I must admit, I hadn't explored that idea of a Prussiagrate 2 with Lithuania, but you have given me some ideas on this! The Kaliningrad enclave is going to be hit very hard in the economic crisis, and Lithuania is going to be walking a tightrope with Russia. But as they are only about 5% Slavic and 95% Lithuanian, they avoid the fate of Estonia and Lativa, which had large Russian minorities.
Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
I must admit, I hadn't explored that idea of a Prussiagrate 2 with Lithuania, but you have given me some ideas on this! The Kaliningrad enclave is going to be hit very hard in the economic crisis, and Lithuania is going to be walking a tightrope with Russia. But as they are only about 5% Slavic and 95% Lithuanian, they avoid the fate of Estonia and Lativa, which had large Russian minorities.
You don't have to do the rewrite - it's good enough as is. We can assume in that "out of place" thing that whilst Volodya was cuckoo on that front, in this case Lebed is willing to let that slide and appear like he's helping the US with embassy security. After all, it's about positive appearances, right?
In any case, I can't wait for the next update. It's been brilliant so far.
In any case, I can't wait for the next update. It's been brilliant so far.
We start to see what the police state looks like in the next post. But whereas some go to that "other place" (which if you read between the lines can see is Kamchatka), others end up in somewhere less depressing thanks to a bizzare loophole...
We will get our first taste of the impact of MASSIVE sanctions on the UIS shortly, and the strange lifeline that gets thrown to Zhirinovsky to keep his regime afloat...
Thank you! I knew the Harold Stassen angle would be fun to play with to say the least, but it really wasn't on purpose! He was the only person besides Buchanan and David Duke who was running against Bush in 1992 so I had to recruit him!
As for Flatwater, I must admit, i am still catching up on the original P&S, but I may jump ahead to that one since it looks like a great TL!
PART THIRTY THREE: A LIE AND TWO LOAVES OF BREAD
PART THIRTY THREE: A LIE AND TWO LOAVES OF BREAD
Well, we now go back to Russia for a brief update on the state of the economy under these massive UN sanctions. But we get our first idea on how the UIS survives the sanctions thanks to an unexpected loophole. We also revisit the old “Free Market Fascism” update and see what is going on in Kazakhstan with the UN sanctions in place…
CNN interview with James Baker, former Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush
July 13, 1997
CNN: You indicated that President Bob Kerrey “failed our country” by not closing the Article 8 loophole of United Nations Security Resolution 777. But wasn’t President Bush the one who authorized the Article 8 loophole?
Baker: Yes, but we didn't know how it would turn into a loophole. Everyone supported Article 8. The United States didn’t recognize the Russian occupation of those other Republics, why punish them for being occupied? Besides, if the other Republics realized that being tethered to Russia was turning into a huge financial drain on their economies, well, we figured they would break free that much sooner. But once President Bush realized how Article 8 was being exploited by the Chinese, he moved to close it. Unfortunately that was after the election and it was too late to do anything about it. But when he met with President elect Kerrey in November he implored him not to let that loophole remain open. He told him that the Chinese were exploiting it, and if he didn’t act quickly, western companies would soon follow suit. And once western companies had settled in, it would be next to impossible to dislodge them.
CNN: Why do you think President Kerrey chose not to do anything about Article 8?
Baker: Well, we could see clearly that the sanctions were working in Russia. Perhaps they were working too well. Although Russia suffered under sanctions for the entire decade, in 1992 the sanctions were particularly devastating. But sadly, President Kerrey didn’t have the strength of character to stand up to the radical left wing of his party. They were furious at the toll of Iraqi sanctions. Right after taking office a report came out indicating nearly 200,000 Iraqi children might had died because of UN Sanctions on Iraq. Right after that a CNN news piece comes out showing images on TV of emancipated Russians wandering around the streets, begging for food. And many Democrats were worried that if the sanctions were to be put on all of the UIS countries, the big difference would be what little food there was would go to Russia while it would be the Kazakhs and Moldovans starving to death. So he decided not to suffer the wrath of his party, and he let Article 8 stay in place. And it was nothing short of an IV right into the vein of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing the impact of United Nations Security Resolution 777 on the UIS in October of 1992.
BBC: You indicated that United Nations Security Council Resolution 777, which imposed massive international sanctions on Russia, were quite devastating in the final months of 1992 and that they nearly ended the presidency of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Putin: Yes. To be honest, the Constitutional Crisis of 1993 could have occurred as early as November of 1992. The sanctions took an immediate toll.
BBC: How so?
Putin: As bad as sanctions were in the late 90s, by then the UIS had figured out how to at least keep people fed. You could find bread and meat in the stores. But in 1992 none of the shops had anything to sell. Food was scarce. The only things that people on the street could get easily were either guns, petrol, or ironically, bananas.
BBC: But wasn’t this similar to what many Russians experienced under communism?
Putin: Don’t underestimate the impact of ten months of capitalism. We almost had a riot in Moscow when the McDonald’s closed down.
BBC: So how did Zhirinovsky weather the storm?
Putin: General Lebed and the Committee knew that there was no way they could be seen as rolling over to the sanctions in 1992. If they did, the UN would demand they give up Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. So the plan was to drag them out as long as possible, and then turn on Zhirinovsky once the UN decided that it had turned into a Cuba situation. But once the impact of the sanctions was felt the committee realized that surviving the sanctions would be difficult…very difficult. Suddenly the impact of “shock therapy” was truly felt. Many of the state industries that produced food and vodka and even clothing now were bankrupt. We were totally dependent on outside help for food. Zhirinovsky tried to reinstate central planning and state control over industries, but shock therapy left him with nothing to work with. All he could do was implement price controls, which didn’t help since there was nothing to sell anyways. And this created problems with many of the liberals in the LDP.
BBC: But weren’t they nearly wiped out during the purges?
Putin: No, only the ones who dared to stand up to the military were. Some, like Gennady Burbulis, remained. And they were not happy about the return of central planning in Russia. But they accepted it since there was no other option. Besides, the liberals had their laboratory to test free enterprise and to test the free market.
BBC: Where was that?
Putin: Kazakhstan.
Russian citizens gather outside the Moscow McDonald's as it closes its doors in September of 1992 (AP)
Cheney Resigns from Bush Campaign to Lobby
June 29, 2000
Associated Press
WASHINGTON- Former United States Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney has resigned from both Halliburton and the presidential campaign of George W. Bush to lobby for Wall Street. However, he has not ruled out a cabinet position in a potential Bush presidency despite accepting the position of CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable. He is set to begin working for the Financial Services Roundtable on November 3.
“At this time, I feel that I leave the campaign in competent hands and I feel confident that Governor Bush will no longer need my assistance as he selected the next vice president of the United States,” Cheney said at a press conference, “I am honored to have been part of this campaign, and I wish Governor Bush the best of luck as he heads into the Republican Convention next month.”
Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton earlier this year when he was asked by Governor Bush to head a committee to vet the next Republican vice presidential candidate. However, his role in what the media dubbed “Kazakhgate” and his subsequent denials of wrong doing became a tremendous distraction for the Bush campaign. Although Governor Bush has denied that Kazakhgate had any role in the resignation, many pundits point to his resignation as CEO of Halliburton on the same day as proof that the scandal had badly damaged the former Secretary of Defense and was the major reason for his sudden departure from the Bush campaign.
“Clearly one must call into question Mr. Cheney’s judgment,” commented Vice President Al Gore, “Although we applaud his decision to resign, I think the fact that he even made it into the Bush inner circle should cause voters to seriously question what kind of president George W. Bush would be.”
Kazakhgate exploded on the national spotlight when Mother Jones reported in February that Halliburton had sold over one billion dollars worth of dual-use oil drills to the Kazakh government. Mother Jones also reported that Halliburton, through its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root, helped financed the construction of dozens of new cities around the Tenzig Oil Field and the Kashagan Oil Field in northern Kazakhstan. Cheney responded that United Nations Security Council Resolution 777 only prohibited trade with the Republic of Russia and not any of the other Republics that were part of the UIS. However, Resolution 777 prohibited trade “if it appeared that such trade would benefit either the UIS government or the Russian Republic.” Critics point to the obvious benefits that Moscow received from the development of Kazakh oil fields and the construction of the new cities along the Caspian Sea (which due to the heavy population of Russians in these cities has strengthened the UIS’ hold on the Kazakh Republic according to many observers).
“The sanctions against the UIS never had a chance to work,” commented Pierre S. du Pont, former Republican Governor of Delaware, “because too many people like Dick Cheney took advantages of the loopholes in the sanctions for their own gain. Clearly what Halliburton did was not in line with the true intent of Article 8. It was meant to help Republics like Kazakhstan free themselves from UIS occupation, not help the Russians solidify their hold over the Kazakh nation.”
Russians in Kazakhstan recount early days of UN sanctions in UIS
Foreign Affairs (2/22/2008)
by William Hason
Gennady Podrezov recounts the struggles of everyday Russians in late 1992 after UN sanctions were implemented
(TENZIGRAD, KAZAKHSTAN) Gennady Podrezov still remembers the fear that gripped him and his family on that cold February day in Tambov, a large city nearly 300 miles from Moscow. He remembers it like it was yesterday.
“I had been terrified ever since the revolution,” he said as he opened his closet and showed me the Kalashnikov that led to all of his troubles, “I had never made it a secret that I opposed Zhirinovsky, and I was registered as a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia. But when they started handing out Kalashnikovs I decided to sign up and get one. My friend, Maxim Popov got one too and he sold his for $75 American dollars. He told me I should too. But I decided not to. Not out of principle, but because I thought the gun was worth more than $75.”
It was a decision that he often reflects back on, even more than his decision to get the gun in the first place. Gennady Podrezov is sure that it was that decision that saved his life.
“I heard that they came for Popov right after they took me,” Podrezov recounted, “but when they discovered he no longer had the gun they threw him in jail for six months before they sent him to that…other place. They sent him to the place everyone called Zhirinovsky’s Siberian Island Paradise.”
Although things in the UIS began to normalize somewhat by late 1993, with opposition parties again beginning to operate freely, in early 1993 much of Russia resembled the Soviet Union of old. Long lines could be seen outside shops while hunger and desperation gripped the nation and the police instilled fear in the hearts of everyone.
“After the revolution everything changed,” Podrezov recalled. “We were all afraid to walk the streets. It was clear that the KGB needed to get rid of people. There was not enough food to go around so they just wandered the streets looking to arrest people. The military was out and they could stop you at any time and demand your papers. Not just your identity papers, but your voter identification card. They could demand to find out what political faction you supported. And for those of us with the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia, we were often considered enemy number one.”
But for as bad as the police presence was, he knew he was one of the lucky ones. Many of his fellow democrats had been killed in the riots that followed the trial of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
“Everyone knew somebody in the French embassy,” Podrezov recounted, “even supporters of Zhirinovsky had friends in the French embassy. That was what terrified us more than anything. Even Stalin was never so brazen. To march into another country’s embassy and seize hundreds of Russian-born people and take them off to kill them?! It was beyond insanity. We suddenly knew we were living in a terrifying new world. We may have lived in fear in the Soviet Union, but this new Union was something even more frightening.”
Podrezov was not at all surprised when Pravda reported the following day that the West had put sanctions on the country, and that the UN had followed suit. He even secretly hoped that they would work, that Zhirinovsky would be starved out of power. But he also knew that was unlikely.
“Look how long Cuba was under sanctions,” Podrezov said, “and the only people who suffered were people like me. Castro never suffered! Only the Cuban people suffered.”
Podrezov elected not to try and flee the country and take refuge in a foreign embassy, a decision that he said almost certainly saved his life. Rather, he went to his local clerk’s office and quietly registered with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, hoping to slip under the radar and not raise attention to himself.
“We lived in the shadows for nearly eighty years in Russia,” Podrezov said, “we were used to it.”
But after the sanctions took hold he knew that Russia had yet to hit rock bottom. Suddenly survival became a challenge.
“Two days after the sanctions I noticed the lines forming around the local grocery store,” Podrezov said, “within four days the shelves were bare. That’s when we realized that we were in danger of starving.”
With food scarce, Podrezov, like all of the residents of Tambov, began slipping into a subsistence economy. He began looking for anything he could trade for food.
“Sure, the government had technically abandoned communism,” Podrezov recounted, “so technically you could grow your own food, or raise your own livestock, without government interference. But we lived in a city, not in the country! None of us had any crops!”
Podrezov soon began trading with the only man in his neighborhood with food.
“Under communism many people still had chickens in their homes, but most of us had sold them after the fall of communism,” Podrezov said, “One of my neighbors had bought a hundred chickens shortly after that. I remember when he did. He paid fifty rubles for a hundred chickens. We teased him and told him that his apartment was too small to live with that many chickens and that he wasted his money. Well, the joke was on us.”
Podrezov, like many of his neighbors, paid five US dollars per egg to the man, often trading anything they could to get a single egg.
“One man traded his car for a chicken,” Podrezov recounted, “but he was stupid about it. He cooked the chicken and ate it. He should have talked to me first. I would have traded my car for another one of the chickens and then we would have had all the eggs we wanted!”
But even as bad as it was in Tambov, Podrezov and his family would soon discover that the worst was yet to come.
“The man with the chickens was a janitor at the elementary school under communism,” Podrezov recounted, “but thanks to those chickens he ended up with a car and who knows how much money before he took off with his loot. After he sold his chickens I figured he bribed a soldier and drove his new car to Brest with at least ten thousand dollars. Not a bad way to start a life out west.”
Without their meager source of food, and with the economy crumbling around them, tensions between neighbors soon boiled over.
“We all started fighting with each other,” Podrezov recounted, “the pressure was breaking us all down. But rather than blame the government or even the west, we started blaming each other.”
It was in this heightened environment that Podrezov would discover how desperate his neighbors had become.
“Everyday we all went to the grocery store on Ulitsa Mira on our way home from work,” Podrezov recounted, “and we always had to wait in line for what ended up being nothing. But one day I decided to go back to the store after all of my neighbors had left. I stood in the line a second time. By chance a small shipment of bread had come in and I was able to buy two loaves of bread. I was so happy; I guess I was smiling all the way home.”
However, word of Podrezov’s fortune soon spread.
“Later that night two of my neighbors started pounding on my door loudly,” Podrezov said, “they were screaming at the top of their lungs ‘We know you have bread Gennady! Open this door!’”
Podrezov opened the door and tried to reason with his neighbors, but emotions were raw.
“Other neighbors began to emerge due to the commotion,” Podrezov said, “and one of them kept screaming ‘you don’t deserve bread! You’re a traitor! You’re a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia!’ I tried to deny it, but they became angrier. That’s when we noticed that the police arrived.”
The soldiers dispersed the crowd, but not before taking statements from the woman who accused them of treason.
“Suddenly her story changed,” Podrezov said sadly, “I robbed her of her bread with a gun. She was going to let them take me and my family to a gulag for two loaves of bread!”
The police entered his small flat and began searching for the bread. They discovered the two loaves on the table as the woman screamed that those were her loaves. But it was what happened next that would change the life of Gennady Podrezov forever.
“One of the policemen opened my closet and found the Kalashnikov,” Podrezov recounted, “that’s when I knew it was all over.”
As the woman yelled that the AK-47 that Podrezov hid in his closet was the weapon she was robbed with, one of the officers threw him to the ground as his wife and three children screamed.
“I really thought they would shoot me right there in front of my family,” Podrezov said as tears welled up in his eyes, “I thought that my children would have to witness my execution over a lie and two loaves of bread.”
The officers seized the gun and the “documents of assignment” that were given to him when he received it. But they didn’t stop there.
“At first I was glad to see that they were not giving the bread to the woman from Apartment 5B,” Podrezov said, “they told her it was evidence and that it would be seized for trial. That bitch started crying right there in the hallway.”
But what happened next terrified Podrezov.
“I saw them handcuff my children and my wife,” Podrezov recounted, “My three year old son was bound with a rope and pushed to the ground so hard it chipped his tooth.”
The drive to the Tambov police station was terrifying for Gennady Podrezov, who could not get the image of his children in bondage out of his mind. Certain that they were being taken to a “secret interrogation room” in the Police station, Podrezov began openly weeping.
“My children were all crying and screaming in the back of the police van,” Podrezov said softly, “and at first I was trying to be strong for them, telling them it would be all right. But then suddenly I realized that we were all about to be killed, and I couldn’t help it. I just started crying too. I am not proud of that moment, and if it were just me, I think I would have been able to hold my composure. But the thought of my children being executed was simply too much to bear.”
As they arrived at the Police Station an eerily familiar sight greeted them.
“It was the KGB,” Podrezov recalled, “we recognized them at once. Then I knew it was over.”
The two KGB agents separated Podrezov from his family and took him to a small cell in the basement where the beatings would begin.
“All I could think about was protecting my family,” Podrezov said, “I didn’t care if they killed me, so I blurted out ‘I will confess to anything if you don’t hurt my family.’ But that didn’t work.”
The beatings began as soon as he blurted out the plea for his family, all with a peculiar and unexpected line of questioning.
“I expected them to ask me if I was a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia, or if I opposed the UIS or Vladimir Zhirinovsky,” Podrezov recounted, “but all they kept asking me was ‘do you believe in private property! Do you want to own property?!’”
At first Podrezov denied it, still begging his tormentors to stop the beatings. Initially he refused to answer in the affirmative, believing that to do so would be a death sentence for him and his family. But he was only able to resist for so long before the torture broke him down.
“I honestly don’t know how long I held out,” Podrezov recounted, “but the bruises didn’t heal completely until 1994, so I know it much have been awhile.”
To this day, Gennady Podrezov was shocked at what happened next. Stopping the beatings immediately, one of the two KGB agents suddenly picked up the phone and called a young woman into the room.
“She must have been no more than 20 or 21,” Podrezov said, “and she didn’t look at all surprised at what she saw when she walked in. I realized at that moment that I was one of thousands who had been in that room.”
The KGB agent picked up a folder and thrust it in Podrezov’s lap before uttering the words that would forever change his life.
“Comrade, you agreed to move to the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan when you asked for the Kalashnikov,” Podrezov recalled the agent saying; “here is the title for your new plot of land in Tenzigrad.”
Podrezov was stunned into silence at the statement, afraid to even acknowledge the folder on his lap.
“There is no house there yet,” the agent added “but don’t worry about that. The Americans will build one for you.”
Even after the KGB took Podrezov and his family to his apartment to collect his belongings, he was still sure that they were being led to their deaths.
“I remember they only allowed us to take a few bags per person and our gun, but they told us to put tags on them so we wouldn’t get them mixed up with someone else’s gun when we got to the bus,” Podrezov recalled, “I knew the Nazis told the Jews the same thing.”
It was on the bus filled with other unfortunate Russians that Podrezov first started wondering if perhaps the worst was behind him.
“It was such a strange experience,” Podrezov said, “there were liberals and communists sitting next to each other. Even die-hard LDP supporters were on the bus. It really didn’t matter who you were before the bus ride, the only thing that mattered was did you take a gun and agree to move to Kazakhstan back in January of last year. If you did, well, the UIS was now here to collect on that debt.”
What Podrezov saw after the thirty hour bus ride also gave him hope.
“We saw westerners standing around,” Podrezov said, “they had crisp uniforms and shiny hard hats on. We could tell in an instance that they were Americans.”
The Americans seemed oblivious to the refugees as the bus came to a halt near them, but as soon as Gennady Podrezov stepped off the bus, a chance encounter made him realize that, despite everything he had just been through, things might just start looking up.
“One of the Americans asked if anyone spoke English,” Podrezov recalled, “that’s when I raised my hand.”
Podrezov and his family were quickly recruited by the Americans, who hired him on the spot as a translator.
“They told me I was going to be paid $21,000 US Dollars a year,” Podrezov said with a chuckle, “I honestly thought to myself, ‘my English must not be as good as I thought. I could have sworn they said $21,000.’”
But for him family, the realization that the worst was behind them was even more emotional.
“My oldest daughter went to the American cafeteria that afternoon,” Podrezov recounted, “and when she got there she saw a table covered in bottles of Coca-Cola and 7-UP, just sitting there for everyone to grab. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She never saw so much soda pop in her life. She just stood there, deciding which one she would have. Some Americans behind her got irritated because she was holding up the line, and they told her just to take both of them! She nearly cried. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Two days ago two loaves of bread were a tremendous feast, and now she was drinking Coca-Cola and 7-UP at once!”
Now, after fifteen years, Gennady Podrezov finds himself the most unlikely beneficiary of the infamous Article 8 loophole. Where United Nations sanctions against his country ended at the borders of Russia, he, and thousands of other Russians like him find themselves living comfortable lives in the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan, helping American companies exploit the vast oil reserves in the northern Caspian Sea.
“As much as I appreciate the life that my family now has, I don’t think the Americans and Chinese should have ignored the sanctions,” Podrezov said, “They knew that all they were doing was helping Zhirinovsky hold onto power.”
For the thousands who were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night after UN sanctions began to collapse in February of 1993, the memories are still bitter. But they find themselves outnumbered not only at the ballot box, but even inside their homes.
“To this day I will never forgive Vladimir Zhirinovsky for what he did to my family on February 13, 1993,” Podrezov added, “and I will never vote for the Liberal Democratic Party! Never! I don’t buy for a minute that they changed under Lebed! But sadly, my youngest son is a strong supporter of Alexander Lebed and even Vladimir Zhirinovsky. It’s odd. The image of him getting his tooth broken by Zhirinovsky’s thugs is why I hate the LDP so much. Yet he thinks I’m the one who is out of touch with reality.”
Let’s Go Eastern Europe 1998
Eastern Europe on a Budget
Let’s Go Inc.
Publication Date: January 9, 1998
800 Pages
Croatia
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is an old city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Croatia. Despite heavy damage during the Croatian civil war of 1992-1993, it is slowly regaining its place as one of the most prominent tourist resorts of the Mediterranean as western tourists are slowly discovering what Lord Byron called “the pearl of the Adriatic”.
Dubrovnik is a seaport and the centre of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its population was about 43,000 in 1991, but most believe that it has since doubled as refuges from the war in Bosnia have flooded into the city. Dubrovnik was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and despite the damage from the war, much of the beauty still can be found in the old city. A magnificent curtain of walls surrounds marble streets and baroque buildings in the old town, a sharp contrast to the refugee camps that encircle the city itself.
Getting In:
By Plane
Dubrovnik airport is located about 15 miles to the south of the city. The following airlines offer service to Dubrovnik:
Lufthansa (Munich), Luxair (Luxembourg), British Airways (London-Gatwick), Iberia airlines (Madrid), Tarom (Bucharest), and Croatian Air (Zagreb and various European locations).
By Boat
Almost everyone who comes to Dubrovnik comes by way of ferry. The biggest ferry service that stops in Dubrovnik is Jadrolinija, which leaves either from Rijeka, Croatia, or Bari, Italy.
By Land
Contrary to what you might have been told, overland service to Dubrovnik from Zagreb is virtually non-existent and not for the faint of heart! Ever since the 1992 ceasefire, and the 1993 Split Peace Treaty which allegedly ended the conflict between the UIS and Croatia, any drive through central Croatia will drag you into a ocean of red tape that even the most seasoned war correspondents have trouble with! Bus service between Zagreb and Dubrovnik will require you to either take the coastal road to Zadar and then catch a ferry to Split, or enter what the Croatians refer to as “UIS occupied territory”.
If you are crazy enough to take Bus 113B from Zagreb to the Krnjak border crossing, be advised that you will need a Croatian travel permit to enter the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina. These travel permits are not easy to obtain if you are not a journalist. Also be advised that to enter the UIS, you need an entry visa. Unlike with the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan, there is no independent embassy or consulate office for Krajina, so you will need to deal directly with the UIS embassy! A non-Kazakh UIS visa is even tougher to obtain than a Croatian travel permit and you can pretty much assume you won't get one unless you are from North Korea, Libya, Iraq, or oddly enough Switzerland. From there note that there is NO EMBASSY SERVICE anywhere in the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina for any western country (yes, this means you Switzerland). So if you lose your passport or it is stolen (and it will be, see Staying Safe below) then you will need to find a way to get to a consulate office in Belgrade, UIS and hope that you are Swiss, Danish, Irish, or Chinese. Now if this hasn’t discouraged you, keep in mind that if you go to Switzerland and obtain a UIS entry visa at the embassy in Bern, YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, GREAT BRITIAN, FINLAND, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ROMANIA, SLOVENIA, POLAND, AUSTRIA, OR ABOUT TWENTY FOUR OTHER COUNTRIES! Also keep in mind that if you are German, American, British, French, or from Scandinavia YOU MAY BE PROSECUTED IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY FOR ENTERING THE UIS REPUBLIC OF SERBIAN KRAJINA!
So, basically, to take the bus from Zagreb to Dubrovnik via Knin, first go to Switzerland, get a passport, then fly to Zagreb (remember, you just gave up your right to go overland through Austria or Italy). From there catch Bus 113B to Krnjak. From there cross the border by foot, and go over to the Mihailović Bus Station three blocks to the south. At the Mihailović Bus Station you will need to catch Bus 17 to Knin. Right about now you may want to write a will and ask yourself how you plan to deal with being mugged and/or shot, and if you have a phone card it would be a good idea to start calling your relatives for a good lawyer back home.
Stay Safe:
Although Dubrovnik is relatively safe, the numerous “tent cities” and UN run refugee camps outside of town are VERY DANGEROUS and should be avoided at all cost. Travel to the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina is not advised, as crime against westerners is not only common, but apparently encouraged by the local authorities. Travel to the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Bosnia is also not recommended. Although Mostar and Medjugorje are relatively safe, there have been reports of armed bandits stopping busses en route and robbing people at gun point. Also keep in mind that many western nations do not recognize the Croatian annexation of Herzeg-Bosnia under the terms of the Split Peace Treaty and you may be in hot water with your local government if there is any evidence of travel to either Mostar or Medjugorje in your passport or travel documents.
Well, we now go back to Russia for a brief update on the state of the economy under these massive UN sanctions. But we get our first idea on how the UIS survives the sanctions thanks to an unexpected loophole. We also revisit the old “Free Market Fascism” update and see what is going on in Kazakhstan with the UN sanctions in place…
CNN interview with James Baker, former Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush
July 13, 1997
CNN: You indicated that President Bob Kerrey “failed our country” by not closing the Article 8 loophole of United Nations Security Resolution 777. But wasn’t President Bush the one who authorized the Article 8 loophole?
Baker: Yes, but we didn't know how it would turn into a loophole. Everyone supported Article 8. The United States didn’t recognize the Russian occupation of those other Republics, why punish them for being occupied? Besides, if the other Republics realized that being tethered to Russia was turning into a huge financial drain on their economies, well, we figured they would break free that much sooner. But once President Bush realized how Article 8 was being exploited by the Chinese, he moved to close it. Unfortunately that was after the election and it was too late to do anything about it. But when he met with President elect Kerrey in November he implored him not to let that loophole remain open. He told him that the Chinese were exploiting it, and if he didn’t act quickly, western companies would soon follow suit. And once western companies had settled in, it would be next to impossible to dislodge them.
CNN: Why do you think President Kerrey chose not to do anything about Article 8?
Baker: Well, we could see clearly that the sanctions were working in Russia. Perhaps they were working too well. Although Russia suffered under sanctions for the entire decade, in 1992 the sanctions were particularly devastating. But sadly, President Kerrey didn’t have the strength of character to stand up to the radical left wing of his party. They were furious at the toll of Iraqi sanctions. Right after taking office a report came out indicating nearly 200,000 Iraqi children might had died because of UN Sanctions on Iraq. Right after that a CNN news piece comes out showing images on TV of emancipated Russians wandering around the streets, begging for food. And many Democrats were worried that if the sanctions were to be put on all of the UIS countries, the big difference would be what little food there was would go to Russia while it would be the Kazakhs and Moldovans starving to death. So he decided not to suffer the wrath of his party, and he let Article 8 stay in place. And it was nothing short of an IV right into the vein of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing the impact of United Nations Security Resolution 777 on the UIS in October of 1992.
BBC: You indicated that United Nations Security Council Resolution 777, which imposed massive international sanctions on Russia, were quite devastating in the final months of 1992 and that they nearly ended the presidency of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Putin: Yes. To be honest, the Constitutional Crisis of 1993 could have occurred as early as November of 1992. The sanctions took an immediate toll.
BBC: How so?
Putin: As bad as sanctions were in the late 90s, by then the UIS had figured out how to at least keep people fed. You could find bread and meat in the stores. But in 1992 none of the shops had anything to sell. Food was scarce. The only things that people on the street could get easily were either guns, petrol, or ironically, bananas.
BBC: But wasn’t this similar to what many Russians experienced under communism?
Putin: Don’t underestimate the impact of ten months of capitalism. We almost had a riot in Moscow when the McDonald’s closed down.
BBC: So how did Zhirinovsky weather the storm?
Putin: General Lebed and the Committee knew that there was no way they could be seen as rolling over to the sanctions in 1992. If they did, the UN would demand they give up Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. So the plan was to drag them out as long as possible, and then turn on Zhirinovsky once the UN decided that it had turned into a Cuba situation. But once the impact of the sanctions was felt the committee realized that surviving the sanctions would be difficult…very difficult. Suddenly the impact of “shock therapy” was truly felt. Many of the state industries that produced food and vodka and even clothing now were bankrupt. We were totally dependent on outside help for food. Zhirinovsky tried to reinstate central planning and state control over industries, but shock therapy left him with nothing to work with. All he could do was implement price controls, which didn’t help since there was nothing to sell anyways. And this created problems with many of the liberals in the LDP.
BBC: But weren’t they nearly wiped out during the purges?
Putin: No, only the ones who dared to stand up to the military were. Some, like Gennady Burbulis, remained. And they were not happy about the return of central planning in Russia. But they accepted it since there was no other option. Besides, the liberals had their laboratory to test free enterprise and to test the free market.
BBC: Where was that?
Putin: Kazakhstan.
Russian citizens gather outside the Moscow McDonald's as it closes its doors in September of 1992 (AP)
Cheney Resigns from Bush Campaign to Lobby
June 29, 2000
Associated Press
WASHINGTON- Former United States Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney has resigned from both Halliburton and the presidential campaign of George W. Bush to lobby for Wall Street. However, he has not ruled out a cabinet position in a potential Bush presidency despite accepting the position of CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable. He is set to begin working for the Financial Services Roundtable on November 3.
“At this time, I feel that I leave the campaign in competent hands and I feel confident that Governor Bush will no longer need my assistance as he selected the next vice president of the United States,” Cheney said at a press conference, “I am honored to have been part of this campaign, and I wish Governor Bush the best of luck as he heads into the Republican Convention next month.”
Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton earlier this year when he was asked by Governor Bush to head a committee to vet the next Republican vice presidential candidate. However, his role in what the media dubbed “Kazakhgate” and his subsequent denials of wrong doing became a tremendous distraction for the Bush campaign. Although Governor Bush has denied that Kazakhgate had any role in the resignation, many pundits point to his resignation as CEO of Halliburton on the same day as proof that the scandal had badly damaged the former Secretary of Defense and was the major reason for his sudden departure from the Bush campaign.
“Clearly one must call into question Mr. Cheney’s judgment,” commented Vice President Al Gore, “Although we applaud his decision to resign, I think the fact that he even made it into the Bush inner circle should cause voters to seriously question what kind of president George W. Bush would be.”
Kazakhgate exploded on the national spotlight when Mother Jones reported in February that Halliburton had sold over one billion dollars worth of dual-use oil drills to the Kazakh government. Mother Jones also reported that Halliburton, through its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root, helped financed the construction of dozens of new cities around the Tenzig Oil Field and the Kashagan Oil Field in northern Kazakhstan. Cheney responded that United Nations Security Council Resolution 777 only prohibited trade with the Republic of Russia and not any of the other Republics that were part of the UIS. However, Resolution 777 prohibited trade “if it appeared that such trade would benefit either the UIS government or the Russian Republic.” Critics point to the obvious benefits that Moscow received from the development of Kazakh oil fields and the construction of the new cities along the Caspian Sea (which due to the heavy population of Russians in these cities has strengthened the UIS’ hold on the Kazakh Republic according to many observers).
“The sanctions against the UIS never had a chance to work,” commented Pierre S. du Pont, former Republican Governor of Delaware, “because too many people like Dick Cheney took advantages of the loopholes in the sanctions for their own gain. Clearly what Halliburton did was not in line with the true intent of Article 8. It was meant to help Republics like Kazakhstan free themselves from UIS occupation, not help the Russians solidify their hold over the Kazakh nation.”
Russians in Kazakhstan recount early days of UN sanctions in UIS
Foreign Affairs (2/22/2008)
by William Hason
Gennady Podrezov recounts the struggles of everyday Russians in late 1992 after UN sanctions were implemented
(TENZIGRAD, KAZAKHSTAN) Gennady Podrezov still remembers the fear that gripped him and his family on that cold February day in Tambov, a large city nearly 300 miles from Moscow. He remembers it like it was yesterday.
“I had been terrified ever since the revolution,” he said as he opened his closet and showed me the Kalashnikov that led to all of his troubles, “I had never made it a secret that I opposed Zhirinovsky, and I was registered as a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia. But when they started handing out Kalashnikovs I decided to sign up and get one. My friend, Maxim Popov got one too and he sold his for $75 American dollars. He told me I should too. But I decided not to. Not out of principle, but because I thought the gun was worth more than $75.”
It was a decision that he often reflects back on, even more than his decision to get the gun in the first place. Gennady Podrezov is sure that it was that decision that saved his life.
“I heard that they came for Popov right after they took me,” Podrezov recounted, “but when they discovered he no longer had the gun they threw him in jail for six months before they sent him to that…other place. They sent him to the place everyone called Zhirinovsky’s Siberian Island Paradise.”
Although things in the UIS began to normalize somewhat by late 1993, with opposition parties again beginning to operate freely, in early 1993 much of Russia resembled the Soviet Union of old. Long lines could be seen outside shops while hunger and desperation gripped the nation and the police instilled fear in the hearts of everyone.
“After the revolution everything changed,” Podrezov recalled. “We were all afraid to walk the streets. It was clear that the KGB needed to get rid of people. There was not enough food to go around so they just wandered the streets looking to arrest people. The military was out and they could stop you at any time and demand your papers. Not just your identity papers, but your voter identification card. They could demand to find out what political faction you supported. And for those of us with the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia, we were often considered enemy number one.”
But for as bad as the police presence was, he knew he was one of the lucky ones. Many of his fellow democrats had been killed in the riots that followed the trial of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
“Everyone knew somebody in the French embassy,” Podrezov recounted, “even supporters of Zhirinovsky had friends in the French embassy. That was what terrified us more than anything. Even Stalin was never so brazen. To march into another country’s embassy and seize hundreds of Russian-born people and take them off to kill them?! It was beyond insanity. We suddenly knew we were living in a terrifying new world. We may have lived in fear in the Soviet Union, but this new Union was something even more frightening.”
Podrezov was not at all surprised when Pravda reported the following day that the West had put sanctions on the country, and that the UN had followed suit. He even secretly hoped that they would work, that Zhirinovsky would be starved out of power. But he also knew that was unlikely.
“Look how long Cuba was under sanctions,” Podrezov said, “and the only people who suffered were people like me. Castro never suffered! Only the Cuban people suffered.”
Podrezov elected not to try and flee the country and take refuge in a foreign embassy, a decision that he said almost certainly saved his life. Rather, he went to his local clerk’s office and quietly registered with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, hoping to slip under the radar and not raise attention to himself.
“We lived in the shadows for nearly eighty years in Russia,” Podrezov said, “we were used to it.”
But after the sanctions took hold he knew that Russia had yet to hit rock bottom. Suddenly survival became a challenge.
“Two days after the sanctions I noticed the lines forming around the local grocery store,” Podrezov said, “within four days the shelves were bare. That’s when we realized that we were in danger of starving.”
With food scarce, Podrezov, like all of the residents of Tambov, began slipping into a subsistence economy. He began looking for anything he could trade for food.
“Sure, the government had technically abandoned communism,” Podrezov recounted, “so technically you could grow your own food, or raise your own livestock, without government interference. But we lived in a city, not in the country! None of us had any crops!”
Podrezov soon began trading with the only man in his neighborhood with food.
“Under communism many people still had chickens in their homes, but most of us had sold them after the fall of communism,” Podrezov said, “One of my neighbors had bought a hundred chickens shortly after that. I remember when he did. He paid fifty rubles for a hundred chickens. We teased him and told him that his apartment was too small to live with that many chickens and that he wasted his money. Well, the joke was on us.”
Podrezov, like many of his neighbors, paid five US dollars per egg to the man, often trading anything they could to get a single egg.
“One man traded his car for a chicken,” Podrezov recounted, “but he was stupid about it. He cooked the chicken and ate it. He should have talked to me first. I would have traded my car for another one of the chickens and then we would have had all the eggs we wanted!”
But even as bad as it was in Tambov, Podrezov and his family would soon discover that the worst was yet to come.
“The man with the chickens was a janitor at the elementary school under communism,” Podrezov recounted, “but thanks to those chickens he ended up with a car and who knows how much money before he took off with his loot. After he sold his chickens I figured he bribed a soldier and drove his new car to Brest with at least ten thousand dollars. Not a bad way to start a life out west.”
Without their meager source of food, and with the economy crumbling around them, tensions between neighbors soon boiled over.
“We all started fighting with each other,” Podrezov recounted, “the pressure was breaking us all down. But rather than blame the government or even the west, we started blaming each other.”
It was in this heightened environment that Podrezov would discover how desperate his neighbors had become.
“Everyday we all went to the grocery store on Ulitsa Mira on our way home from work,” Podrezov recounted, “and we always had to wait in line for what ended up being nothing. But one day I decided to go back to the store after all of my neighbors had left. I stood in the line a second time. By chance a small shipment of bread had come in and I was able to buy two loaves of bread. I was so happy; I guess I was smiling all the way home.”
However, word of Podrezov’s fortune soon spread.
“Later that night two of my neighbors started pounding on my door loudly,” Podrezov said, “they were screaming at the top of their lungs ‘We know you have bread Gennady! Open this door!’”
Podrezov opened the door and tried to reason with his neighbors, but emotions were raw.
“Other neighbors began to emerge due to the commotion,” Podrezov said, “and one of them kept screaming ‘you don’t deserve bread! You’re a traitor! You’re a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia!’ I tried to deny it, but they became angrier. That’s when we noticed that the police arrived.”
The soldiers dispersed the crowd, but not before taking statements from the woman who accused them of treason.
“Suddenly her story changed,” Podrezov said sadly, “I robbed her of her bread with a gun. She was going to let them take me and my family to a gulag for two loaves of bread!”
The police entered his small flat and began searching for the bread. They discovered the two loaves on the table as the woman screamed that those were her loaves. But it was what happened next that would change the life of Gennady Podrezov forever.
“One of the policemen opened my closet and found the Kalashnikov,” Podrezov recounted, “that’s when I knew it was all over.”
As the woman yelled that the AK-47 that Podrezov hid in his closet was the weapon she was robbed with, one of the officers threw him to the ground as his wife and three children screamed.
“I really thought they would shoot me right there in front of my family,” Podrezov said as tears welled up in his eyes, “I thought that my children would have to witness my execution over a lie and two loaves of bread.”
The officers seized the gun and the “documents of assignment” that were given to him when he received it. But they didn’t stop there.
“At first I was glad to see that they were not giving the bread to the woman from Apartment 5B,” Podrezov said, “they told her it was evidence and that it would be seized for trial. That bitch started crying right there in the hallway.”
But what happened next terrified Podrezov.
“I saw them handcuff my children and my wife,” Podrezov recounted, “My three year old son was bound with a rope and pushed to the ground so hard it chipped his tooth.”
The drive to the Tambov police station was terrifying for Gennady Podrezov, who could not get the image of his children in bondage out of his mind. Certain that they were being taken to a “secret interrogation room” in the Police station, Podrezov began openly weeping.
“My children were all crying and screaming in the back of the police van,” Podrezov said softly, “and at first I was trying to be strong for them, telling them it would be all right. But then suddenly I realized that we were all about to be killed, and I couldn’t help it. I just started crying too. I am not proud of that moment, and if it were just me, I think I would have been able to hold my composure. But the thought of my children being executed was simply too much to bear.”
As they arrived at the Police Station an eerily familiar sight greeted them.
“It was the KGB,” Podrezov recalled, “we recognized them at once. Then I knew it was over.”
The two KGB agents separated Podrezov from his family and took him to a small cell in the basement where the beatings would begin.
“All I could think about was protecting my family,” Podrezov said, “I didn’t care if they killed me, so I blurted out ‘I will confess to anything if you don’t hurt my family.’ But that didn’t work.”
The beatings began as soon as he blurted out the plea for his family, all with a peculiar and unexpected line of questioning.
“I expected them to ask me if I was a member of the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia, or if I opposed the UIS or Vladimir Zhirinovsky,” Podrezov recounted, “but all they kept asking me was ‘do you believe in private property! Do you want to own property?!’”
At first Podrezov denied it, still begging his tormentors to stop the beatings. Initially he refused to answer in the affirmative, believing that to do so would be a death sentence for him and his family. But he was only able to resist for so long before the torture broke him down.
“I honestly don’t know how long I held out,” Podrezov recounted, “but the bruises didn’t heal completely until 1994, so I know it much have been awhile.”
To this day, Gennady Podrezov was shocked at what happened next. Stopping the beatings immediately, one of the two KGB agents suddenly picked up the phone and called a young woman into the room.
“She must have been no more than 20 or 21,” Podrezov said, “and she didn’t look at all surprised at what she saw when she walked in. I realized at that moment that I was one of thousands who had been in that room.”
The KGB agent picked up a folder and thrust it in Podrezov’s lap before uttering the words that would forever change his life.
“Comrade, you agreed to move to the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan when you asked for the Kalashnikov,” Podrezov recalled the agent saying; “here is the title for your new plot of land in Tenzigrad.”
Podrezov was stunned into silence at the statement, afraid to even acknowledge the folder on his lap.
“There is no house there yet,” the agent added “but don’t worry about that. The Americans will build one for you.”
Even after the KGB took Podrezov and his family to his apartment to collect his belongings, he was still sure that they were being led to their deaths.
“I remember they only allowed us to take a few bags per person and our gun, but they told us to put tags on them so we wouldn’t get them mixed up with someone else’s gun when we got to the bus,” Podrezov recalled, “I knew the Nazis told the Jews the same thing.”
It was on the bus filled with other unfortunate Russians that Podrezov first started wondering if perhaps the worst was behind him.
“It was such a strange experience,” Podrezov said, “there were liberals and communists sitting next to each other. Even die-hard LDP supporters were on the bus. It really didn’t matter who you were before the bus ride, the only thing that mattered was did you take a gun and agree to move to Kazakhstan back in January of last year. If you did, well, the UIS was now here to collect on that debt.”
What Podrezov saw after the thirty hour bus ride also gave him hope.
“We saw westerners standing around,” Podrezov said, “they had crisp uniforms and shiny hard hats on. We could tell in an instance that they were Americans.”
The Americans seemed oblivious to the refugees as the bus came to a halt near them, but as soon as Gennady Podrezov stepped off the bus, a chance encounter made him realize that, despite everything he had just been through, things might just start looking up.
“One of the Americans asked if anyone spoke English,” Podrezov recalled, “that’s when I raised my hand.”
Podrezov and his family were quickly recruited by the Americans, who hired him on the spot as a translator.
“They told me I was going to be paid $21,000 US Dollars a year,” Podrezov said with a chuckle, “I honestly thought to myself, ‘my English must not be as good as I thought. I could have sworn they said $21,000.’”
But for him family, the realization that the worst was behind them was even more emotional.
“My oldest daughter went to the American cafeteria that afternoon,” Podrezov recounted, “and when she got there she saw a table covered in bottles of Coca-Cola and 7-UP, just sitting there for everyone to grab. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She never saw so much soda pop in her life. She just stood there, deciding which one she would have. Some Americans behind her got irritated because she was holding up the line, and they told her just to take both of them! She nearly cried. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Two days ago two loaves of bread were a tremendous feast, and now she was drinking Coca-Cola and 7-UP at once!”
Now, after fifteen years, Gennady Podrezov finds himself the most unlikely beneficiary of the infamous Article 8 loophole. Where United Nations sanctions against his country ended at the borders of Russia, he, and thousands of other Russians like him find themselves living comfortable lives in the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan, helping American companies exploit the vast oil reserves in the northern Caspian Sea.
“As much as I appreciate the life that my family now has, I don’t think the Americans and Chinese should have ignored the sanctions,” Podrezov said, “They knew that all they were doing was helping Zhirinovsky hold onto power.”
For the thousands who were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night after UN sanctions began to collapse in February of 1993, the memories are still bitter. But they find themselves outnumbered not only at the ballot box, but even inside their homes.
“To this day I will never forgive Vladimir Zhirinovsky for what he did to my family on February 13, 1993,” Podrezov added, “and I will never vote for the Liberal Democratic Party! Never! I don’t buy for a minute that they changed under Lebed! But sadly, my youngest son is a strong supporter of Alexander Lebed and even Vladimir Zhirinovsky. It’s odd. The image of him getting his tooth broken by Zhirinovsky’s thugs is why I hate the LDP so much. Yet he thinks I’m the one who is out of touch with reality.”
Let’s Go Eastern Europe 1998
Eastern Europe on a Budget
Let’s Go Inc.
Publication Date: January 9, 1998
800 Pages
Croatia
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is an old city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Croatia. Despite heavy damage during the Croatian civil war of 1992-1993, it is slowly regaining its place as one of the most prominent tourist resorts of the Mediterranean as western tourists are slowly discovering what Lord Byron called “the pearl of the Adriatic”.
Dubrovnik is a seaport and the centre of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its population was about 43,000 in 1991, but most believe that it has since doubled as refuges from the war in Bosnia have flooded into the city. Dubrovnik was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and despite the damage from the war, much of the beauty still can be found in the old city. A magnificent curtain of walls surrounds marble streets and baroque buildings in the old town, a sharp contrast to the refugee camps that encircle the city itself.
Getting In:
By Plane
Dubrovnik airport is located about 15 miles to the south of the city. The following airlines offer service to Dubrovnik:
Lufthansa (Munich), Luxair (Luxembourg), British Airways (London-Gatwick), Iberia airlines (Madrid), Tarom (Bucharest), and Croatian Air (Zagreb and various European locations).
By Boat
Almost everyone who comes to Dubrovnik comes by way of ferry. The biggest ferry service that stops in Dubrovnik is Jadrolinija, which leaves either from Rijeka, Croatia, or Bari, Italy.
By Land
Contrary to what you might have been told, overland service to Dubrovnik from Zagreb is virtually non-existent and not for the faint of heart! Ever since the 1992 ceasefire, and the 1993 Split Peace Treaty which allegedly ended the conflict between the UIS and Croatia, any drive through central Croatia will drag you into a ocean of red tape that even the most seasoned war correspondents have trouble with! Bus service between Zagreb and Dubrovnik will require you to either take the coastal road to Zadar and then catch a ferry to Split, or enter what the Croatians refer to as “UIS occupied territory”.
If you are crazy enough to take Bus 113B from Zagreb to the Krnjak border crossing, be advised that you will need a Croatian travel permit to enter the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina. These travel permits are not easy to obtain if you are not a journalist. Also be advised that to enter the UIS, you need an entry visa. Unlike with the UIS Republic of Kazakhstan, there is no independent embassy or consulate office for Krajina, so you will need to deal directly with the UIS embassy! A non-Kazakh UIS visa is even tougher to obtain than a Croatian travel permit and you can pretty much assume you won't get one unless you are from North Korea, Libya, Iraq, or oddly enough Switzerland. From there note that there is NO EMBASSY SERVICE anywhere in the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina for any western country (yes, this means you Switzerland). So if you lose your passport or it is stolen (and it will be, see Staying Safe below) then you will need to find a way to get to a consulate office in Belgrade, UIS and hope that you are Swiss, Danish, Irish, or Chinese. Now if this hasn’t discouraged you, keep in mind that if you go to Switzerland and obtain a UIS entry visa at the embassy in Bern, YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, GREAT BRITIAN, FINLAND, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ROMANIA, SLOVENIA, POLAND, AUSTRIA, OR ABOUT TWENTY FOUR OTHER COUNTRIES! Also keep in mind that if you are German, American, British, French, or from Scandinavia YOU MAY BE PROSECUTED IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY FOR ENTERING THE UIS REPUBLIC OF SERBIAN KRAJINA!
So, basically, to take the bus from Zagreb to Dubrovnik via Knin, first go to Switzerland, get a passport, then fly to Zagreb (remember, you just gave up your right to go overland through Austria or Italy). From there catch Bus 113B to Krnjak. From there cross the border by foot, and go over to the Mihailović Bus Station three blocks to the south. At the Mihailović Bus Station you will need to catch Bus 17 to Knin. Right about now you may want to write a will and ask yourself how you plan to deal with being mugged and/or shot, and if you have a phone card it would be a good idea to start calling your relatives for a good lawyer back home.
Stay Safe:
Although Dubrovnik is relatively safe, the numerous “tent cities” and UN run refugee camps outside of town are VERY DANGEROUS and should be avoided at all cost. Travel to the UIS Republic of Serbian Krajina is not advised, as crime against westerners is not only common, but apparently encouraged by the local authorities. Travel to the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Bosnia is also not recommended. Although Mostar and Medjugorje are relatively safe, there have been reports of armed bandits stopping busses en route and robbing people at gun point. Also keep in mind that many western nations do not recognize the Croatian annexation of Herzeg-Bosnia under the terms of the Split Peace Treaty and you may be in hot water with your local government if there is any evidence of travel to either Mostar or Medjugorje in your passport or travel documents.
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The travel section is really intense. Especially the part where all western governments punish their citizens who visit Krajina.
Well, if the UIS retain the old system in use under the USSR days (and which is still, to varying degrees, used by many of the post-Soviet states), obtaining that all-important visa is going to be a challenge, because first you need an invitation, then once that is obtained you can go to an embassy to get one of several different visas (and, if you go for a business visa, you need a letter from your business detailing the purpose of the trip which essentially vouches for the prospective business traveller), then once you arrive then you'd need to register with the authorities within 72 hours of arrival. In addition there's also the migration card, which functions almost like the arrival/departure record in the US or the tourist card in several Latin American countries. So the system is somewhat complicated, but if you're patient enough to battle red tape and bureaucracy, it's worth the pleasure and just as exciting as the trip itself.
Wow. That story about the bloke getting beaten up by the KGB and the 7-Up was one of the emotional pieces I've read here.
This is no doubt my favorite post so far, well done sir
Thank you guys!
I myself feel like I too am getting pretty wrapped up in this TL now, and I really enjoy becoming immersed in the story telling. As for the story of Podrezov, over the years I have read hundreds of books about the Bosnian war and interviewed and spoken to dozens of people who survived the war, including Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croatians. One of the most powerful things they would always tell me was the impact the war and/or sanctions would have on daily life. For awhile in Sarajevo a pack of Drinas (cigs) were something like $100 and a bag of sugar was being traded for Yugos. it always shocked me, and I think a lot of that came out in the tale of Posrezov.
But as we can see, the sanctions start to fall apart in part due to President Kerrey's unwillingness to take on the radical left in his party who oppose the sanctions (so all of you folks who were sure I was a die hard, Bush hating liberal, you are going to start second guessing yourselves now that Kerrey is president and he is the one who starts taking a beating!)
And LeoXiao, I have a few new TL's in mind, but as I am still only at 1993 after 32 Updates, this one might end up lasting quite some time before I can start another one!
This is the most immersive TL I have read so far.
There exist good TLs, the one's that read like history books.
But this reads like real life, it feels and reads like this stuff actually happend.
I love how you involve the lifes of otherwise ordinary people in all of this and how they deal with world events unfolding around them(Sadly something I see rarely).
I wholeheartedly approve of your style(And find it unique), I wish more people would adopt it, it definitely adds to the realism of it all(Last update was fantastic btw, it really reads like something you could find in your weekday newspaper in the morning).
I look forward to more updates on life and terror in Zhirinovsky's North Korea on the Volga.
There exist good TLs, the one's that read like history books.
But this reads like real life, it feels and reads like this stuff actually happend.
I love how you involve the lifes of otherwise ordinary people in all of this and how they deal with world events unfolding around them(Sadly something I see rarely).
I wholeheartedly approve of your style(And find it unique), I wish more people would adopt it, it definitely adds to the realism of it all(Last update was fantastic btw, it really reads like something you could find in your weekday newspaper in the morning).
I look forward to more updates on life and terror in Zhirinovsky's North Korea on the Volga.
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This is the most immersive TL I have read so far.
There exist good TLs, the one's that read like history books.
But this reads like real life, it feels and reads like this stuff actually happend.
I love how you involve the lifes of otherwise ordinary people in all of this and how they deal with world events unfolding around them(Sadly something I see rarely).
I wholeheartedly approve of your style(And find it unique), I wish more people would adopt it, it definitely adds to the realism of it all(Last update was fantastic btw, it really reads like something you could find in your weekday newspaper in the morning).
I look forward to more updates on life and terror in Zhirinovsky's North Korea on the Volga.
Thank you!
The funny thing is the style of this TL sort of happened by accident. I did it for the Prelude and figured I'd switch it up to a more traditional style after that, but the Prelude seemed to work so well for me that I just stuck with it!
As for the North Korea on the Volga, we are going back to Yugoslavia in the next post, but soon we will be visiting Russia again. Although Article 8 gives the UIS a desperatly needed lifeline to stay afloat, the sanctions are still devestating, and life will resemble Pyongyang more than Prauge for some time. Also, we will be finding out more about that "other place", as well as getting our first idea about how North Korea and China are dealing with this new UIS.
Well, in the 1989 Soviet census we see that Moldova had a population of around 4.3 million, with 75% Moldovan. With people fleeing the country, coupled with Russian emigration into Moldova, that closes by 2012, but Moldovans might still be the majority. Kazakhstan on the other hand, is now predominantly Russia. In OTL it was 43.9% Slavic in 1989 and 40.1% Kazakh. Zhirinovsky's free market fascism coupled with the Article 8 loophole means that hundreds of thousands of Russians are now moving to Kazakhstan to escape sanctions or are being forced to by the UIS (the more people working for the Americans, the more tax revenue they collect to keep the UIS afloat). A safe guess would be 60% Russian in 2012. But despite that, the UIS is still stuffing ballot boxes and bussing in people to vote, so there is still at least some fear that even with a huge Russian majority that Kazakhstan might want to leave the UIS.
This is very, very, very good! One thing though, I'm pretty sure its "loaves" not "loafs". Not sure though.