opposed to capitalism, he was by every stretch of the word, critical of many Soviet policies as well. To him, Western democracy was flawed and non-existent, and thus he preferred a more upfront government. Believing that the establishment of a massive Nationalist Totalitarian State was the only way to cleanse Russia off the "peril of the small privileged bourgeoisie and their perilous Oligarchs", he said. In this state, individual liberties were to be limited and compromised for absolute obedience to the state, which Orlov regarded as the only instrument for law and order. But above all else, he wanted Russia to remain a global Superpower, so he was incredibly shocked and furious when the USSR was dissolved. As consequence to the dissolution, he advocated for extreme revanchism and called for immediate reunification with the 14 other Soviet Republics, attributing pro-Western treachery from Moscow for the balkanization of the USSR.
To pursue his political goals, on July the 5th 1991, immediately after the dissolution of the USSR, Orlov had formed his very own political party - the United Nationalist Alliance of Russia (UNAR), made up of former veterans, the poor (a massive chunk of the general population), workers as well as enduring elements of the former communist party. The party was extremely popular within Russian society, and since its main political ideology remained ambiguous under the umbrella of nationalism, it managed to attract support from many opposing ideologies within Russian society. It was also radical, meaning it had militancy and was thus very popular with the youth. In fact, to say it had militancy was an understatement seeing as it was probably the most violent non-ruling party in the former Soviet republics. A large cause of this was because of stiff competition, particularly from parties who were ideologically unambiguous, and thus had an easily establishable support base. However, Orlov's notorious MF (Militsiya Force), which was the party's armed wing, terrorized opposition on a regular basis, so much so that the May 15, 1994, Bloodbath at Yekaterinberg incident, where thousands of demonstrators were savagely attacked by the MF, leading to the deaths of more than a hundred people as well as the injuring of about a thousand, 982 to be exact, almost led to the MF's declaration as a terrorist organization. Failure by Popov's government to do the latter had led to many believing that the UNAR was indeed collaborating with the government, which led to further division within the enemies of the UNAR. Indeed, the Bloodbath at Yekaterinberg among other events caused by Maksym led him to believe that his party wielded enormous political power, and it would be wise to use it before it faded away, as such, from November 1994, he and his party hierarchy had been secretly planning a massive siege of the capital in an effort to overthrow the government in an obvious coup. Orlov was totally against elections as he had successfully dissuaded his supporters from even preparing to take part in them under the belief that Popov's party would not give up power willingly even after they lose, and thus he had persuaded them to believe that a revolution was necessary to overthrow the Nationalist Party. "A revolution in my lifetime, a revolution for my people, a revolution against treachery, a revolution to end all tyranny. A new revolution to usher us into the new century. A real coming together of all Soviet people's, in shared culture and nationalist identity. A revolution that is SUPREME!!!", of course Popov's government took these words as nothing more than rhetorical ramblings from a loud, militant leader in Maksym Orlov, but it was clear from political analysts that he was preparing his supporters for upheaval and a violent seizure of power, plus the Nationalist Party believed wholeheartedly in the Russian army's ability to defend the current regime should the need arise, as it was a million times stronger than what it was in 1917.
On July the 23rd, 1996, Orlov would mobilize the MF, which was armed to the teeth (largely weapons from veterans as well as those the MF routinely stole from military warehouses using briberies, intimidation and extortion as well as other illicit means) to violently seize key points in the capital, which among other things included Moscow's power-stations, railways, radio stations, media houses, police stations, banks, airports and various government buildings. Immediately after doing that, the MF would violently storm the Kremlin, where the highest government officials had retreated after having their houses burnt and ruthlessly hunted down during the same day. Airports had been seized and the streets of Moscow were not safe enough to traverse with all the violence and mayhem caused by the MF. Indeed, from the Kremlin, the army had been summoned into the city, but to no avail as almost the entirety of the military knew life under the Soviet Union, and preferred it over the current regime, and thus also wanted the government out, plus the Nationalist Party's "postponement of the scheduled election" didn't really help with regards to its support. In fact, Russian generals are though to having been too afraid to deploy the army themselves as a large section of the military regarded itself as a member of the UNAR party. Indeed, Popov as well as the leading members of other opposition parliamentarian parties would be captured by the MF after the Kremlin had been surrounded. Orlov would proclaim the day as the Coup for Revolutsiya, which would serve as a basis for him personally signing the nation's new motto - "Revolution is Forever" after the turmoil caused by the aforementioned events had died down. The next day, July the 24th, 1996 would lead to Orlov's first act of establishing Russia as a totalitarian regime by ordering the MF to "eliminate all treacherous elements within its custody". Faithful to the order, Popov and other leading members of the Nationalist Party would be driven by Dmitri Nayelov and his men in the MF to the outskirts of Moscow, where they would be summarily shot and buried in a mass grave. More than a fifty of these parliamentarians are thought to have been killed. Enquiries as to the location of the bodies would not be disclosed by Dmitri, under the orders of Maksym Orlov. The other captees would roughly be imprisoned for treason, awaiting trial. Indeed, this action served to dissuade opposition to Orlov's forces, whom seemed to be the only form of government in the country seeing as his party controlled the majority of Russia's urban areas, which was where the vast majority of Russians lived. Many believed that a new civil war was on the horizon, but with military leaders having been sufficiently convinced that the West would indeed encourage such a war, seeing as they did do so during the last one, the military would offer full backing to Orlov as Russia's provisional government, on CONDITION however, that free and fair elections be held down the line. This was a double edged sword for Orlov, as although his revolution was supported by the military, it also meant his party would have to fight to keep this power in a vast politically pluralistic society. Orlov feared losing the absolute majority of parliament if free and fair elections went through. However, he had no choice but to agree to the Russian army's demands.
Although Orlov sincerely believed he could win the upcoming elections, he and his right hand man - UNAR Vice Premier Dimitrovo Putin, had serious doubts with regards to the conditions of such a victory. The socioeconomic and political implications of Orlov's plans were massive to say the least, he thus needed the full support of the state in order to implement them, and a politically fragmented constituent assembly would be of detriment to this order of things. The nationwide elections themselves would be held on November 1996, with multiple front-runners, of whom the UNAR, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Socialist Revolutionary Party, The Worker's Party, the Democratic People's Party and the Osvobozhdennyy Rabochiye Bloc (ORB) were front-runners. Indeed, to the surprise of everyone involved the elections themselves were relatively peaceful and without outbursts of violence from any of the participants. But one of the main reasons of this was because those who were most likely to use violence to usurp power were in fact rigging them. The Electoral Council of the Russian Federation together with its chairman had been either successfully bribed or intimidated via extortion to turn a blind eye to acts carried out by UNAR on the ground, using nefarious means like blackmailing, libel, intimidation and bribing, a vast majority of the vote counters in every oblast had been either removed or subverted. Although opposition parties tried to oppose these actions via the electoral council, successful stalling and deliberate ignorance from the latter would ensure that the election results would come out. Ultimately, using criminal means, Orlov had successfully suppressed his opponents and the results of the election would give an overwhelming 90.67% of the Russian parliament to the UNAR in obviously rigged elections. The uproar from UNAR opposition would lead to the involvement of the CIA in the whole scandal, with the CIA giving insurmountable evidence of voter rigging to Russian generals in an effort to get the UNAR removed from power. However, seeing as CIA investigations were done in collaboration with opposition parties to the UNAR, Orlov would successfully convince the Russian military that it was a US ploy to control the Russian government via conjured up evidence.
Seeing as one needed 75% of the Russian parliament to change the constitution, it was clear Orlov had sufficient power to do as he pleased. With the passing of the Confederated Union Act of 1996, the office of Presidency (which Orlov had been occupying), would be converted into that of the Premier of the Russian Federation, granting Orlov all sorts of new powers. Several oblasts would also be combined and renamed under the aforementioned act. Declaring his reign as "The Prosperous Age for Russia", Orlov would begin by banning all opposition parties to the UNAR via the newly enacted Confederated Union Act of 1996 by using the threat of sedition from parties that collaborated with the CIA investigation of the recent elections as evidence. Government officials from the UNAR party would be stationed in almost every major media house inside of Russia in order to censor and control the press by using the aforementioned rationale involving the CIA as an excuse. Contrary to what many in the West feared, that due to the crisis of capitalism inside Russia, this was the country's first step towards Fascism, Orlov's government would commit itself to the country's public sector, which the previous government was vehemently opposed to due to its belief in the free market and private enterprise. Even so, what Orlov would do next would surprise nobody seeing as he had openly advocated for the aggressive reunification of Russia with the former republics. Indeed the Russian military had been weakened by the Soviet-Afghan War together with Russia's economic collapse, but Orlov was seemingly steadfast in his pursuit of these goals, plus, using the Western propaganda strategy of diversion, he felt that a war between Russia and the 14 former Soviet Republics would distract the Russian people from their issues at home. Although many were opposed to the new government, indeed Orlov had the support of a majority the Russian population, and as such many supported his revanchist rhetoric. To this end, he would order the immediate reactivation and mobilization of about 2,500 abandoned Soviet tanks and fighter planes in a massive abandoned base deep in the Russian oblast of Yakutia. Indeed, without warning, Russian forces would simultaneously invade the Baltic states on January the 21st, 1997, in effect beginning the violent Great Reunification Conflict of 1997.
The Great Reunification Conflict of 1997 and the Formation of the RCU[]
As a new cult of personality developed around Orlov inside of Russia, with the MF in collaboration with state officials making sure that a majority of the country's theatres, arts, music etc. glorified Orlov and the Coup for Revolutsiya. Although there was no major censorship bill passed by the Kremlin, it became clear from the get go that the press and all forms of other media would be tightly controlled by the government, especially after the newly formed Department of the Interior would establish the Communications Division for National Security (OKNB) in Moscow, who's job was to control information exposed through the internet and the relative existence of the latter inside of Russia. The fact that this new organization was operating under no direct legislation from Parliament would lead to some backlash from those who opposed Orlov, but the latter would use national security as a pretext for the OKNB's preservation. In addition to this, the newly formed secret police - the Russian Investigations Bureau (RBR) would be used to covertly crush all opposition to the government, including the OKNB. But what truly allowed this political development inside Russia with little to no opposition was the Great Reunification Conflict which had been ongoing when all of these measures were put in place by the UNAR as on the 21st of January, 1997, a total of 700 tanks, 550 airplanes and 190,000 Russian troops would simultaneously invade the three Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, overrunning them almost immediately. No attempts at negotiation had been made on the part of the Russian Federation, and this was due to how opposed people there were to a reunification project with Russia. Indeed the three countries did offer up some resistance, but up against the superior firepower of the Russians, surrendered immediately.
With the occupation of the Baltics, several attempts at negotiations with Russia would be made by the UN in conjunction with the remaining former Soviet Republics. But the peace-talks would drag on for too long, and Orlov, annoyed by the obvious stalling would give the greenlight for Project Boloto (literally meaning "Swamp"), which entailed the mass invasion of Kazakhstan after its government refused to hand over power to Moscow. The invasion would involve 300,000 troops, 4,000 tanks and artillery, 900 AFVs, 1,000 fighter aircrafts and 200 bombers. Even in the face of these odds the government of Kazakhstan would refuse capitulation, leading to massive clashes across the country between forces that had previously been allies under the Soviet Union, which made Orlov especially angry. As a result, the Kazakh government were to be ruthlessly hunted down by Spetsnaz (Russian special forces), with those captured alive either to be killed immediately or sent to Moscow to be trialed for "Sedition against the Soviet Government" as well as "Subversion of the Russian Federation". This would subsequently lead to the Moscow Treason Trials of 1997, where multiple government officials from the Baltic states and Kazakhstan (and later the other Soviet Republics) would be trialed for the aforementioned, with those found guilty (which was about 85% of the trialed individuals) being executed via hanging and firing squad. These deeply repressive measures would lead to further outrage from the international community, with multiple human rights activists campaigning against the aforementioned trials.
The invasion of Kazakhstan would lead to the application of further sanctions against the Russian Federation from the US government, with President Bill Clinton claiming that this was an effort from the US government to oppose "Russian Imperialism". Orlov would obviously denounce the legitimacy of these sanctions, using the Soviet Referendum (where the majority of the Soviet public voted to keep the USSR together) as evidence to his assertion that, "No national sovereignty has been outraged by the Motherland. 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", he said during his address of the UN General Assembly just days after the invasion of Kazakhstan. Although the attempts by the Americans to sanction the Russian Federation via the UNSC would obviously be vetoed by the Russians, it served as proof that the US government was not happy about Orlov's attempts to reunify Russia with the other Soviet Republics. After Orlov's words to the UN General Assembly, Boris Yeltsin knew that his time inside Russia was over, as a result, even though he was being closely surveilled by the Russian Investigations Bureau (RBR), managed to flee the country together with his family, taking refuge in the UK. Indeed, when Yeltsin and his family was fleeing Russia, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation had released a summons for Yeltsin to appear in the Moscow Treason Trials for "Sedition against the Soviet Government". It was clear that Orlov wanted to crush any attempts to try and balkanize the country again in the future.
Of course, elections were not Orlov's priority, but the war for reunification was. Project Boloto was deemed a failure by Orlov due to the refusal to surrender by Kazakhstanis militias loyal to the government of Kazakhstan. Although the regular army had been smashed by the Russians, the militias had retreated into the mountains, from where they launched a counter-insurgency war against the Russians, even though the civilian population from the area had no problem reuniting with Russia if it meant the fighting would stop. Although Kazakhstan was turning into a disaster akin to Afghanistan, Orlov had no intention of giving up, and had thus subsequently mobilized 70% of the Russian military for a new operation. Project Belaya Gora (which literally "White Mountain"), which would commence on April the 20th, 1997, would be Russia's biggest military operation since WW2, and would involve a total of 12,000 tanks & AFVs, 4,000 planes and 1,000,000 Russian troops simultaneously invading Armenia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, whilst reinforcing troops fighting in Kazakhstan. Anticlimactically, all the aforementioned nations would immediately get overrun, particularly after their governments fled out of fear of capture in the chaos by Spetsnaz operatives. This, on top of the fact that the majority of the citizens in these countries favoured the Soviets over their current governments, had a greater demoralizing effect on the populations and militaries involved, leading to instant surrender, and as it became clear to the Kazakhstanis fighting that Orlov would have a million troops ready to invade, the leaders of those involved in the counter-insurgency would cut themselves a deal with the Russian government, allowing them to escape the Moscow Treason Trials and surrender without a fuss. By the time the aforementioned trials began, all the aforementioned states had been annexed into the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, Russian delegates were using the Soviet Referendum as evidence to show that the conflict between Russia and the former Soviet Republics was an internal matter inside the Soviet Union, and thus not in contravention of International Law, hence a good portion of the world refused to follow Western sanctions against Russia. Even so, treaties had also been signed to dissolve the Soviet Union, hence another huge chunk of the world (apart from those fearing the effect of these sanctions if they did not comply with them) not only followed the sanctions, but supported them as well. Even so, all this posturing between the United States and Russia before the international stage would be what gives Orlov ample time to finish his reunification of the USSR as he had made it clear via a statement to the Whitehouse that any attempts to extend NATO membership or military assistance to former Soviet Republics would be seen as subversion of the Soviet government and thus an act of aggression against Russia. Indeed, President Clinton had to tread carefully, lest he plunge the world into nuclear war by interfering in the affairs of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. In addition, many in the USA itself opposed US involvement in the Reunification Conflict between the former Republics of the Soviet Union. It felt like it was the 1960s all over again, and Orlov's scrapping of Russia's No-First-Use Policy with regards to nuclear weapons, served to further fuel opposition to involvement in the war from the Clinton Administration out of fear that Orlov would use nukes if NATO engaged Russia. In addition to this, America's efforts to prevent Orlov from succeeding were further downplayed by the Ukrainian Disgrace of March, 1997, where the Russians exposed talks involving the US Secretary of State and the leadership of the Ukraine before the invasion and occupation of the Baltics and the beginning of the current crisis, which entailed the extension of NATO membership to the Ukraine, something the former had not only previously promised not to attempt (i.e. the inclusion of former Soviet Republics into NATO after the dissolution of the Soviet Union) but had been very skeptical about doing anyways until then. Indeed this helped the Russians to paint the Americans as the true aggressors, and subsequently led to the aforementioned statement to the White House, unsurprisingly interpreted as a threat against the USA by the US government and its media.
With the Ukrainian Disgrace of March, 1997, the Ukrainian government were obviously in a vulnerable position, not only were they exposed as colluding with the US government to extend NATO to the borders of the Russian Federation years before Orlov had even gotten into power, but a furious Orlov would use the latter as a pretext to release a decree immediately after the conspiracy between the Americans and the Ukrainians had been exposed to the UN, the 17th Decree of the Office of the Premier of the Russian Federation as it came to be known would declare that extension of any former "Soviet Republic into the North Atlantic Treaty means that a state of war between the Soviet people and NATO exists". Basically, Russia was going to declare war on America and its allies if they tried to protect the former Soviet Republics by granting them NATO membership. This was blatant brinksmanship from Orlov's government. What made this even worse was that the 17th Decree had been released almost immediately after Ukraine had publicly requested NATO membership, which was the same month as the Ukrainian Disgrace of March, 1997. Although in the year 1994, the Ukraine had given up the giant nuclear arsenal of over 2,000 nuclear warheads it had inherited from the Soviet Union in exchange for security guarantees from Popov's Russia and the United States, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's blatant defiance of Russian demands for peaceful reunification by publicly requesting NATO membership was the last straw for Orlov's government. Thus after about a month or so of pointless negotiations from both sides whilst the Russian Army was invading the Eurasian parts of the former Soviet Union, on the 3rd of May 1997, only days after victory in Eurasia, soldiers from the same Russian Army divisions which had just been involved in both Project Boloto and Project Belaya Gora, which had been mounting on the Russian-Ukrainian border would violently invade Ukraine.
Over 500,000 men strong, with more firepower and military mobility, the Russian military would slice into Ukraine, smashing the organized military divisions the latter had set up. Indeed, due to its Soviet history, the Ukrainians were also heavily armed with Soviet class weapons and manages to deal casualties comparable to themselves on the Russians. Although at first the attacking Russian army outnumbered the active Ukrainian army two to one, after activating its reserves, the Ukrainians would gradually gain numerical advantage over the Russians, halting their unstoppable advance just outside Kiev. Even so, the Russians had more military resources at their disposal and this inevitably began to tilt the casualty figures onto their favour. The price for halting the advancing Russian army just outside the capital would be paid with blood as the Ukrainians suffered heavy casualties. Orlov was very surprised by Ukrainian resistance to what he believed was their liberation. Although his forces had essentially overrun most of Eastern Ukraine, his advance Westward had been halted by the fierce fighting between the two sides. Indeed, Ukrainian President Kuchma's government was not only imbued with corruption scandals and suppression of media freedoms, but he had been notoriously developing an anti-Russian sentiment inside the Ukraine through media demonization, with the repression of people with Russian antecedents being the result. Also, a growing neo-Nazi movement had also emerged in the Ukraine immediately after the dissolution of the USSR, and Kuchma's government, had not only emboldened it, but supported and utilized it for its own benefit. All these factors among many were the reason why Russia was becoming increasingly unpopular within the Ukraine, and except for Crimea (a Ukrainian region that was largely ethnically Russian), were essentially either disliked or not particularly cared for in the rest of the Ukraine.
With the West hitting Moscow with a barrage of economic sanctions for its invasion of the former Soviet Republics, after an incredibly controversial debate with regards to militarily supporting the Ukraine, the United States and its allies would decide to pursue the dangerous policy of sending a massive array of weapons to the Ukraine, a brinksmanship policy from the West as well seeing as Orlov had made it clear that attempts to extend military support to former Soviet Republics during this conflict would be seen as a subversion of the Soviet government, but since the latter technically no longer existed, the West controversially took its chances. Aid would come in the form of M16 rifles, mortars, artillery pieces and self-propelled artillery, anti-tank missiles and weapons, APCs and AFVs, anti-Aircraft guns and missiles, as well as some tanks. Although this Western aid would serve to bolster Ukrainian forces on the ground, the Russians continued to enjoy total air superiority over Ukrainian air-space as the West refrained from not only sending military aid in the form of fighter aircrafts to the Ukraine, but accepting the latter's request for the declaration of a NATO No-Fly-Zone over Ukrainian air-space in order to fight Russia's powerful air-force, plus the aid they did send ultimately did not serve to tip the scales against the Russians militarily. With large Russian support in Crimea, on the 15th of May 1997, the Russian army, which had already landed in the Kerch Ferry Terminal, in the port city of Kerch with zero resistance after the Russian air-force had gained air superiority over the strait which separated Crimea's Kerch ferry terminal from Russia, would carry out an invasion of the entirety of Crimea after Ukrainian forces attempted to capture the Sevastopol Naval Base. With total air-superiority over the Crimean peninsula, Russian forces would advance almost unopposed, officially overrunning the entire peninsula on the 17th of May. By the 23rd, the Russian army had already made inroads into Southern Ukraine, capturing the cities of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa, and managing to not only link up with forces in Crimea, but place Russian forces on the border between the Ukraine and Moldova (another former Soviet Republic), however, just as Russian paratroopers prepared to land in various cities around Moldova, there would be no need to invade as Russian intelligence operatives within the Presidential Palace in the Capital City of Chisinau, would force newly elected Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi and his government to surrender after holding them at gunpoint. With the Moldovan military instructed to not engage the advancing Russian military, the latter would manage to simply take over Moldova without any fighting on the 25th of May.
With the capture of Moldova and most of the former Soviet Union, it was clear Orlov's goals were going to realized sooner or later. Thus after negotiations with the Belorussian government for months, President Alexander Lukashenko, an old ally of the now deceased President Anatoly Popov and his Nationalist Party, would formally relinquish power over Belarus onto the hands of Russian Federation Premier Maksym Orlov on the 30th of May after assurances that he would not be added onto the Moscow Treason Trials nor exiled from the country. With fighting in the Ukraine continuing, due to Orlov's reluctance to engage in total warfare due to concerns that the death toll on Ukrainian civilians would be simply unacceptable, the city of Kiev remained under the hands of Ukrainian forces, and in order to keep the city's population from continuing its chaotic scattering as its people flee the fighting, Orlov would order the city's shelling to be stopped, with only government buildings being hit. This would go on for another week, frustrated, Orlov would order the Russian military convoys outside the capital to go around the city and continue their advance westwards. This was to cut off the city's supplies, surround them and thus force the government, which was still inside the city, to surrender. Indeed, in their Westward advance the Russian military would be met with fierce resistance from NATO supported Ukrainian national separatists, neo-Nazi groups, private military contractors from Britain and the United States as well as the regular Ukrainian army, which was bolstered by Western media support, portraying them as the world's heroes. Regardless of this resistance, the Russian Army, with numerical superiority in both equipment and manpower after the arrival of reinforcements as well as total air supremacy, would manage to overrun the entirety of Western Ukraine by June the 26th, including the cities Zhytomr, Rivne, Luts'k and Lviv .
With Kiev totally outflanked and cut-off from the rest of Ukraine, many had understandably anticipated the setting in of a siege over the heavily defended city, however, on the 1st of July, 1997, President Kuchma's car would be bombed during his secret convoy's regular rounds in the city as a means to evade the Russian air-force as well as Russian secret operatives on the hunt for him on the ground. To this day it remains unclear whether or not Russian secret agents or members of his own convoy planted the bomb that killed him. Indeed, it finally settled in for the remaining Ukrainian government, which heavily supported Kuchma's policy of no surrender, that the Russians had won, and so on the 4th of July, the Ukrainian government in the city would formally declare unconditional surrender to the Russian Army, ordering all forces within the country to surrender, leading to the Russian Army finally taking the Capital of the Ukraine. The conflict between Russia and the other former Soviet Republics had ended, and about 42,721 lives had been lost, an overwhelming amount of whom had been killed in the fighting in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Even military campaign had gone incredibly well, considering the fact that it did not start a World War. With a decree that all the people's of the now newly re-annexed regions of Eastern Europe and Eurasia were to be considered Russian before any other nationality (Georgian, Ukrainian, Moldovan etc.) it was clear that he was embarking on a long campaign to stamp out any feelings of separatist nationalism within Russia. To permanently transform Russia's political system, Orlov's parliament would convert the Confederated Union Act of 1996 into the Constitution of the Confederated Union of Russia, 1996. With a new constitution in place, on the 25th of July, 1997, Maksym Orlov would declare the formation of the Russian Confederated Union, with the city of Moscow as its Confederal Capital, and with a total population of over 293 445 000 people. The constitution would also transform Orlov's office of Premier into that of the Premier Supreme, granting him additional powers. The end of the war would be marked by the beginning of the new national Presidential elections as mandated by the new Constitution within the newly formed RCU, where all 293,445,000 citizens were encouraged to participate in voting in a new President.