Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
One thing for sure: TTL's version of Hetalia will definitely be a lot darker, and any anime that involves Russia in this case will also be dark. Pop culture wouldn't be the same with the Russians remaining as the stereotypical bad guys.
LOL, funny you should ask. As we already know the 1996 Russian Presidential elections don't go very well for Zhirinovsky (although we do recognize that he bounces back to emerge as UIS President). I was wondering what kind of scandal could erupt before the 1996 election, and I relaized that Mad-Vlad's infamous fued with Yevgeniya Tishkovskaya could come into play right about then...
Not familiar with that show, but I will look it up and see if I can work with it. Right now I have a few WWF wrestling angles that are going to go into the pop culture update that I am working on, as well as a few Holywood movie rewrites that I am working on putting in. Plus I do want to get a "Call of Duty" or MOH type update in as well...
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
And the Kiterunner movie would have been extremely dark in a Zhirinovsky-led Russia, since you did mention that a lot of people will die in Afghanistan.
Hmmm, I didn't think about the Kite Runner, that may come into play in later updates...
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
What was wrong with that feud? The only clip in youtube that I saw was Zhirinovsky's argument with Pugacheva.
Incognito
Banned
Russians never really stopped being bad guys in pop culture so I don't see pop culture being all that different.
What may be interesting, depending on how big sensorship is in UIS under Lebed, is if with better relations between USA and Lebed’s UIS is if Hollywood tries to go for Russia stand-ins so as not to get banned the UIS market. You know, how China was replaced with North Korea in the recent Red Dawn remake? That sort of thing. Though I wonder what country could fill the role of North Korea for UIS (i.e.: what country could act as a UIS stand-in certain popculture productions).
And you know what would be fun? If we could see the TTl’s version of the Humon country comics
. Perhaps Pellegrino Shots can get it commissioned.MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Would religious freedom be severely curtailed in the UIS though? I'm not sure on what the status of the Catholic population in the UIS would be like (especially the Uniates, or Eastern Catholics), though Zhirinovsky will definitely not be a fan of the Catholics and Muslims in this case.
Here is a September 1995 AP article about the incident. Keep in mind, this all occurred live, on the Russian version of C-Span...
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...0goAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Uc8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6776,2740440
From what I have read, this was the point for many Russians that Zhirinovsky went from being a controversial ultra-nationalist to a clown. In 1993 his LDP won 12 million votes in the legislative election, or 22%. The 1995 election, which occurred just 2 months after this, saw the LDP drop to 7 million votes (or 11%). By 1996 he pulled only 6% in the presidential election against Yeltsin. A lot of what I've read seems to feel that this is where Zhirinovsky lost a lot of Russians. Where they realized he was more of a joke than a real politician. This was the point in which he "jumped the shark" as we Americans might say...
Here is another interesting article about the incident, and how it prompted many of Zhirinovsky's supporters to leave him and support a new, less boorish, nationalist politician...Alexander Lebed!
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...irinovsky-alexander-lebed-russian-communities
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
I'd like to see how Lebed deals with the LDPR once Zhirinovsky is turned over to the Hague. Also, Zhirinovsky punching a priest? Wouldn't he piss off the large population of devout Orthodox Christians who might already be backing him politically?
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Russians never really stopped being bad guys in pop culture so I don't see pop culture being all that different.
What may be interesting, depending on how big sensorship is in UIS under Lebed, is if with better relations between USA and Lebed’s UIS is if Hollywood tries to go for Russia stand-ins so as not to get banned the UIS market. You know, how China was replaced with North Korea in the recent Red Dawn remake? That sort of thing. Though I wonder what country could fill the role of North Korea for UIS (i.e.: what country could act as a UIS stand-in certain popculture productions).
And you know what would be fun? If we could see the TTl’s version of the Humon country comics
I can imagine how a Humon Country Comic would look in this TL, definatly very interesting idea!
And after 9/11 we will see that the US and the UIS will actually be working together militarily in Afghanistan (which will open a whole new can of worms) so I think you are right, not only would Hollywood not want to tick off a new (large) market, but also it might not fit with the whole "America and Russia fighting this war on terror together" idea that might emerge.
Basically, I think Red Dawn 2012 is going to have North Koreans in it, no matter what.
Now Red Dawn 1999 is a different story though...
PART SIXTY THREE: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
PART SIXTY THREE: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
PART SIXTY THREE: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Well, we finally get an idea of what is going on in Central Asia, and also why Putin is seen as something of a joke. Clearly Putin is not telling the BBC the whole story, but like so much in this TL, what part is true and what part is he making up for his own self interest?
We also see what is going on in Tajikistan, and we see very different allies in the civil war. In OTL we had ex communist (backed by Russia) against the UTO, a odd coalition back by Pamiris, Al Qaeda, Islamic Fundamentalist, and Liberal Democrats. Here we have a different break down of allies. The Islamist’s are backing the anti-UIS, pro independence former Communist government while the UIS is baking the UTO (who they opposed in OTL). Not nearly as crazy as it might sound though. Like the title indicates, war can make strange bedfellows. The Pamiris were ethnically very closely linked to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan (who opposed the Taliban and Al Qaeda in OTL). The fact that those fighting the Northern Alliance supported the UTO indicates that OTL’s conflict had some very strange bedfellows as well. Here we have the Islamic Fundamentalist siding with the government (which declared independence) against the Pamiris (blood brothers of the Northern Alliance, their rivals in Afghanistan) so it is not as ASB as you might think. Some new names in this update:
Rahmon Nabiyev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahmon_Nabiyev
Ahmad Shah Masooud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud
Qahhor Mahkamov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qahhor_Mahkamov
Karakalpakstan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakalpakstan
Sayid Abdulloh Nuri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayid_Abdulloh_Nuri
Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Renaissance_Party_of_Tajikistan
Gorno-Badakhshan Province:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorno-Badakhshan_Autonomous_Province
Davlat Khudonazarov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davlat_Khudonazarov
Saparmurat Niyazov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov
Leninabadi Region:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khujand
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing his removal as head of KGB in 1995 and his subsequent entry into politics.
BBC: Mr. Putin, you have constantly contradicted yourself over weather or not you were ousted or resigned as head of the KGB. Just a few hours ago you said you resigned because you wanted to enter politics and not because of your support for the opposition candidate Mikhail Arutyunov in 1993. Now you are indicating you were driven out and that you were arrested for supporting the communist resurgence in Belarus. Which is it?
Putin: You are putting words in my mouth-
BBC: We are recording this interview. Would you like us to play the tape for you?
Putin: I had little choice but to resign after I was arrested for some trumped up charge of treason!
BBC: But you were never charged.
Putin: But I was detained for over 16-hours!
BBC: But after questioning you were released.
Putin: But for 16-hours I was under arrest!
BBC: So you feel you were under arrest-
Putin: It really doesn’t matter if I was under arrest or not. Vice President Zavidiya was becoming less interested in politics and more interested in selling newspapers. He put my face all over the newspapers and the television. And he was an ally of the communists! He wanted Alexander Lukashenko to emerge as the new leader of the UIS! But he betrayed the communists so he could consolidate his control over the media!
BBC: You do realize that Mr. Zavidiya called those accusations “beyond absurd.”
Putin: Of course he would! And he can get away with it because he controls almost every major media outlet in the country, even today! But he was the one who supported Lukashenko! He was the one who was secretly plotting with the communists to oust Zhirinovsky!
BBC: You do realize how ridiculous that sounds. One of the richest men in the UIS would back an unrepentant communist dictator by exposing his treasonous plot to overthrow the democratically elected government of Russia. And while this is going on he sets up the head of the KGB by creating a fictitious conspiracy…all to sell newspapers.
Putin: He misrepresented what I was doing. I never denied meeting with Lukashenko or even some of the other former communist leaders of the other Republics, those who opposed Luzhkov’s free market reforms. I was trying to hold the country together! And much of that involved telling them to give the UIS more time. That Zhirinovsky and Luzhkov were not going to win the next election in 1996. To be honest, I single handedly kept Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in the Union. I should have been recognized for that, but patriotic acts apparently don’t sell as many newspapers as scandals do.
Turkmenistan President agrees to limited UIS partnership; calls it “a path to independence”
By Jack Horn
Denver Post - July 3, 1995
(MOSCOW, UIS) In a move that stunned political insiders, Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov agreed to a limited partnership with the Union of Independent States, apparently forgoing independence for at least the next five years. Niyazov announced that, like the UIS Republic of Georgia, Turkmenistan would be given limited membership in the United Nations as well as being given joint membership in the United Nations Security Council, a move that the United States called “illegal”. The UIS also announced that Russia was ending its territorial claim to the disputed costal areas around the Caspian Sea. Although Turkmenistan does not share a border with Russia, dozens of “novo gorods” have emerged on the banks of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan, just miles from the border of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has repeatedly called for guarantees that the oil rich costal areas not be opened to “free market colonialism” as President Niyazov famously called it in 1994.
The agreement between Niyazov and UIS President Yuri Luzhkov appears to end the possibility of free market “reforms” coming to Turkmenistan, where Niyazov has emerged as a virtual dictator since taking power in 1991.
Tajik President killed in roadside bomb as confusion over succession grips Republic
June 18, 1991|By Scott Sutcliffe | Dallas Morning News
Rahmon Nabiyev
DUSHANBE, UIS – Tajik President Rahmon Nabiyev was killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded near his car during a routine visit to a military instillation near the capital city of Dushanbe yesterday. The assassination intensified fears that the deadly civil war that has devastated the small UIS republic bordering Afghanistan may take a deadlier tone as dozens of members of the Pamiri ethnic group were targeted in the hours following the assassination.
“The Pamiris already were being targeted by the military and by the government,” commented a human rights worker in Dushanbe who asked to remain anonymous, “but by and large they were somewhat safe in Dushanbe. However, over the course of the afternoon I have received reports that the military is rounding up every Pamiri they can get their hands on.”
The Pamiris make up less than 3% of the population of Tajikistan but currently control nearly 50% of the country in association with the United Tajik Opposition. The UTO is a loose confederation of various opposition groups which receive support from factions as diverse as the Northern Alliance (in Afghanistan) to the federal government of the UIS. However, it is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of Eastern Tajikistan (where the Pamiris dominate politically) that they have encountered their greatest success. The Tajik government of President Nabiyev had been receiving support from Uzbekistan and Pakistan despite sharing little ideologically with either country. Much of the support from Pakistan is due to Nabiyev’s declaration of independence from the UIS in 1991, shortly after a violent pogrom drove out nearly the entire Russian population.
“It is strange to think that a former communist whose ties to Islam are tenuous at best could receive such strong support from a country like Pakistan,” added Walter Phelps, a former advisor to the Bush administration, “but the prospect of Tajikistan driving the Russians out of Central Asia trumped everything else. Wars makes strange bedfellows, I suppose that is why you had an alliance between a former anti-Russian Afghan mujahidin in Ahmad Shah Massoud and the UIS on one side squaring off against an unapologetic former communist and the radical Islamic Taliban on the other.”
So far there has been no group that has taken responsibility for the bombing although several sources have indicated that the assassination has all the earmarks of a KGB operation. There have been reports that KGB director Vladimir Putin recently visited with ousted former President of the Tajik SSR Emomalii Rahmon in Moscow (a claim that the UIS government denied). Rahmon announced at a press conference just one hour after the assassination that he that he was “the new President of Tajikistan.” Although his administration was quickly recognized by the UIS Republic of Belarus, which called on the UTO to end the insurgency, Moscow refused to recognize the Rahmon Presidency and reiterated its support for opposition leader Davlat Khudonazarov, a Pamiri human rights activist from Khorugh.
Excerpts from the book: “From Marx to Massoud: A Modern History of Tajikistan”
By Abu Rahmon
Published by University of California Press, © 2005
CHAPTER FIVE: A WAR OF ATTRITION
With the assassination of Rahmon Nabiyev there emerged a clear power struggle between various factions of the government. Although former communist Emomalii Rahmon seemed to have the blessing of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was quickly emerging as the leader of the various communist factions who opposed the free market reforms in Russia, his ties to the UIS KGB was a liability to many in the military. Qahhor Mahkamov, a former Communist Party leader who backed the 1991 hard line coup, also emerged as a potential rival to Nabiyev, but was deeply distrusted by the various Islamic fundamentalists who sided with former President Nabiyev. Mahkamov was badly discredited not only for his support of the 1991 coup but also because of his role in the bloody crackdown of Islamic fundamentalists during ethnic riots in Dushanbe in 1990. Also emerging was Akbarsho Iskandrov, who subsequently declared that he was the acting president of Tajikistan until election. Perhaps most disturbing was the emergence of Islamic fundamentalist Sayid Abdulloh Nuri, who used the assassination to attempt to seize power for his radical Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. The IRPT was deeply distrusted by the secular government, but both sides agreed to put aside their differences for the time being.
The assassination of Nabiyev threw a wrench in the fragile coalition between the various factions, and had the unintended consequence of solidifying the UTO, which soon capitalized on the power vacuum to seize Dushanbe by late 1995. Tragically, however, many of the emerging factions that sought control of Tajikistan soon became identified more by ethnicity than by political allegiance. The subsequent emergence of Davlat Khudonazarov as President of Tajikistan was coupled with mass acts of ethnic cleansing that saw nearly half a million Tajiks from the Leninabadi region of the country flee to neighboring Uzbekistan fearing reprisals from the now dominant Pamiri ethnic class. The Pamiris soon began to foster ties to the UIS, recognizing that membership in the UIS could help them retain control over the country, a difficult task considering they made up less than 3% of the population.
However, with the subsequent agreement between the UIS federal government and Turkmenistan, as well as the pro-UIS government emerging in Tajikistan and the subsequent arrival of nearly half a million Tajiks fleeing into Uzbekistan, the most populous republic in Central Asia was now faced with a frightening proposition. Prior to the summer of 1995 Uzbekistan made no attempt to hide its contempt for the UIS and Russian president Vladimir Zhirinovsky. But as they now found themselves surrounded, they soon discovered that the UIS was ready to exact revenge. It was going to take Karakalpakstan.
PART SIXTY THREE: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Well, we finally get an idea of what is going on in Central Asia, and also why Putin is seen as something of a joke. Clearly Putin is not telling the BBC the whole story, but like so much in this TL, what part is true and what part is he making up for his own self interest?
We also see what is going on in Tajikistan, and we see very different allies in the civil war. In OTL we had ex communist (backed by Russia) against the UTO, a odd coalition back by Pamiris, Al Qaeda, Islamic Fundamentalist, and Liberal Democrats. Here we have a different break down of allies. The Islamist’s are backing the anti-UIS, pro independence former Communist government while the UIS is baking the UTO (who they opposed in OTL). Not nearly as crazy as it might sound though. Like the title indicates, war can make strange bedfellows. The Pamiris were ethnically very closely linked to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan (who opposed the Taliban and Al Qaeda in OTL). The fact that those fighting the Northern Alliance supported the UTO indicates that OTL’s conflict had some very strange bedfellows as well. Here we have the Islamic Fundamentalist siding with the government (which declared independence) against the Pamiris (blood brothers of the Northern Alliance, their rivals in Afghanistan) so it is not as ASB as you might think. Some new names in this update:
Rahmon Nabiyev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahmon_Nabiyev
Ahmad Shah Masooud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud
Qahhor Mahkamov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qahhor_Mahkamov
Karakalpakstan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakalpakstan
Sayid Abdulloh Nuri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayid_Abdulloh_Nuri
Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Renaissance_Party_of_Tajikistan
Gorno-Badakhshan Province:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorno-Badakhshan_Autonomous_Province
Davlat Khudonazarov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davlat_Khudonazarov
Saparmurat Niyazov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov
Leninabadi Region:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khujand
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing his removal as head of KGB in 1995 and his subsequent entry into politics.
BBC: Mr. Putin, you have constantly contradicted yourself over weather or not you were ousted or resigned as head of the KGB. Just a few hours ago you said you resigned because you wanted to enter politics and not because of your support for the opposition candidate Mikhail Arutyunov in 1993. Now you are indicating you were driven out and that you were arrested for supporting the communist resurgence in Belarus. Which is it?
Putin: You are putting words in my mouth-
BBC: We are recording this interview. Would you like us to play the tape for you?
Putin: I had little choice but to resign after I was arrested for some trumped up charge of treason!
BBC: But you were never charged.
Putin: But I was detained for over 16-hours!
BBC: But after questioning you were released.
Putin: But for 16-hours I was under arrest!
BBC: So you feel you were under arrest-
Putin: It really doesn’t matter if I was under arrest or not. Vice President Zavidiya was becoming less interested in politics and more interested in selling newspapers. He put my face all over the newspapers and the television. And he was an ally of the communists! He wanted Alexander Lukashenko to emerge as the new leader of the UIS! But he betrayed the communists so he could consolidate his control over the media!
BBC: You do realize that Mr. Zavidiya called those accusations “beyond absurd.”
Putin: Of course he would! And he can get away with it because he controls almost every major media outlet in the country, even today! But he was the one who supported Lukashenko! He was the one who was secretly plotting with the communists to oust Zhirinovsky!
BBC: You do realize how ridiculous that sounds. One of the richest men in the UIS would back an unrepentant communist dictator by exposing his treasonous plot to overthrow the democratically elected government of Russia. And while this is going on he sets up the head of the KGB by creating a fictitious conspiracy…all to sell newspapers.
Putin: He misrepresented what I was doing. I never denied meeting with Lukashenko or even some of the other former communist leaders of the other Republics, those who opposed Luzhkov’s free market reforms. I was trying to hold the country together! And much of that involved telling them to give the UIS more time. That Zhirinovsky and Luzhkov were not going to win the next election in 1996. To be honest, I single handedly kept Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in the Union. I should have been recognized for that, but patriotic acts apparently don’t sell as many newspapers as scandals do.
Turkmenistan President agrees to limited UIS partnership; calls it “a path to independence”
By Jack Horn
Denver Post - July 3, 1995
(MOSCOW, UIS) In a move that stunned political insiders, Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov agreed to a limited partnership with the Union of Independent States, apparently forgoing independence for at least the next five years. Niyazov announced that, like the UIS Republic of Georgia, Turkmenistan would be given limited membership in the United Nations as well as being given joint membership in the United Nations Security Council, a move that the United States called “illegal”. The UIS also announced that Russia was ending its territorial claim to the disputed costal areas around the Caspian Sea. Although Turkmenistan does not share a border with Russia, dozens of “novo gorods” have emerged on the banks of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan, just miles from the border of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has repeatedly called for guarantees that the oil rich costal areas not be opened to “free market colonialism” as President Niyazov famously called it in 1994.
The agreement between Niyazov and UIS President Yuri Luzhkov appears to end the possibility of free market “reforms” coming to Turkmenistan, where Niyazov has emerged as a virtual dictator since taking power in 1991.
Tajik President killed in roadside bomb as confusion over succession grips Republic
June 18, 1991|By Scott Sutcliffe | Dallas Morning News
Rahmon Nabiyev
DUSHANBE, UIS – Tajik President Rahmon Nabiyev was killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded near his car during a routine visit to a military instillation near the capital city of Dushanbe yesterday. The assassination intensified fears that the deadly civil war that has devastated the small UIS republic bordering Afghanistan may take a deadlier tone as dozens of members of the Pamiri ethnic group were targeted in the hours following the assassination.
“The Pamiris already were being targeted by the military and by the government,” commented a human rights worker in Dushanbe who asked to remain anonymous, “but by and large they were somewhat safe in Dushanbe. However, over the course of the afternoon I have received reports that the military is rounding up every Pamiri they can get their hands on.”
The Pamiris make up less than 3% of the population of Tajikistan but currently control nearly 50% of the country in association with the United Tajik Opposition. The UTO is a loose confederation of various opposition groups which receive support from factions as diverse as the Northern Alliance (in Afghanistan) to the federal government of the UIS. However, it is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of Eastern Tajikistan (where the Pamiris dominate politically) that they have encountered their greatest success. The Tajik government of President Nabiyev had been receiving support from Uzbekistan and Pakistan despite sharing little ideologically with either country. Much of the support from Pakistan is due to Nabiyev’s declaration of independence from the UIS in 1991, shortly after a violent pogrom drove out nearly the entire Russian population.
“It is strange to think that a former communist whose ties to Islam are tenuous at best could receive such strong support from a country like Pakistan,” added Walter Phelps, a former advisor to the Bush administration, “but the prospect of Tajikistan driving the Russians out of Central Asia trumped everything else. Wars makes strange bedfellows, I suppose that is why you had an alliance between a former anti-Russian Afghan mujahidin in Ahmad Shah Massoud and the UIS on one side squaring off against an unapologetic former communist and the radical Islamic Taliban on the other.”
So far there has been no group that has taken responsibility for the bombing although several sources have indicated that the assassination has all the earmarks of a KGB operation. There have been reports that KGB director Vladimir Putin recently visited with ousted former President of the Tajik SSR Emomalii Rahmon in Moscow (a claim that the UIS government denied). Rahmon announced at a press conference just one hour after the assassination that he that he was “the new President of Tajikistan.” Although his administration was quickly recognized by the UIS Republic of Belarus, which called on the UTO to end the insurgency, Moscow refused to recognize the Rahmon Presidency and reiterated its support for opposition leader Davlat Khudonazarov, a Pamiri human rights activist from Khorugh.
Excerpts from the book: “From Marx to Massoud: A Modern History of Tajikistan”
By Abu Rahmon
Published by University of California Press, © 2005
CHAPTER FIVE: A WAR OF ATTRITION
With the assassination of Rahmon Nabiyev there emerged a clear power struggle between various factions of the government. Although former communist Emomalii Rahmon seemed to have the blessing of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was quickly emerging as the leader of the various communist factions who opposed the free market reforms in Russia, his ties to the UIS KGB was a liability to many in the military. Qahhor Mahkamov, a former Communist Party leader who backed the 1991 hard line coup, also emerged as a potential rival to Nabiyev, but was deeply distrusted by the various Islamic fundamentalists who sided with former President Nabiyev. Mahkamov was badly discredited not only for his support of the 1991 coup but also because of his role in the bloody crackdown of Islamic fundamentalists during ethnic riots in Dushanbe in 1990. Also emerging was Akbarsho Iskandrov, who subsequently declared that he was the acting president of Tajikistan until election. Perhaps most disturbing was the emergence of Islamic fundamentalist Sayid Abdulloh Nuri, who used the assassination to attempt to seize power for his radical Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. The IRPT was deeply distrusted by the secular government, but both sides agreed to put aside their differences for the time being.
The assassination of Nabiyev threw a wrench in the fragile coalition between the various factions, and had the unintended consequence of solidifying the UTO, which soon capitalized on the power vacuum to seize Dushanbe by late 1995. Tragically, however, many of the emerging factions that sought control of Tajikistan soon became identified more by ethnicity than by political allegiance. The subsequent emergence of Davlat Khudonazarov as President of Tajikistan was coupled with mass acts of ethnic cleansing that saw nearly half a million Tajiks from the Leninabadi region of the country flee to neighboring Uzbekistan fearing reprisals from the now dominant Pamiri ethnic class. The Pamiris soon began to foster ties to the UIS, recognizing that membership in the UIS could help them retain control over the country, a difficult task considering they made up less than 3% of the population.
However, with the subsequent agreement between the UIS federal government and Turkmenistan, as well as the pro-UIS government emerging in Tajikistan and the subsequent arrival of nearly half a million Tajiks fleeing into Uzbekistan, the most populous republic in Central Asia was now faced with a frightening proposition. Prior to the summer of 1995 Uzbekistan made no attempt to hide its contempt for the UIS and Russian president Vladimir Zhirinovsky. But as they now found themselves surrounded, they soon discovered that the UIS was ready to exact revenge. It was going to take Karakalpakstan.
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