Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire

[Pellegrino]

PART FIFTY SEVEN: A TERRIBLE MISTAKE

PART FIFTY SEVEN: A TERRIBLE MISTAKE

To set the scene in the Baltic’s, we first get an idea of what the political fallout is in the US and NATO after the Romanian debacle of 1994

Some new names in this update

German Green Party Leader Joschka Fischer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joschka_Fischer

German SDP leader Rudolf Scharping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Scharping




UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.

Discussing the events leading up to the Vance-Carrington Plan that ended the Latvian Civil War in 1994.


BBC: By the summer of 1994 it was looking like there was a true reform movement taking control of the UIS. Many in the West have criticized President Kerrey and Prime Minister Major for not sending an olive branch out to the leaders of the reform movement like UIS Prime Minister Yuri Luzhkov and Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis-

Putin: There never was a serious reformist movement. Luzhkov was a bumbling idiot and Burbulis was an opportunist. And the fact that Luzhkov emerged as de facto President of the UIS didn’t change the fact that he had no real power.

BBC: But if that were true why was their a virtual media blackout in the UIS on Zhirinovsky? Many in the West commented on how little airtime Vladimir Zhirinovsky was getting during the summer of 1994. Wouldn’t that indicate that the Liberal Democratic Party no longer had a stranglehold on the media?

Putin: The reason there was a media blackout on Zhirinovsky was because the man who was in controlled of the media, Vice President Zavidiya, was angry at Zhirinovsky for agreeing to free market reforms. So he decided to take his toys and go home like a spoiled child.

BBC: And the military junta that you claim was really in control allowed this to happen?

Putin: It actually worked in our favor. General Lebed and General Vladimir Kostylev both recognized that the military was still badly overcommitted. They began to put out fires wherever they burned with the hope of ending as many conflicts as possible so the UIS could focus on Chechnya and the growing lawlessness of Central Asia. Had Zhirinovsky been allowed to speak freely on television it would have made their job impossible. It would have been like trying to put out a fire with a can of gasoline.


Excerpts from the book “A Diplomat’s Life: An Autobiography of Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher”


Published by Hyperion © 2003


Chapter IX: Backed Into A Corner

I turned off the television in disgust. I should have seen this coming, in hindsight it was obvious. There was no way the Romanian opposition would sit quietly while General
Victor Stănculescu destroyed Romanian democracy. Especially since the Russians were more than willing to exploit our mistake. The sight of our one true ally in Romania, Emil Constantinescu, shaking hands with Hungarian Republic of Szeklerland President Gyorgy Frunda and UIS President Yuri Luzhkov was more than I could bear. That should have been President Kerrey. That should have been us.

“We really screwed this up,” I thought to myself, “and now all we are left with is a Communist era military dictator.”

President Luzhkov’s trip to Moldova was an undeniable success for the UIS. Emil Constantinescu announced that the UIS government would continue to withhold recognition of the military dictatorship and that they had reached a permanent peace between the “Romanian government in exile” and the Hungarian Republic of Szeklerland. Szeklerland would give up its official bid for independence and Romania was guaranteeing the autonomy of Szeklerland in a unified Romania that “guaranteed the rights of all citizens.” Frunda would return Arad and much of the southern regions of Szeklerland back to Romania, and both sides agreed to allow the Russian military full access to the E-671 highway.

“Damn,” I mumbled under my breath, “they got the only thing that mattered to them: a stinking road.”

I knew we were now backed into a corner. We had little choice but to continue to support Victor Stănculescu; he was the only person left who was opposed to Russia now. But in the two weeks since he took over the country he arrested thousands of Romanians in a display of brazenness that would have shocked even Ceaușescu. Hundreds of Romanian politicians were now seeking refuge in Bulgaria. We had created a monster and now we had to figure out how to contain it.


German Chancellor defeated in Federal Elections; Scharping to be sworn in as new Chancellor of Germany

The Scotsman
October 17, 1994



In one of the most shocking political upsets in German history, longstanding German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany were defeated in federal elections yesterday by the slimmest of margins. Although there had been grumblings across Germany about his hard nosed approach to dealing with the UIS, it still was a shock to many in Germany as voters ousted the generally popular leader. Kohl’s party captured 249 seats, just three shy of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. However, the Green Party/Alliance ’90 coalition surprised many Germans by picking up a shocking 81 seats. Although the Green Party has never shown an interest in forming a Red-Green coalition with the SDP in the past, SDP leader Rudolf Scharping has indicated that the Green Party/Alliance ’90 has switched gears and will form a coalition government.

“We are at a unique time in German history,” commented Green Party politician Joschka Fischer, “we cannot be the Germany of old, challenging our neighbors and threatening them. We must stand for peace and democracy, not only for Germans, but for everyone.”


MSNBC interview with Walter Mondale, Former U.S. Secretary of State


July 16, 2008



MSNBC: Many Democrats, including you, were critical of President Kerrey’s decision to back the Romanian military during their coup in 1994. Republicans also were critical of the move, criticizing the fact that the United States was supporting an unrepentant former communist general. In hindsight do you still think the President made a “terrible mistake” as you famously said in 1994?

Mondale: Yes. It was a mistake then and it is a mistake now. And it cost the Democrats tremendously. After the midterm elections we lost fifty-nine seats in the House and thirteen seats in the Senate! And it wasn’t just the number of seats we lost, it was who we lost. Rick Santorum defeated Harris Wofford in Pennsylvania. Michael Huffington defeated Dianne Feinstein in California. Colin McMillan defeated Jeff Bingaman in New Mexico. Oliver North, the convicted felon, defeated Chuck Robb in Virginia. Even Edward Kennedy lost one of the safest Democratic Senate seats in the country when he was upset by Mitt Romney. You know things have gotten bad for Democrats when you lose to Mitt Romney.

MSNBC: Why did the Republicans score such a decisive win in 1994? It couldn’t all be because of Romania.

Mondale: No, it was the proposed health care reform that hurt him the most. But rather than rally his base, he alienated them by supporting a dictator in Romania over the leaders of the democracy movement. It was a cheap Nixon-esque move that shocked many Democrats. These Democrats were put off by that, and they decided to stay home on November 8th. It didn’t help that Stănculescu turned out to be an unrepentant communist. That just made Republican turnout even higher.

MSNBC: It looked like Kerrey was a lame duck on November 8, 1994. Most pundits assumed he would lose the election in 1996. But he was able to repackage himself and repair his relationship with his base. How did he pull that off?

Mondale: It was difficult. All across Europe America’s strongest allies against a resurgent UIS were falling. Germans made it abundantly clear in their elections in 1994 that they had little use for Kohl’s hard-line approach and sent him packing. President Kerrey realized that he had to be seen as part of the solution and not as part of the problem, while at the same time not being seen as rolling over against the Russians. Remember, this was a country that resembled Nazi Germany just two years prior. But he started looking at the long term picture, letting the Powell Doctrine do its part while also reaching out to moderate forces in the UIS. It was a very tricky tightrope, but it clearly was the strategy that was in our best interest. All he needed was an opportunity, and sure enough it came in December of 1994 when he received a call from Cyrus Vance.

 

[Pellegrino]

PART FIFTY EIGHT: NO SMALL THING

PART FIFTY EIGHT: NO SMALL THING

Well, we go back to the Baltics with an answer on how the Vance-Carrington Plan comes into effect in regards to Latvia as well as what is going on in Lithuania as well. Some new names in this update:

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martti_Ahtisaari

The Terehova-Zasitino Border Crossing
http://hitchwiki.org/en/Terehova-Zasitino_border_crossing

Former Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algirdas_Brazauskas

The Lithuanian Seimas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seimas

Lord Carrington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carington,_6th_Baron_Carrington

Cyrus Vance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Vance

Some interesting OTL info on the transit from Russia to Kaliningrad
http://www.euro.lt/en/lithuanias-membership-in-the-eu/transit-from-to-kaliningrad-region/


Lithuanian President Brazauskas clashes with Parliament over proposed closure of border with Kaliningrad enclave

Former Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis and current Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas discussing the proposed closure of the border with Russia

By Jack Horn
Denver Post- April 13, 1994

(VILNIUS, LITHUANIA) In what is emerging as one of the most contentious political battles in the former Soviet Republic of Lithuania, former President Vytautas Landsbergis (leader of the conservative Homeland Union Party) and his successor, Algirdas Brazauskas (leader of the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania) clashed over Landsbergis’ proposal to close the border around the Kaliningrad enclave.

“We cannot make unilateral proclamations that serve little purpose outside of saber rattling,” Brazauskas said forcefully in a television interview yesterday, “we need to work with the international community to implement a cohesive policy in regards to the UIS.”

Landsbergis, who was defeated by the former Communist Brazauskas in 1992, rebounded to form the Homeland Union Party, which subsequently won a majority of seats in the Seimas, or Lithuanian Parliament, in 1993. Since then he has clashed with the President over his handling of the “great Russian threat to the east.” However, the recent crackdown on communists in Russia has given the conservative Landsbergis an unexpected ally in recent months: hard-line communists in Brazauskas’ own Democratic Labour Party.

“It is a very strange coalition that is emerging in opposition to the President,” commented an official with the US embassy who asked to remain anonymous. “We have the right and the hard left merging in opposition to the center-left President.”

Many Lithuanians resent the open border policy that has been unofficially embraced by the President. Russian military forces and civilians are given free and total access to the Kaliningrad enclave, some not even requiring a passport. Many have in turn used this porous border for more nefarious activities, however.

“There is little question that criminal gangs and smugglers are taking advantage of the loose visa restrictions,” Landsbergis said in an interview last month, “almost all of our problems in regards to illegal drugs, crime, rape, and murder can be directly linked to that border. This administration’s refusal to close that border and join the international community in imposing sanctions on the UIS has left Lithuania weaker than it has ever been since the Nazi occupation.”

The UIS does not recognize the independence of Lithuania. However, as of yet it has not taken any steps to retake the breakaway republic, which is recognized by nearly 130 countries in the United Nations. However, many in Lithuania fear that a closed off Kaliningrad and the imposition of sanctions could change that.

“Kaliningrad would starve to death if Lithuania closed the border,” commented the American embassy official. “It would die. And Russia has a major lifeline right now going through Lithuania. Many of the black-market goods that helps keep Russia afloat right now are coming through Lithuania. This silent contract is the only thing that has kept the Russians out of Vilnius up to this point, and Brazauskas knows that if he breaks it there would be no way the Russians will ignore it. Bosnia and Croatia showed the world that Russia can be easily provoked by the smallest thing. And Kaliningrad is no small thing to Moscow.”



UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.

Discussing the Vance-Carrington Plan that ended the Latvian Civil War in 1994.


BBC: In the summer of 1994 Yuri Luzhkov was really emerging as the face of the UIS as opposed to Zhirinovsky. Many were also optimistic after the UIS not only recognized the independence of Latvia on the first day of negotiations, but also announced that they would accept all terms of the Vance-Carrington Plan. They called on Pro-Russian Latvian fighters to accept the terms as well. What role did Luzhkov have in these generous concessions?

Putin: None. We knew Latvia was unwinnable in the long run. We had too many fires going at once and we saw a disturbing trend emerge.

BBC: What was that?

Putin: The early months of the war featured thousands of Russian nationalists flooding into Latvia to assist the pro-Russian militias. But these forces never organized like their counterparts in Estonia. They never quite accomplished what they set out to do, which was to turn the conflict into one of two armies. It always looked like a state with a weak police force unable to put down some troublesome rabble rousers. But the Latvians were getting stronger, and the Russians were getting weaker.

BBC: How so?

Putin: The Russians who flooded into Latvia were drunk with nationalism and believed the war would resemble to UDR intervention in Azerbaijan. But they were badly mistaken and they were poorly trained. Once they realized they were getting shot at, and that living in a country in the middle of a low level civil war was not nearly as much fun as it sounded in Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s speech, they packed up and went home. There were some estimates that in 1992 over 100,000 Russians flooded into Latvia. But we knew they were not staying. We had over 150,000 Russian pass through the Terehova-Zasitino border crossing alone, so we knew that the pro-Slavic forces in Latvia were only getting weaker as more and more of the Russians left.

BBC: So you are saying the Military Junta authorized the peace accord?

Putin: Yes. General Lebed for one believed that we were nearing what he referred to as the Somali Line in Latvia. We would either need to invade Latvia or find a way to reach a viable peace accord. We decided that the best thing to do was to try and use the Latvian peace accord to accomplish two goals.

BBC: Which were?

Putin: To weaken sanctions imposed by the UN, and to create a permanent “Transylvanian Corridor” through Lithuania.


Excerpts from the book “A Diplomat’s Life: An Autobiography of Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher”


Published by Hyperion © 2003


Chapter X: A Global Baltic Peace Accord

President Kerrey rubbed his eyes as I closed my folder. I couldn’t blame him. There had to be a catch. There was no way the UIS was going to agree to anything short of the partition of Latvia. And they might even use the entire peace process as a cheap ploy to embarrass us; to make it look like we were the one’s opposed to peace.

“We can’t afford to just ignore this,” President Kerrey said with a sigh. “But after the midterm elections I got to admit, I would have liked a little more time before the media bent me over the table again.”

“They are asking that the negotiations be held in Germany,” I replied, “undoubtedly an attempt to try and win favor with the new chancellor, Rudolf Scharping. But he’s already refused.”

“I don’t think he’d go for that,” the President replied, “not after Prussiagate.”

“He won’t,” I countered. “He called and told me that there is no way Germany is going to give Vladimir Zhirinovsky permission to enter the country. Not only would it would be political suicide, but to be honest, I think he hates Zhirinovsky even more than Kohl did.”

“So naturally that leaves us,” Kerrey said with a sigh, “we have to be the country that hosts this circus act.”

“Not necessarily. We do have one country that may work out. They have indicated that they might be willing to host the peace negotiations as long as it is part of a global Baltic Peace Accord.”

“Where is that?” the President asked.

“Finland.”



A Step in the Right Direction: An American diplomat remembers the peace negotiation that ended the Latvian Civil War


Foreign Affairs (12/24/2004)
By Timothy Welch



Madeline Albright still remembers how much different the mood was for the American delegation in Helsinki than it was in Split just 20-months earlier.

“We really were not worried about Latvia spiraling into World War III like we were with Croatia,” Albright said, “I hate to admit this, but perhaps we went into it with a ‘nothing to lose’ mindset. Well, the Latvians had a lot to lose if the peace accords failed, as we would discover when an agreement on Estonia could not be reached.”

Albright and American Secretary of State Warren Christopher stepped off the plane in Helsinki wondering if they would have to spend Christmas in Finland. It was late December and both of the career diplomats knew that there was a very real possibility that this was all going to be smoke and mirrors.

“We half expected the Russian delegation to declare Latvia ‘NATO occupied territory’ or something silly like that,” Albright said with a laugh, “If they did we would simply turn around and go home. We had absolutely zero patience for sitting through another circus act like the one they tried to pull in Split.”

Much to their surprise however, they were met with a receptive Russian delegation.

“Russian Secretary of State Gennady Burbulis was sitting on a couch laughing and joking with his Latvian counterpart when we arrived at the hotel,” Albright recalled, “we were cautiously optimistic. The delegates looked like old friends at a reunion.”

However, the biggest surprise would come the following day before the actual negotiations began. UIS delegate, Konstantin Lubenchenko, announced that the UIS had reached preliminary agreement with the Latvians, and that they were prepared to make a shocking concession as an act of “good faith.”

“Lubenchenko said that the UIS and Latvians were very, very close to an agreement,” Albright said, “he said that they had reached a preliminary agreement and were still working out details. But as an act of good faith, that the UIS would recognize the independence of Latvia even though the agreement was not yet finalized. I honestly thought Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari would fall out of his chair when he heard that.”

The Latvian delegation then stood and applauded as Lubenchenko walked over and hugged the Latvian President. The moving scene prompted one of the Latvian delegates to begin singing the old national anthem of the Soviet Union. That in turn prompted the UIS delegation to follow suit.

“It was really strange,” Albright recalled, “the song had just been outlawed in Russia and Latvians never had a soft spot in their hearts for the Soviet occupation. But at that moment I honestly think Warren and I would have stood up and started singing it also if we knew the words. It was just such a powerful moment.”

As soon as the parties returned to their chairs, Cyrus Vance (the man who was first contacted by the Russians), leaned over and whispered in Albright’s ear.

“He said ‘you know Madeline, we might just be home for Christmas after all’,” Albright said, “to this day he is mad at himself for that. He was a former Hockey player at Yale and he was superstitious like only an athlete can be. He honestly thought that he jinxed the whole thing.”

Russian Secretary of State Gennady Burbulis soon asked the committee to move on to the issue of Lithuania, a move that perplexed the American and Finnish delegates.

“The Lithuanians and Russians were not fighting,” Albright recalled, “they were just invited as almost an afterthought since the Finns wanted to hold a ‘Global Baltic Peace Accord’.”

The Americans and Fins, cautiously optimistic over the major concessions just made by the Russians, didn’t object. They didn’t want to be seen as rocking the boat.

“Lubenchenko announced that the UIS was prepared to recognize Lithuania’s independence under one condition,” Albright recalled, “they wanted Kaliningrad to be exempt from sanctions and they wanted free access to the enclave through Lithuania.”

Secretary of State Christopher, who had been silent up to that point, angrily voiced his objection.

“This is not the time or place to discuss UN sanctions,” Christopher angrily retorted. “You know the terms that the United Nations put in place and you know what you have to do to get them lifted. It starts with withdrawing troops from Bosnia, Croatia and Romania.”

“Your predecessor signed a peace agreement in regards to Bosnia,” Burbulis coldly replied. “I was there. If you are having buyer’s remorse then perhaps you should have considered the consequences before you signed the peace accord. As for Romania, we already have signed a peace agreement with the legitimate recognized government of Romania. We have no intention of groveling to that dictator you propped up in Bucharest.”

Christopher looked stunned as the Finnish President shot him an angry glance.

“I put my hand on his shoulder and gently sat him down,” Albright said, “we had to change our game plan and Warren was still using the old playbook.”

“Everything should be on the table,” Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas said nervously, “nobody is suggesting that we unilaterally overturn United Nations Security Resolution 777. But we do have an opportunity here.”

However, American Secretary of State Warren Christopher was not willing to negotiate on that key provision, even to the slightest degree. Kaliningrad was Russia and it would have to take its lumps just like the rest of Russia. It would have to deal with the sanctions.

“Sanctions are not negotiable,” Christopher said firmly, “and that is final.”

UIS delegate Lubenchenko looked intently in the eyes of Warren Christopher, wondering if, perhaps, he was bluffing. But everyone in the room knew that he wasn’t. The Americans were not going to lift sanctions, not even an inch. Lubenchenko then stood up and turned to his Finnish host.

“President Ahtisaari,” he said as the UIS delegation stood in unison, “please accept my humble thanks for hosting these negotiations. On behalf of the UIS and, I think I can say this as well, on behalf of the independent Republic of Latvia, we thank you. Please also express our thanks to Prime Minister Aho as well.”

The UIS delegates began to leave when Ahtisaari jumped out of his chair.

“Wait,” he said, “we shouldn’t let this minor disagreement derail this opportunity! We can still negotiate! I will call Prime Minister Aho right now and ask him to join us!”

“Thank you Mr. President,” Lubenchenko said as he started putting folders into his briefcase, “but a negotiation requires compromise, and quite frankly, I don’t see this as working.”

Albright was not sure what would be worse for President Kerrey: another debacle like Split, or this. She admired Christopher for his firmness, but she knew that there had to be another way.

“Mr. Lubenchenko,” Cyrus Vance said calmly in an attempt to rescue the situation without conceding the Americans most important position, “what about Latvia? We have not finalized the agreement. Perhaps we can stay another day or two, and we can further discuss Estonia and Lithuania while Lord Carrington from the UN delegation and I finalize the paperwork?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Lubenchenko said as he headed for the door, “you can fax it to us in Moscow. We trust you.”

In desperation the Finish President made one final proposal, hoping to stop the Russians from walking out.

“A recess!” he yelled as Lubenchenko began walking out the door, “let’s just call this a recess and we will reconvene in several weeks!”

Lubenchenko stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. He was clearly thinking about the proposal.

“Fine,” he replied, “we’ll meet back up in three weeks.”

“We have prior commitments,” Christopher said. “We can’t come back in January.”

“March then,” Lubenchenko said, “That gives us both plenty of time to clear our schedules.”

“But we are not going to change our position on sanctions,” Christopher reiterated. “Any agreement to lift sanctions will have to go through the UN.”

“Well, I suppose you will have time to make the necessary proposals to the United Nations before we reconvene,” Lubenchenko said as he started to turn around and head back towards the door.”

What followed was something that Albright would never forget.

“He said one thing as he walked out the door,” Albright recalled solemnly, “but it still haunts me to this day.”

“May God protect Estonia until March,” Lubenchenko said sadly as he walked out, “because Hell is coming to Tallinn.”

 

[Pellegrino]

PART FIFTY NINE: THE BLOODY RECESS

PART FIFTY NINE: THE BLOODY RECESS


OK guys, sorry for the delay, but I received some good ideas from you guys recently and wanted to incorporate them into the next few updates. We now look at what is happening in Estonia as the war there is coming to a close…

Also, I named a Russian Paramilitary brigade the Tibla Brigade. Apparently Tibla is an ethnic slur Estonians use agaisnt Russians, but I thought it might fit in with the Russian "ownership" of this slur (sort of a "hell yes we are tibla" sort of mentality). This is not uncommon in war (and in sports). There are many examples of this in modern time, but I really don't know if that would apply here. I decided to go with it, but if this is something that those of you more familiar with the word can speak on I would appreciate your input as I may take it out.

Some new names in this update:

Tapa, Estonia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapa,_Estonia

Vladivostok, Russia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok

Black Dolphin Prison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dolphin_Prison

GAZ-24 Volga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ-24

Aqaba, Jordan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqaba

Tamsalu, Estonia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamsalu

Tõnismägi district, Tallinn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B5nism%C3%A4gi

Estonian ethnic slur:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibla

MSNBC interview with Walter Mondale, Former U.S. Secretary of State

July 16, 2008


MSNBC: You famously said that the three month recess between the Latvian and Estonian peace accords in Helsinki was a “bloody recess” in which the United States failed in its moral duty. Would you care to elaborate?

Mondale: Yes, we should have gone right back to the table once it became clear that massive human rights violations were not only occurring, but intensifying. Both sides embraced a policy of ethnic cleansing once they realized that March 15 would be the end of the war. We needed to step in and stop the slaughter, either by pulling out of the peace accord or moving the date up.

MSNBC: Wouldn’t that have played right into the hands of Vladimir Zhirinovsky?

Mondale: One of the greatest foreign policy blunders of the late 20th century that this country committed was looking at things through the prism of ‘is this playing into the hands of Vladimir Zhirinovsky?’ We needed to look at things in clear terms of right and wrong, not just our own self interest. Had we done that in Estonia nearly half of the people killed in that horrible Civil War might still be alive today.

MSNBC: Ralph Nader famously argued during his Presidential run in 2000 that President Kerrey wanted the war to last longer, even into 1996 if need be. The Green Party argued that since the Estonians were killing so many Russian men that President Kerrey believed it was in our country’s interest to drag the war out even longer.

Mondale: Ralph Nader has some bizarre ideas. That one might just take the cake.



Fighting erupts across Estonia intensifies as Russians from neighboring Latvia flood into country

Economist

January 01, 1995

Russian men in Latvia prepare to cross into Estonia to join pro-Russian militias

(TALLINN, ESTONIA) - In a move that Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho called “completely unacceptable,” pro-Russian forces in Tallinn launched a surprise offensive this morning with the aims of capturing the city of Tallinn as other pro-Russian forces launched similar offensives across the Republic of Estonia.

“This is clearly a coordinated effort,” Aho said in a press conference,” with the intention of capturing as much land as possible during this short recess before the Helsinki Peace Accords resume in March. We call on both sides to refrain from hostilities during this time period and allow diplomacy to take hold.”

American President Bob Kerrey also criticized the offensive, calling it a “betrayal” and calling on the UIS to end financial and military support for the Russian paramilitary forces that have emerged as the de facto military of the proclaimed “Russian Republic of the Baltic.” It is estimated that in the last seven days over 20,000 Russians have flooded into Estonia, propping up the badly demoralized military of the Russian Republic of the Baltic.

“We have been receiving reports that the Russians have been sending political prisoners and even criminals to Estonia,” commented a Red Cross worker in Riga, “right now every Russian with a gun seems to be hell bent on going to Estonia. They realize that the war now has an end date: March 15, 1995. Once the Helsinki Peace Accords start back up the war is going to end, and they want to capture as much of the country as they can between now and then.”

The Estonian military appears near the breaking point as the town of Tapa, a major transportation hub between Narva (the capital of the Russian Republic of the Baltic) and Tallinn appears close to falling to Russian paramilitary forces. The fall of Tapa would be a devastating blow to the Estonians, who have been trying to prevent the Russians from capturing all of northern Estonia.

“If they lose Tapa they loose Tallinn, and if they lose Tallinn they lose the war,” commented the Red Cross volunteer, “right now thousands of Russians from right here in Latvia are flooding across the border into Estonia as well, opening up another front for the badly demoralized Estonian Army.”

It is estimated that nearly 1500 Russian veterans of the Latvian Civil War have flooded into Estonia in the last three days, with almost no steps taken by the Latvian government to even attempt to stem the flow of fighters out of the country.

“I suppose it is silly to think that the Latvians would actually want these people in the country,” the Red Cross worker admitted, “but they need to realize that as Estonia goes, so goes Latvia. Estonia is the only real ally Latvia has, and for them to turn their back on their brothers to the north like this will come back to haunt them in the very near future.”

Front lines on December 25, 1994 (Russian Republic of the Baltic in RED)

Front lines on February 1, 1995


Russian Forces capture town of Tapa as Estonian forces surrounded in Tallinn

The Scotsman
February 13, 1995



In a sign that the Estonian Army may be near the breaking point; Russian paramilitaries captured the disputed town of Tapa as ethnic Russian units in Tallinn successfully encircled the remaining Estonian forces in the Tõnismägi district of the Estonian capital.

“This is nothing short of a disaster,” one Estonian refugee said as she carried a small child on her back as she fled Tapa, “they are raping and killing everything in sight. They are not men, they are monsters!”

The defeat in Tapa is a devastating loss for the Estonian Army, who hoped to prevent the Russian militias from connecting their forces in Tallinn to their capital in Narva. The loss of Tapa coupled with the encirclement of nearly 25,000 Estonian troops is a devastating blow for the country, and many international observers believe there is a very real possibility that the Russians may capture all of northern Estonia before the Helsinki Peace Accords resume in March. Early reports from Tallinn indicate that the Russian Tibla Brigade, lead by radical nationalist Vitali Vaulin, has begun a systematic reign of terror in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the city of Estonians.

“The Tiblas are executing people they call ‘traitors’ in front of school children,” one refugee from Tallinn told the BBC yesterday, “once they started moving in on the Tõnismägi district they took all of the captured prisoners of war to a local school, one of the few that still remained open, and forced all of the Estonian children to sit and watch them be executed. They then told the children that some of their parents would be executed tomorrow. As soon as we heard what they did we all packed what we could and fled.”

Russian nationalist may have shot civilians in Tapa

A leading figure of the radical right in Russia, Eduard Limonov of the newly created Bolshevik Party, was featured on Russian state controlled television yesterday firing a snipers rifle into Estonian controlled Tapa yesterday, opening questions about his role in the war crimes committed during the capture of the town. Limonov was recently forced to relocate to Kazakhstan, but appears to have joined forces with fascist leader Dmitri Vasilyev who fled Moscow in March of last year after he was denounced by Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Vasilyev’s Pamyat has subsequently taken an active role in the conflict with nearly 20,000 Paramilitary fighters claiming allegiance to the fascist organization.

Eduard Limonov seen shooting at Estonian civilians during seige of Tapa

Captured Estonian troops shortly before they were killed by Russian paramilitary forces at a local school (AP)

Gangster’s Paradise: A former Russian Paramilitary commander bitterly recalls his time in Estonia

Foreign Affairs (8/19/2011)
By Timothy Welch


Andrei Belov tosses his cigarette butt into the Narva River as he watches the fireworks go off in Russia.

“Alexander Lebed is a piece of shit,” he angrily says as he turns back on the country of his birth, “he fucking exploited us. He exploited every last one of us. But we didn’t revolt, we could have, but we didn’t. Despite everything, we knew our brethren needed us. Our country needed us.”

Andrei Belov was a former commander of the dreaded Varna Tigers, a paramilitary organization made up of exiled Russian criminals and neo-fascists that were responsible for some of the most brutal war crimes in modern European history. Nearly 100,000 people were killed during the horrific Estonian Civil War of 1992-1995, with nearly half of those casualties occurring during a 90-day period that is often called “the bloody recess” by many historians. But for many of the veterans like Belov, Estonia was less about nationalism and more about a second chance.

“I was a criminal,” Belov said with a laugh, “there are not many situations when admitting you were a drug dealer is seen as a positive, but I suppose this is one of them. I didn’t really care much for the fascists, but I had to come to Estonia. It was the only way out of Black Dolphin.”

As a young college student in Moscow, Belov began to supplement his income by purchasing automobiles in Japan and driving them back to Moscow for sale. He and several friends found that in most instances they would easily triple their money by doing so. But unlike his classmates, Belov became greedy.

“I still hate myself for that decision,” Belov said, “most of my friends made over a ten thousand dollars buying and selling Japanese cars. But I wanted more. I wanted a million. So I started buying drugs in Japan, marijuana at first, but then cocaine. I would easily make ten times the money selling it in Moscow.”

Belov’s deals with the unsavory criminal underworld in Japan soon would prove his undoing when his dealers asked him if he would be willing to expand his business into the gun market.

“I never drove to Vladivostok before,” Belov recalled, “I would always take the train and then bribe a cargo ship for a ride to Japan. Even during the height of the sanctions you could sneak into Japan, and once there it was easy to buy a car. Nobody cared if you were in the country illegally if you were buying an automobile. The Japanese government had strange laws that made it impossible to own a car that was over five years old, so the used car market in Japan was full of cheap cars that nobody would buy. They were just happy to be rid of them.”

However, for the first time Belov decided to drive to Vladivostok with a trunk full of automatic rifles, assured by his contacts that they would fetch an easy $100,000 USD in Japan. Belov became so enamored with the prospect of making that much money that he never stopped to looked at the political scene around the UIS at the time.

“It had been easy to bribe your way out of any jam during the height of the sanctions,” Belov recalled with a sigh, “but the Constitutional Crisis had just ended and the communists were being shipped to Sakhalin and Kunashir en masse. I didn’t stop and ask how that was going to change things for me.”

As Belov drove across Russia in an old GAZ-24 Volga he assumed that the one thousand British pounds he carried with him in the glove box would easily ensure that he would remain unmolested during his drive. But to his surprise, the local police near Sakhalin Island had been replaced by the UIS military.

“They were put in charge of maintaining order,” Belov recalled, “and they were on edge. Nearly 100,000 communists were just dumped in their lap and they had no idea what to do with them. They were terrified of an uprising or even a civil war. And like a fucking idiot I just drove up to their checkpoint with a trunk full of automatic rifles.”

Belov was arrested by the military and turned over to the KGB as a suspected communist terrorist. He was quickly tried by a special military tribunal and sent to the most notorious prison in the UIS: Black Dolphin.

“I was in shock,” Belov recalled, “there were four types of people who were sent to Black Dolphin: serial killers, cannibals, pedophiles, and terrorists. I tried to argue that I was just a lowly smuggler, but they were having none of it.”

Sentenced to life in prison, Belov soon began to dream about suicide.

“It was all I could think about,” Belov said, “every day was pure torture. They didn’t beat me or anything like that, but I was completely isolated from the other prisoners and the outside world.”

Belov was locked in an overcrowded ten-by-ten cell with another prisoner, the only face he saw during his ten-month sentence.

“They put me in a cell with an Arab who was captured in Chechnya,” Belov recalled, “normally I would have nothing to do with a fucking Arab, but we became close friends in there. He didn’t speak a word of Russian so I started teaching him; it was the only thing we had to keep sane. We were forced to stand in our cell for sixteen hours of the day; we would just pace and wait for them to bring us our food. The whole time he kept talking about his home in Jordan and how much he dreamed of seeing Aqaba one more time before he died. I knew it was a pipe dream, and I suppose he did too. And I wanted to tell him to stop, he was driving himself crazy. But I loved hearing about Jordan. It was the only thing I had in there.”

However a chance opportunity came when Belov was pulled from his cell and put in front of a military tribunal which made him an offer he could not refuse: to serve his country and earn a pardon.

“Some Colonel came to Black Dolphin one day,” Belov recalled, “they pulled me out of the cell and brought me to an office where the Colonel sat at a table with the Warden and a few other officers. Without looking up they told me that I could go to Estonia and fight for the Russians or stay in Black Dolphin.”

Belov was stunned, overwhelmed with sensory overload and unable to fully grasp the proposition.

“I didn’t say anything at first,” Belov recalled. “Keep in mind; I hadn’t seen the sun in ten months. Or a Russian face. Or a woman. We had exercise time in the prison, but it was in a small room and it consisted of walking around in a circle. Also, the guards always wore masks when they came to fetch us. Suddenly I am overwhelmed with all of this. I just stood their with my mouth agape looking at the one female in the room. I finally muttered out ‘Estonia’.

Within the hour Belov was on a bus and within three days he was sitting on the shores of the Varna River wondering how his life had come full circle.

“Lebed created a monster back in 1994,” Belov said sarcastically, “he wanted to be rid of the fascist and the criminals and the military was running out of recruits who would agree to go to Estonia, so he turned us into a Slavic Australia: a dumping ground for Russia’s undesirables.”

Belov found himself in the middle of a violent and often senseless civil war that pitted the organized Estonian Army against a rag-tag group of petty criminals and nationalists, few who had any real training.

“There were dozens of paramilitary organizations operating at the time,” Belov recalled, “At first I was part of the Black Dolphin Brigade. But I soon jumped ship and joined up with the Varna Tigers. As much as I hated the fascists, they at least were not full of a bunch of goddamn pedophiles.”

Belov soon moved rapidly up the ranks of the Varna Tigers due to his tenacity and his calm demeanor, a rare trait among the young paramilitary fighters.

“Most of them were rash and stupid,” Belov recalled, “they would disobey orders and half the time they were drunk. But I kept my head down, kept a low profile, and did what I was told. And as others were dying I knew that no matter what, this was preferable to going back to Russia. This was better than Black Dolphin. I kept telling myself that once I got my pardon I would go visit Jordan and take a picture and send it to the Arab with a message not to give up hope. No matter how bad things got, I kept fighting because I knew if I survived, I could go to Jordan when it was all over. I could live.”

Even as other former prisoners began to second guess the decision to go to Estonia, Belov persisted.

“They had our tattoos on file,” Belov recalled, “even if we went back to Russia they could cross reference our tattoos with those on file and if they found out we abandoned our post then we would have been shot. Besides, I was starting to believe in the cause.”

Belov soon felt the adrenaline rush of knowing that victory was in sight, despite the seeming betrayal of the UIS government in Moscow.

“We saw how the Russians in Latvia were sold out by the so called reformist in Moscow,” Belov said angrily. “None of us wanted to see the UIS dissolved, but Yuri Luzhkov gave up Latvia and Lithuania without so much as a whimper. He was more concerned with being able to buy French cognac in Moscow then keeping the country together.”

Still, for men like Belov the promise of a pardon proved to be elusive. The wanted war criminal watches as another firework goes off over the Narva River from neighboring Russia, he looks wounded as the explosion lights up the sky for several seconds.

“This is the 20 year anniversary of the Battle of Gorky Park,” he said softly. “We should be in Moscow right now. Every Russian patriot who fought for his country should be. But Alexander Lebed doesn’t want to offend his American masters. He doesn’t want us to embarrass him. He thinks we would burn down a synagogue if we set foot in Russia.”

Few in the West could blame President Lebed for his caution. For nearly nine years after the end of the Estonian Civil War “Liberation Day” (which celebrated the Battle of Gorky Park and the failed hard-line Communist coup in 1991) was a national embarrassment. It always seemed to bring out the worst elements of Russian society from all across the UIS, where they would converge in Moscow for a drunken orgy of fascist chants and (on three separate occasions) riots that left hundreds injured. And almost always the worst culprits would be the innocuous sounding “Baltic Veterans Association.” After the 2005 riots saw members of the Baltic Veterans Association attempt to storm the newly reopened Israeli embassy, President Lebed announced that citizens of the Russian Republic of the Baltic would have to pass background checks before they would be granted visas to enter Russia. The move was widely applauded in the West, and effectively prohibited nearly every member of the Baltic Veterans Association from coming back to Russia.

“At least they respect my service here in Varna,” Belov said sadly, “at least they know what it means to be a Varna Tiger in the Russian Republic of the Baltic.”

The real emergence of the Varna Tigers in 1994 came as the unrecognized Russian Republic of the Baltic looked close to collapse during Christmas of 1993. The Estonian Civil War was brutal, with thousands of Russians killed in 1993 alone. With sanctions devastating much of the former USSR, many of the eager Russian volunteers who came to Varna soon abandoned the adventure when it became clear that the Estonians were not only fighting back…they were winning. But it was after the failure of the communists during the Constitutional Crisis that gave the Russian Republic of the Baltic a second life.

“Most of the Russian leadership in Varna had been communists,” Belov recalled, “and they became very, very worried when the UIS began cracking down on communists in Russia. As a result they began sending out olive branches to both the Estonians and the Russians. They wanted to make a deal with someone…anyone.”

However, in the confusing weeks that followed the failed Constitutional Crisis another group soon fell out of favor with the central government in Moscow: Pamyat and the radical right.

“We were shocked that Pamyat and Dmitri Vasilyev turned on Vladimir Zhirinovsky,” Belov recalled. “Talk about a bunch of fucking idiots. I suppose most fascists are stupid to begin with, but still, it was amazing how badly they misplayed their hand. They figured the fascists would just rise up in support of Pamyat against the Jewish Zhirinovsky. But after seeing what he did to the communists who rose up against him in the Duma who would be stupid enough to try that?”

Eduard Limonov’s newly formed Bolshevik Party soon began recruiting former Communist Party members, as well as disgruntled members of the Liberal Democratic Party who opposed the free market reforms imposed by the liberal Duma. But within weeks they were being rounded up and sent to Kazakhstan en masse. Pamyat leader Dmitri Vasilyev knew he was next.

“Limonov’s falling out with Zhirinovsky was mostly over his partnership with the reformists,” Belov recalled, “but it was still enough for Zhirinovsky and his Gestapo to round up every Bolshevik Party member and send them to Kazakhstan. Vasilyev knew that it would be 100 times worse for him. He called Zhirinovsky a “filthy Jew”; there was no way he was getting off lightly. So he fled across the border to Varna and stationed his party in the Russian Republic of the Baltic.”

The strange partnership between former communists and radical fascists even appeared to have the blessing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Moscow, who recognized that the presence of Pamyat in Estonia could tip the balance of power for the Russians. The Russian state media soon began portraying Vasilyev as a great hero, and even Eduard Limonov got in on the action.

“I was there when Limonov arrived in Tapa in February of 1995,” Belov said with a laugh. “He wanted to take part of the liberation of Tapa. But by then the tide had turned in our favor and over 50% of Tapa was under Russian control. Well for about fifteen minutes he shot into Estonian controlled territory and then went back to Varna claiming to be some great ‘war hero.’ To be honest, it is quite amusing that he might have been the only person on either side during the Battle of Tapa not to have actually shot anyone…but now he is faced with charges of war crimes in The Hague! I hope that photo op was worth it for him!”

The fall of Tapa effectively broke the back of the Estonian military, but it still came at a heavy price for the Russians. With a casualty rate over 50%, Belov found himself as the unlikely leader of the feared Tapa Brigade of the Varna Tigers after his commanding officer was killed.

“I never ordered anyone to kill civilians,” Belov said firmly. “I don’t really know what the fucking Hague wants with me. I’m not Vitali Vaulin, killing thousands of Estonians in Tallinn. I was just one of about two dozen men who led the Varna Tigers, but since I’m the last one alive they are coming after me.”

Belov’s claim to be innocent of war crimes doesn’t necessarily mesh with the facts however. Just weeks after the fall of Tapa, the Varna Tigers raided the tiny village of Tamsalu, just south of Tapa. After a three day siege the village was captured, and one of the worst war crimes of the war was committed.

“I didn’t order anyone to rape those women,” Belov said angrily, “and I certainly didn’t order them to kill civilians. I just ordered them to move them out of the town. It made military sense to empty out the town. It was a salient that stuck out nearly ten kilometers into Tiger controlled territory. If we left those Estonians there it would have allowed them to encircle us in Tapa. We had no choice but to remove them from Tamsalu.”

Estimates of civilians killed in Tamsalu range from 36 to as many as 300, although Belov denies both numbers.

“Perhaps a dozen civilians,” Belov said, “and most of them were killed by friendly fire from Estonian forces.”

With the fall of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Belov discovered that the pardon he fought so hard for disappeared as well. The UIS recently announced that anyone with a criminal record may face arrest if they return to Russia, and that the UIS will honor the demands for extradition of anyone wanted for war crimes by the UN War crimes tribunal. Both proclamations effectively bar Belov from returning to the country of his birth.

“I went to Moscow on several occasions after for Liberation Day,” Belov said softly, “and other than marching in a parade I didn’t cause any trouble. But I honestly don’t care about going back to Moscow. I really don’t. I just wish I had the chance to go to Jordan just once. I would have liked to see Aqaba once before I die.”

Flag of the Russian Republic of the Baltic

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY: AN EYE FOR AN EYE

PART SIXTY: AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Well we get a visit from a name we first visited back in Part one: Vitali Vaulin. Some new names in this update:

Dr. Who
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who

Mary Tamm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tamm

UN Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Lipton_Robinson

Lasteaed Rõõmutareke (secondary school in Tallinn)
https://foursquare.com/v/lasteaed-r%C3%B5%C3%B5mutareke/4da595f48154a54251bb190a

UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.

Discussing the Helsinki Peace Accord that ended the Estonian Civil War.


BBC: By March of 1995 it looked like the Russian Republic of the Baltic was poised to capture all of Estonia. Nearly two thirds of the Estonian Army was encircled in Tallinn and as a result they were unable to prevent Russian forces from capturing large areas of land in the central and eastern portions of the country. Yet in the election of 1996 you referred to the victory as a pyrrhic victory. Why?

Putin: Because from December of 1994 to March 15, 1995 close to 20,000 Russian men were killed. It was the single deadliest event for Russia since the end of the Great Patriotic War.

BBC: But the UIS government estimated Russian casualties at fewer than 3,000 during the bloody recess. Are you saying the UIS government lied?

Putin: We were having a problem recruiting men to serve in our armed forces due to the conditions in Chechnya and due to the large number of military commitments we had all over the continent. If the truth came out it would prove disastrous.

BBC: It seems hard to believe that the Russian people wouldn’t have noticed that big of a discrepancy.

Putin: It wasn’t as difficult as you would imagine. Most of the fighters were criminals or fascists, and most people assumed that many of them just abandoned their post once they saw an opportunity to run. It was assumed by many that the missing 17,000 simply fled Estonia and went back home or even defected to the West. But once the truth started to come out, many Russian citizens became furious. That was one of the reasons Zhirinovsky lost the Presidential election of 1996. Later reports estimated that fewer than 1,000 Russians actually fled Estonia for the West. And most who tried were killed by the Estonians.

BBC: Estonia repeatedly denies any state sanctioned war crimes during the bloody recess. Are you claiming that this was not true?

Putin: That is a lie. Even The Hague knows that is a lie. That is why they have so many Estonians awaiting trial there. When the Black Dolphin Brigade tried to surrender en masse to the Estonian military just outside of Tallinn they were simply shot. Nearly 1,000 Russian fighters shot and killed. Estonia claimed they were not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention since they were not “lawful combatants” under the Geneva Convention but rather paramilitary mercenaries. But how can you justify shooting a large group of unarmed men who just surrendered to you?

BBC: Many in Estonia claim that it was in part a response to the execution of nearly 600 captured Estonians by the Tibla Brigade in Tallinn just five days earlier. They claim that the brutality of the Russians in the occupied Tõnismägi sub district of Tallinn provoked the Estonians to respond in kind.

Putin: Well an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.



Russian Paramilitary leader found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in Estonian Civil War

Owen Johnston in the Hague
The Guardian, Thursday 20 February 2005 11.13 EDT


The first Russian national to be prosecuted by an international court has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in the mass execution of 602 captured Estonian soldiers at the Lasteaed Rõõmutareke Secondary School on February 11, 1995. Wearing a blue suit and red tie, Vitali Vaulin showed no emotion as the three judge panel delivered the guilty verdict. Vaulin, a former leader of the notorious Russian Tibla Brigade during the Estonian Civil War, was found guilty of directly ordering his men to execute the captured Estonians in front of nearly 300 young children, nearly all under the age of ten.


Vaulin’s court appointed attorney repeatedly attempted to shift attention to the plight of the Black Dolphin Brigade, another Russian paramilitary unit which took part in the capture of Tõnismägi district. Presiding Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson from Jamaica gave the defense a great deal of latitude during the course of the 111-day trial, never interrupting the defense or sustaining the prosecutions objections on grounds of relevance. However, as he read the court’s guilty verdict he made abundantly clear that he found Vaulin’s defense questionable at best.


“Mr. Vaulin frequently pointed to an event, the execution of over 1000 prisoners by the Estonian military, as some sort of twisted justification for his horrific act,” Robinson said from the bench. “But even if this court were to accept the completely offensive proposition that one war crime could justify another, he never once addressed the simple fact that the execution of the prisoners of the Black Dolphin Brigade occurred after the execution of Estonian prisoners which he was charged with.”


Vaulin faces 30-years in prison for this conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 23, 2005 (the ten year anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Peace accord which formally ended the Estonian Civil War). Vaulin’s case is a watershed case for the International Criminal Court. It is the first case against a Russian citizen and is believed it could lead to the arrest and prosecution of hundreds of other potential war criminals now living in the UIS.


“We applaud President Lebed for standing up for justice,” American President John Engler told reporters yesterday. “First, for having the courage to not only turn Mr. Vaulin over to the Criminal Court to answer for his crimes, but also for his cooperation with the UN in its investigation.”


The cooperation of the UIS in allowing the UN full access to sensitive documents to assist in the prosecution of Vaulin was seen as a very promising development by most international observers. Many in fact feel that it may indicate a willingness by the UIS to turn over the world’s most sought after war criminal: former Russian and UIS President Vladimir Zhirinovsky.


“Vaulin may have been a small fish but this was still an important step,” an unnamed White House source told The Guardian, “he was a celebrated hero in Zhirinovsky’s UIS, a veteran of the Battle of Gorky Park and the Battle of Tallinn. For the UIS to be willing to turn him over and help the UN in prosecuting him gives us hope that we are entering a new era of cooperation between the United States and the UIS.”


Vaulin has 14 days to file a written notice of appeal. His attorney has indicated that Vaulin plans to appeal his conviction.



Kerrey’s Dr. Who snub ridiculed by British sci-fi fans

Bill Boston - New York Post
February 22, 1995


WASHINGTON — Whew. It’s a good thing for Democrats that British nerds can’t vote in the next U.S. election, because if they could Bob Kerrey could be looking for a new job. Almost all of European geekdom was in an uproar over President Kerrey’s snub of the obscure British cult television show Dr. Who yesterday at a press conference.

“What is Dr. Who and why should I care,” Kerrey said with a laugh at a press conference when told that Estonian born actress Mary Tamm (who starred on the sci-fi show for one season in 1978) took out a one page ad in the London Times criticizing President Kerrey’s leadership over his perceived inaction in Estonia.

When explained what Dr. Who was, and how the show was cancelled in 1989, Kerrey again laughed.

“Wow,” he told the press playfully, “you guys are sort of digging the bottom of the barrel. Someone from a show nobody every heard of doesn’t agree with American foreign policy. I don’t know why this is even considered newsworthy. I guess she did a Jedi-mind meld on you guys.”

Unfortunately for Kerrey, the statements caused outrage not only with human rights activists, but also science fictions fans who were stunned at how badly Kerrey could fumble so many sci-fi pop culture references in one sentence. Mary Tamm, however, seemed to be unfazed about Kerrey’s lack of knowledge in regards to Dr. Who. Rather, it was his dismissive response to the substance of her ad that upset the actress.

“I really don’t care if he’s ever seen Dr. Who or knows anything about it,” Tamm told the BBC in an interview yesterday, “but my newspaper ad was trying to bring attention to the suffering of the Estonian people, and to hopefully open President Kerrey’s eyes to the effects of his failed and disastrous policy in regards to Estonia. Rather than take this seriously he treated the whole thing like it was some sort of joke. To be honest, that is what I find deeply offensive.”



Excerpts from the book “A Diplomat’s Life: An Autobiography of Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher”


Published by Hyperion © 2003


Chapter XI: Back to Helsinki

We could see as soon as we stepped into the hotel that the mood would be much different this time out. The Lithuanian delegation sat quietly in the corner, eyeing us suspiciously. The Estonians wouldn’t even hide their contempt for us. They blamed us for not stopping the Russians and for dragging out the war in their country. All across Europe radical left wing politicians and socialist newspapers were accusing us of trying to drag out the war in Estonia to maximize Russian casualties. They were publishing horrible lies, about how we didn’t care if a million Estonians were killed as long as they took a few thousand Russians with them. Even the two Russian delegations seemed to distrust each other. Gennady Burbulis, the Russia Prime Minister stood near the fireplace alone. He wouldn’t even look up and acknowledge our arrival. His Russian counterparts from the self proclaimed Russian Republic of the Baltic stood at the other side of the room. They stood out like sore thumbs; all were dressed like color blind Che Guevara impersonators. They looked like they just came out of a poorly written action film about Rambo in El Salvador or something. A part of me wanted to laugh at those clowns, but I knew in this tense environment we could ill afford even the slightest perceived insult. I decided to try as best as I could to break the ice as I walked over to Gennady Burbulis.

“Hello Gennady,” I said as I extended my hand, “good to see you again old friend.”

Prime Minister Burbulis said nothing as he looked in the fire. His eyes looked tired and weary, and he ignored my outstretched hand.

“There is nothing that is going to happen here that couldn’t have been accomplished three months ago,” he said angrily, “and over 50,000 people who were alive at Christmas are now dead because you refused to even pretend like you wanted to negotiate.”

I felt my blood start to boil. It wasn’t the Americans who walked out of the negotiations in December, it was the UIS!

“That’s not true Gennady and you know it,” I said firmly, “and if you think we are going to change our position on sanctions then you are going to be very disappointed tomorrow.”

“I don’t expect anything from you any more,” he said unable to hide his disgust. “You want to drag this war on until there are a million dead Russians, even if that means there is no Estonian nation at the end of it. We could have worked out a Latvian style peace treaty in December but you refused to sign up for it because Estonia fit perfectly with your so called Powell Doctrine.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. How much did he know about the Powell Doctrine? I suppose it was foolish of me to assume that the KGB simply quit spying on us after the fall of the Soviet Union, but if he knew what the Powell Doctrine represented then it meant Vladimir Zhirinovsky knew about it too. It meant that they would do whatever it took to even the score.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Prime Minister, but I assure you there is no Powell Doc-“

“You lie!” Burbulis screamed as he turned and faced me. Suddenly all eyes were upon us.

“Everything that comes out of your President’s mouth is a lie! You may not believe this, but I consider the Estonians my countrymen! I consider the Georgians my countrymen! I consider the Chechens my countrymen! And everything I hold dear in my heart is being destroyed right now. All of this bloodshed all over my country, and to know that this is all part of your plan to destroy us. You could not care less about how many dead Chechens you leave behind. Or how many dead Estonians you leave behind. Because in the end you still consider us Soviets and you never made any distinction when it came to Soviets!”

“Gennady, I can’t believe you are buying into all that propaganda,” I replied firmly, “and quite frankly, I don’t think you have the moral high ground. Not after Azerbaijan.”

“Well, neither do you,” Gennady said wearily as he turned away from me. “Not after Romania.”

I watched as Prime Minister Burbulis slowly walked out of the room. The Estonian delegation glared at him with unmistakable contempt as he walked past them. I knew this was going to be very difficult. Nobody trusted anyone anymore.

“Please God,” I whispered under my breath, “don’t let us fail. Don’t let Estonia turn into Lebanon.”

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY ONE: OUR CUBA

PART SIXTY ONE: OUR CUBA

Some new names in this update:

The "grey passports" which ITTL we see is adopted in Lithuania:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_alien's_passport
PART SIXTY ONE: OUR CUBA




UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.

Discussing the Helsinki Peace Accord that ended the Estonian Civil War.


BBC: Ever since the 1995 Helsinki Peace Accord was signed on March 23, 1995 there has been repeated claims from the United States that the UIS showed they were never serious about a lasting peace. Former American Secretary of State Warren Christopher claimed that the UIS seemed more interested in using Estonia to try and pry a loophole in international sanctions than actually ending the war. Would you care to comment?

Putin: We wanted the war to end. We watched as 41,000 Russians were killed in less than four years! Of course we wanted the war to end! We knew that whatever was happening in Estonia could not continue. Our plan was to either force a peace deal or invade Estonia and send in UIS peacekeepers. You think the Russian Republic of the Baltic was happy with the deal that was signed?! You think they wanted to give back the occupied parts of Tallinn? Of course not! But they knew that it was either sign the peace accord or the UIS would march in and do to Pamyat what we had done to the communists.

BBC: Why were sanctions constantly being brought up during the negotiations then?

Putin: Because we wanted them lifted! We were doing our part to end this war and we even conceded almost everything in regards to Latvia and Lithuania! It was not unreasonable to expect the sanctions to be at least discussed considering how much we were willing to put up on the table.

BBC: Warren Christopher famously said in his book that the UIS threatened to sink any American ship that tried to land in an Estonian port.

Putin: What is your question?

BBC: That hardly looks like the actions of a reasonable partner working towards peace.

Putin: Well, when the United States allows a Russian military ship to dock in Los Angeles then maybe we will reconsider that.


MSNBC interview with Walter Mondale, Former U.S. Secretary of State

July 16, 2008


MSNBC: Almost everyone in the Kerrey administration has gone on record to say that the UIS was never serious about peace in Estonia. Do you think that it a fair assessment?

Mondale: Perhaps they were in 1994, but by 1995 they were angry and bitter at the United States and they began changing their strategy. They recognized that the sanctions were almost certainly not going anywhere, and then there were apparent reports that they realized that the Powell Doctrine had been authorized by President Kerrey himself, that the plan was part of a concerted effort to destroy the UIS. Prior to that the UIS knew we were sending weapons to Turkey, which in turn would end up in Georgia and Chechnya. But they didn’t realize the level of our involvement in Chechnya and Georgia. They assumed this was more of a tit-for-tat situation, not a concerted effort to plant the seeds for the destruction of the UIS. Before I resigned I was told that many of our spies working in Moscow were reporting that Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze sold us out and told the Russians just how much we were sending to Georgia and Chechnya. This changed everything for the Russians, and even the most moderate Russian politician wouldn’t, or couldn’t, be seen as being reasonable with us. They became paranoid about everything we did. They were convinced we were plotting their destruction and that Estonia was just another piece of the puzzle in that nefarious plot. I honestly think that the Kosovo Missile Crisis started in Estonia. I really feel that those years between 1995 and 1997 were the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. Things were getting so bad in the UIS, and everything that went wrong was blamed on us regardless of what it was.

MSNBC: What do you mean?

Mondale: One example comes to mind. In 1996 a Russian news report indicated that alcoholism was rising in Russia. After that report came out there was a debate in the Duma as to if the United States had caused the rise of alcoholism in Russia as part of the Powell Doctrine! They even called on Russians who were suffering from alcoholism to seek assistance from state health care agencies since it was clear that they had been targeted by the Americans and that was proof that they were important citizens of the UIS. They said that true Russian patriots would step forward and seek help. It almost seemed comical, except people were buying into it! The sanctions gave Vladimir Zhirinovsky the perfect scapegoat for everything he did wrong, and almost everything he did was wrong.

MSNBC: Do you think the United States should have reconsidered sanctions?

Mondale (long pause): It is hard to say. I was always a strong proponent of sanctions, but in hindsight…they tend to hurt the wrong people and give regimes an easy excuse for all their mistakes. The regimes in Cuba and North Korea look stronger because of sanctions so a part of me says yes, America needs to reconsider sanctions. But Vladimir Zhirinovsky was voted out in Russia in 1996, so there is an argument that they do work as well. The question we have to ask is at what cost.



“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”


Published by Interbook, © 1998


CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT

As soon as I sat down at the table I could feel the tension. Everyone was ready to go at each others throats. I wanted to leave, to abandon this charade. The Americans were not interested in peace, and the Russian Republic of the Baltic was literally drunk with power. They wanted to move on the rest of Tallinn and crush the remaining troops that were surrounded. But I knew that would be a massacre. The Estonians were still armed to the teeth, and a siege could literally last a decade or even longer. And in the interim a hundred thousand Estonians and Russians could be killed. I didn’t want to go through with the charade anymore. I wanted to send in UIS peacekeepers and impose a ceasefire line and stop the killing. But UIS President Luzhkov wanted to keep pushing for a negotiated settlement. He honestly wanted to believe that perhaps sanctions would be lifted. But after those Russian thugs killed those Estonian POWs in a school there was no chance of that. We had lost our very small window once Vitali Vaulin started killing every Estonian male of fighting age he could get his hands on. We had to start planning our next step. We had to start considering plan B: how to keep the UIS afloat until the next round of elections in 1996.

“Mr. Prime Minister,” American Secretary of State Christopher said curtly as soon as I sat down, “how nice of you to join us today.”

The Americans were angry at having been kept waiting, but we had met with the Lithuanian delegation in private before arriving. I was able to get some concessions on Kaliningrad, which was all we really were hoping to accomplish here. They would agree not to take part in sanctions, and to not only give the Russians living in Kaliningrad free access through Lithuania but to give them special Lithuanian passports. They would be grey in color and would allow at least some of our countrymen a means of getting out from under the crippling sanctions. Since the grey passports would not disclose the origin country of the holder we knew this would allow the citizens of Kaliningrad a means to survive. It would give them the means to get around the sanctions. The Lithuanians were frightened that these concessions could mean that UIS sanctions could soon include them, but after watching what happened in Estonia in the last three months they were willing to negotiation. I couldn’t blame them.

“I apologize for being tardy President Ahtisaari,” I said to our host while not acknowledging American Secretary of State Christopher, “but I believe we reached an agreement with the Lithuanian delegation. We plan to recognize the independence of Lithuania by the end of the day. We felt that such a development was too important to ignore, and we simply pushed ahead with it.”

“What sort of agreement?!” Secretary Christopher demanded, “what were the terms of this agreement?!”

“To be quite honest it is none of your business,” UIS delegate Konstantin Lubenchenko said sarcastically. “We’ve reached an agreement. However, I am sure it could fall apart if 4,856 Dragons were to somehow find their way into the hand of terrorists in Lithuania. So to be quite frank, we don’t feel it is in the best interest of either Lithuania or the UIS to disclose the terms to you.”

I could see the color drain out of Secretary Christopher’s face. He now understood that we knew every detail of the Powell Doctrine. We knew what they had done in Georgia and Chechnya. They could try and dispute it, but we had the facts to sink them and embarrass them in the international community. If the Chinese knew what the Americans were doing they would be in an uproar. And of course we made sure that the Chinese knew.

“I don’t think any of us are upset over a delay if it means that we are that much closer to reaching a peace accord,” Finnish President Ahtisaari said nervously as he eyed the American delegates, “and I applaud the UIS delegation for working towards a lasting peace in the Baltic republics.”

The Estonian delegation rolled their eyes and threw their arms up in the air. The gesture prompted the delegates from the Russian Republic of the Baltic to jump out of their chairs and start screaming at their Estonian counterparts.

“You are Nazis and war criminals!” Dmitri Vasilyev screamed at the Estonian delegation, “and we won’t give up an inch of Russian land to you!”

“Sit down and shut up!” I said firmly to Vasilyev.

“Hell of a show,” Secretary Christopher said with a chuckle. “In America we call it good cop, bad cop. I guess the Russian version is good fascist, bad fascist.”

I must admit, the insult hit me harder than it should have. This was never my intention when I first sided with Boris Yeltsin back in 1989. When I first sided with the reformist in the Duma and pushed for real reforms in the Soviet Union. Now here I was, defending a fascist in Vladimir Zhirinovsky because, well, at least he wasn’t as bad as Vasilyev.

“I think we are done here,” Konstantin Lubenchenko said with a hint of disappointment in his voice, “we don’t need to sit here and be berated.”

“Fine,” Secretary Christopher said, “but if you leave I have already been authorized to recognize the independence of Estonia and for the United States to lift the arms embargo on Estonia. Considering the Russians already are ignoring that arms embargo we figured we should even the playing field.”

“I assure you if we had ignored the UN arms embargo there would not be so many dead Russians,” Lubenchenko said angrily, “and there also wouldn’t be an Estonia.”

“Well, if you thought the Dragons were a nightmare wait till you get a load of the Abrams,” Christopher said sarcastically. “Those will really keep you up at night.”

There was a long silence in the room, even the Russians from Estonia looked terrified.

“Mr. Christopher,” Lubenchenko said softly. “I want you to listen to what I am about to say very carefully, and make sure your President understands it as well. If so much as one American ship tries to dock in an Estonian port we will treat this as a declaration of war and we will respond accordingly. Such an act will be nothing short of an invasion and we will not hesitate to use every weapon at our disposal to repel an invasion.”

Secretary of Christopher didn’t blink as he looked at Lubenchenko with a smirk on his face.

“You know, threatening World War III will only get you so far,” he said, “you have to ask yourself one question. Are you willing to die for Estonia?”

“You already know the answer to that question Mr. Secretary,” Lubenchenko said firmly. “Estonia is our Cuba. The real question is ‘are you willing to die for Estonia?’”

I looked over at the Finnish President. His was literally trembling as he stared at both Lubenchenko and Secretary Christopher with his mouth agape. The Finns had just hosted a standoff at the O.K. Corral (as my American counterpart would famously say years later) and both sides were pushing the world closer to nuclear war than it had ever been before. Neither side was ready to blink; neither side could be seen as backing down.

Lubenchenko started to stand up but I leaned over and put my hand on his shoulder. I suddenly knew that we had to stay and figure out a way to make this peace accord work. We owed it to ourselves. We owed it to the world at this point. As much as I hated to see Vasilyev and Pamyat remain free in the Russian Republic of the Baltic, we couldn’t be the kind of country that just invaded our neighbors. I knew that the idea of “peacekeepers” was just an excuse for a man like Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He could never be trusted to do the right thing if we invaded Estonia and sent in peacekeepers. And if the Americans sent weapons to Estonia we were looking at a nuclear war before summer.

“What are you doing,” Lubenchenko whispered to me as I gently pushed him back into his chair, “I thought you wanted to leave once we signed the accord with the Lithuanians? We did our part, we can tell President Luzhkov that we tried and then we can go in and round up Pamyat and be rid of them before they turn Estonia into a fascist version of Belarus.”

“No,” I whispered back, “we need to make this work. I’m done with wars and invasions. We can’t just invade our way into a safe world. We have to find a way to make peace work.”

“We will look like cowards if we don’t leave now,” he replied. “Let’s just call their bluff and be done with this.”

“No,” I replied, “I don’t care how it looks or how long it takes. We will figure out a way to make this work.”

UIS to recognize independence of Estonia as peace agreement reached in Helsinki

By Jeff Coleman
The Detroit Free Press
March 24, 1995

After eight straight days of negotiations, Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari announces a peace agreement has been reached, ending the Estonian Civil War.


(HELSINKI, FINLAND) – Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari announced that all parties have reached a tentative peace agreement in the Estonian Civil War. The UIS announced that they will be recognizing the independence of the Republic of Estonia, hereby ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

“We appreciate the efforts of all parties;” Ahtisaari said at a press conference announcing the terms of the agreement, “at times over the previous eight days the negotiations were tense, but we thank all parties for working through the difficult times to bring this terrible, terrible conflict to an end.”

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY TWO: THE SOVIET UNION OF BELARUS

PART SIXTY TWO: THE SOVIET UNION OF BELARUS

Well, we finally get a visit from the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and his entry into this TL throws another wrench into this Shakespearean power struggle going on in the former Soviet Union…

Some new names in this update:

Alexander Lukashenko:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lukashenko

Sergei Stepashin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Vadimovich_Stepashin

Article 58 of the RSFSR criminal code from 1934, I couldn’t find the Belarusian version of this law, but I am sure Stalin didn’t stray too far from this in Belarus…
http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk58-e.html#58-10


Let’s Go Eastern Europe 2003
Eastern Europe on a Budget

Let’s Go Inc.
Publication Date: December 2002
928 Pages

Belarus, UIS

Minsk


Minsk is like nowhere else on earth. It is quite literally the last bastion of Vladimir Lenin. The largest city in the UIS Republic of Belarus, it also serves as its capital. No visit to the recently reopened Union of Independent States would be complete without a visit to the last place on earth where old school communism is still en vogue. While the rest of the country has torn down its statues of Lenin, Belarus polishes hers. While the rest of the country seems to embrace the new Union of Independent States, Belarus seems to long for the good ol’ days of the Soviet Union. While Belarus’ large neighbor to the east seems to relish in the free market reforms that at times serve to disenfranchise minorities, Belarus seems determined to quash any sign of private ownership or capitalism. And while the tri-colored flag of the Union of Independent States is common all over Russia, it is the outlawed sickle and hammer that hangs from many of the government buildings in Minsk. Belarus is like a crazy uncle who still wears bell bottoms. You just shake your head and wonder when they will realize the 21st century is waiting for them. But until that day comes, it still remains one of the most fascinating places to visit in the UIS. From the old school Stalin-esque architecture to the complete lack of ATM machines and Starbucks, Minsk is a time machine that will give you a glimpse of what the Soviet Union used to look like. But it might be a good idea to hurry. In November of 2002 it was announced that McDonalds was opening up a restaurant in Minsk before the end of 2003.

Minsk, UIS in March 2001 (Getty Images)



Estonian Russian leader arrested in Minsk for “insulting Lenin”

By Jeff Coleman
The Detroit Free Press
July 4, 1995


(Minsk, UIS) – One of the leaders of the Russian Republic of the Baltic was arrested in the UIS Republic of Belarus yesterday when he called former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin “worse than Hitler” during a press conference in Minsk and called on Belarusians to “follow the Russian Republic of the Baltic’s lead and break free from the chains of the Zionist.” Dmitri Vasilyev, leader of the radical right wing Pamyat Party in Estonia, was detained shortly after the press conference and charged with “insulting the state” and “agitation” under a law that was originally codified in 1934 by Joseph Stalin. The move was widely applauded in Belarus, where over 250,000 communist Russian sympathizers have fled after the failed Constitutional coup of 1993-1994. However, the move has been criticized in Russia as an assault on free speech.

“I don’t condone what Mr. Vasilyev said,” Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis told UIS state television, “but we simply cannot have a situation where a politician can be arrested under a Stalinist era law because it ruffles feathers. If that is the case what is to stop Russia from arresting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for calling me an ‘apologist for fascism.’ I don’t want Lukashenko arrested because I respect his right to speak freely in this country.”

Lukashenko is one of the last political leaders in the former Soviet Union who remains an unapologetic communist, and his Communist Party of Belarus is widely seen as the last bastion of the once dominant Communist Party. Lukashenko has severed ties with the Worker’s Party of Russia, calling it a “watered down Liberal Democratic Party.” The UIS Republic of Belarus has, according to many international observers, emerged as a separate country which operates independently from Moscow.

“It basically has emerged as a Slavic East Germany,” commented Jim Hood, an American diplomat in Warsaw, “A communist Taiwan to a capitalist UIS if you will. It has become an island unto itself. But Lukashenko is not interested in declaring independence. He has his eye on a restored Soviet Union and is clearly looking for an opportunity to march into Moscow as the new Stalin.”

Although UIS President Yuri Luzhkov called Vasilyev “an idiot” and criticized him for going to Belarus as part of his tour of the UIS, he also called on the Belarusian President to release the controversial politician.

“This move is a clear slap in the face of Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky and UIS president Yuri Luzhkov,” added Hood, “Lukashenko is letting them know that Belarus is enemy territory. He is letting them know the UIS doesn’t have any power in Belarus. He does, and he has declared a Soviet Union of Belarus.”

Although Vasilyev is facing a maximum sentence of 12 months of hard labor, it is believed that he may be released later this week. Belarusian President Lukashenko said that he was of the opinion that Vasilyev “was mentally retarded” and added that “under Belarusian law a mentally retarded person cannot be charged with a crime.” Russian Prime Minister Burbulis also expressed his belief that Vasilyev was mentally retarded and said that the releasing Vasilyev would be “appropriate under the circumstances.”

Dmitri Vasilyev was often featured in Russian Media next to the word "idiot" after his arrest in Minsk in July of 1995.


“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”


Published by Interbook, © 1998


CHAPTER FIFTY NINE

“What else could go wrong,” I thought to myself as I turned off the television. Dmitri Vasilyev was now back in Russia, being given hours of free publicity thanks to his standoff with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. He didn’t seem to notice that both Belarus and the UIS declared him “mentally retarded”. He considered himself some great political prisoner: the fascist Nelson Mandela. He was smiling as young fascists came out to cheer him and greet him at the airport with fascist salutes. At least Vice President Andrey Zavidiya thought he was an idiot too. Considering Zavidiya was slowly taking absolute control over every media outlet in Russia that proved to be important, no picture of Vasilyev would appear in any newspaper in Russia without the word ‘idiot’ next to it, and almost every broadcast of Vasilyev on state television featured a clip of him drooling and looking like a half wit. I am sure there were hundreds of hours of footage of Vasilyev not looking like a complete idiot, but Zavidiya was also making a point. While Lukashenko was telling Moscow that Belarus was not under federal control, Zavidiya was telling Zhirinovsky to pull back on his free market reforms or else he would be the one drooling on state television! In fact, it had been at least six weeks since Vladimir Zhirinovsky had even been seen on state media. He was already in an uproar over the media blackout, and the fact that he was being ignored was making him unpredictable. He started doing and saying stranger things, trying to get attention. He was acting like a spoiled child whose parents were ignoring him, screaming louder and louder until his face was red. Sooner or later a western journalist would hear him and then we could be looking at another international incident.

I heard a soft knock at the door.

“Come in,” I said.

It was General Sergei Stepashin, deputy to KGB director Vladimir Putin. I glared at him briefly before asking him curtly what he wanted.

“Sir,” he said nervously, “I think we need to talk.”

I was sick of Generals, all trying to wiggle their way onto the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense. All they did was create drama with some blown up crisis that only they could solve.

“Your supervisor is Director Putin,” I replied coldly, “why don’t you talk to him?”

“That’s the thing,” he replied. “It's about him.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly very interested.

“Sir,” he said handing me a folder, “I think we may have a situation.”


UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.

Discussing his ousting as head of the KGB.


BBC: You claim that Prime Minister Burbulis “set you up” in July of 1995. That he had you ousted in order to put one of his supporters on the 16-man junta.

Putin: Yes. General Sergei Stepashin was one of the few people poised to get on the committee who didn’t owe his allegiance to either General Lebed or to Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He was one of the few “Yeltsinites” in the military, and as a result Prime Minister Burbulis knew that he was a potential ally.

BBC: But even international observers feel that the evidence against you was damning. In 2000 the Russian government released over 15,000 pages of documents linking you to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and clearly establishing that you were plotting to oust Zhirinovsky, Burbulis, and UIS President Yuri Luzhkov and to help install Lukashenko as Premier of a restored Soviet Union.

Putin: Do you know why they released it in 2000 as opposed to 1995, the year I was arrested?

BBC: Why?

Putin: Because it took them five years to forge that many pages of documents.

 

[Pellegrino]

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.

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY FOUR: ALL POLITICS ARE ETHNIC

PART SIXTY FOUR: ALL POLITICS ARE ETHNIC

Well, we now get our answers as to how the UIS regains control of Uzbekistan while also getting our first look into what is happening with the Crimean Tartars as well as the Koryo-saram in Uzbekistan. Some new names in this update:


Jumma Kasinov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juma_Namangani

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Movement_of_Uzbekistan

The Crimean Tartars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

Islam Karimov:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov

Koreans in Uzbekistan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans_in_Uzbekistan





Excerpts from the book: “From Marx to Massoud: A Modern History of Tajikistan”


By Abu Rahmon
Published by University of California Press, © 2005


CHAPTER SIX: THE BLAME GAME

With three individuals (excluding UTO leader Davlat Khudonazarov) all claiming to be the new President of Tajikistan, the fragile coalition between the communists and Islamists appeared to finally break. The heir apparent, Emomalii Rahmon (who was still going by the name Rahmonov) seemed ill equipped to rally the various factions under his leadership and seemed to quickly be usurped by the more extreme Qahhor Mahkamov. However, Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan leader Sayid Abdulloh Nuri made it abundantly clear that the emergence of Mahkamov as president would result in the IRPT leaving the coalition. The threat succeeded in preventing Mahkamov from taking control, but it fueled a deep-seated bitterness that soon hijacked the war effort. As UTO forces began to move on the capital Dushanbe, Mahkamov would often take steps to ensure that Nuri’s forces would be forced to engage the UTO. Some UTO defectors even indicated that Mahkamov had in fact been in communication with UTO forces, revealing troop positions to the enemy in an attempt to liquidate his chief rival in the government coalition. The bickering between forces loyal to Mahkamov and forces loyal to Nuri soon exploded when UTO forces captured Dushanbe and arrested acting President Emomalii Rahmon. The loss of Rahmon created a brutal power struggle between Nuri and Mahkamov which, coupled with the UTO’s apparent policy of ethnic targeting and retribution, resulted in a massive human rights catastrophe that rocked neighboring Uzbekistan.

As nearly half a million Tajiks fled the growing lawlessness into Tashkent and Uzbekistan, Mahkamov soon solidified his close alliance with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, seemingly eliminating Nuri as a leading force in the now exiled Tajik government. Troops loyal to Nuri were arrested and rounded up in Uzbekistan in an attempt to further disenfranchise the growing Islamic movement across Central Asia. However Nuri still retained a close ally in Pakistan. Although the former communists Karimov and Mahkamov seemed to have control of the situation at first, The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan soon joined forces with their Uzbek counterpart and shocked the world with a show of force that frightened governments from Morocco to China. Few realized on September 11th, 1995 that the peaceful state-sanctioned protests would give the Islamic fundamentalists the opportunity not only to show just how powerful a faction they had become, but to also expose the fragile state of Uzbekistan’s central government.



Rioting erupts across Uzbekistan as refugees from Kazakhstan and Tajikistan target ethnic Russians in Tashkent

The Times of London

September 12, 1995


(TASHKENT, UIS) – In a sign of just how precarious the situation in the quasi-breakaway UIS republic of Uzbekistan has become, thousands of Kazak and Tajik refugees have begun rioting in the capital city of Tashkent to protest Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s apparent secret negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The riots have revealed just how precarious Karimov’s grip over the country has become, and highlighted just how raw emotions have become not only with the native Uzbek population, but also with the refugees who are streaming in from all over central Asia. Nearly 100 ethnic Russians are believed to have been killed since the peaceful protests spiraled into violence on September 11th. They were triggered by the massive influx of thousands of Tajik refugees from the Leninabad district of Tajikistan.

“We condemn any agreement with the Russians,” a protester told this reporter, “we don’t care if it is the communists, the fascists, or the democrats. To us they are all enemies of the Muslim people.”

Karimov had initially tried to ensure the safety of the Russians who remained in Uzbekistan after declaring independence in 1991. Making up over 10% of the population, most were highly skilled and were seen as critical to keeping the economy afloat. But decades of economic mismanagement in the cotton industry, as well as the massive environmental destruction of the Uzbek cotton fields, have left the economy in shambles since 1991. Many Russians elected to leave the Republic, and those who remained often did so because of fear of persecution back in Russia.

“The strange thing is that many of the Russians who elected to remain in Tashkent did so because of their strong ties to the Communist Party,” commented William Tubman, a professor of Central Asian history in Edinburgh, “they opposed the UIS government and were some of the most loyal supporters of President Karimov, an unapologetic communist. These riots will almost certainly hurt Uzbekistan economically, but they also seem to have the unintended consequence of weakening the growing opposition within the UIS to the Liberal Democratic Party.”

The riots began peacefully on September 3rd, when Russian State media reported that Karimov, leader of the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (an offshoot of the old Communist Party of Uzbekistan) and Belarusian President Lukashenko (who is head of the Belarusian Communist Party) had entered into preliminary negotiations to form a coalition that would compete in the 1996 UIS Presidential and legislative elections. The move was seen as little more than a formality, and few considered it particularly controversial. However, as tensions rose across the country, many Uzbeks felt betrayed by the apparent concession since it hinted that “independence was off the table.”

“With the breakdown of the Communist-Islamist faction in Tajikistan coupled with the growing instability in the western Karakalpakstan region, Karimov can ill afford this sort of breakdown of central authority,” Tubman added, “keep in mind, his predecessor was ousted because of his inability to quell ethnic riots in 1990.”



“The Politics of Islam: The Changing Face of Central Asia”


(Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies)



By Timothy Burnside
Routledge Press, (2010)


CHAPTER THREE: FROM COTTON TO CRUDE OIL

Once it became clear that the central government was losing control of the situation in Tashkent, the UIS soon made its move to further isolate the hostile government of Islam Karimov. Although many Uzbeks did not initially take part in the anti-Russian pogroms, their entry into the fray not only tipped the balance in favor of the Islamists, but also frightened minorities all across the Republic.

“The Korean population was terrified,” commented Alisher Aslanov, a former journalist from Tashkent, “as were the Crimean Tartars. You have to realize that Uzbekistan had always been a dumping ground for the Soviets for various minorities who were seen as disloyal or dangerous. But they were never particularly welcome by the Uzbeks and were sometimes victims themselves of discrimination by the local Uzbek population.”

The realization that the central government was unable to protect the Russian population exposed the myth of an independent Uzbekistan to many of the minorities. Recognizing that the remaining Russian population had been some of the most loyal supporters of Islam Karimov, many realized that they were in grave danger as well. Complicating matters was the recognition in the western region of the country that the Uzbek government was little more than a paper tiger. On September 15th, 1995, the breakaway region of Karakalpakstan announced its independence from Uzbekistan and its membership into the UIS as a separate Republic. What followed was a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the remaining Uzbek population in Karakalpakstan that ultimately terrified the remaining Crimean Tartars and Koreans in the east.

“They saw that this no longer had to do with political allegiances but with race,” added Aslanov, “as soon as that happened many of them began to flee Tashkent for either Kyrgyzstan or to the newly proclaimed Karakalpakstan Republic.”

Although Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko offered moral support to the fragile government of Islam Karimov, he was not able to offer any military support. Coupled with the deteriorating situation in Uzbekistan were long dormant territorial claims by neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, both loyal UIS Republics who now saw the opportunity to expand their borders.

“Keep in mind that Uzbekistan was the strongest and most populous country in Central Asia,” added Aslanov, “so there was some fear from the Turkmen and the Kyrgyzstanis in regards to a strong Uzbekistan. They all felt confident that independence would soon be realized and as a result they started becoming more threatened by Uzbekistan than by the UIS. They didn’t realize that we were all in this boat together.”

As the situation in Tashkent continued to deteriorate, Karimov now realized that he was backed into a corner. With the Islamists now firmly in control in Tashkent and with no allies remaining, Karimov realized that he had been flanked in the politics battlefield as well.

“The problem for President Karimov was he was playing politics under the old rule book,” said Aslanov, “the Soviet rule book. But that book was outdated as soon as Vladimir Zhirinovsky took power in Russia. We were now playing by Zhirinovsky’s rules, and rule number one was that ‘all politics are ethnic.’ As former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev famously said in 2002, Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a master of creating ethnic strife.”



“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”


Published by Interbook, © 1998


CHAPTER SIXTY

As I hung up the phone I couldn’t help but shake my head. The madman had pulled it off. Zhirinovsky’s insane plan to foster ethnic strife in Uzbekistan had actually worked.

“Well,” General Sergei Stepashin asked as he looked at me, “what did he say?”

“He wants our help,” I replied, still not believing what I was saying, “he wants us to send troops.”

General Stepashin began laughing as he slapped his knee.

“Wait until we tell President Luzhkov and General Lebed,” he said joyfully, “that the President of Uzbekistan just called and asked us to invade his country.”



Uzbek President agrees to abandon independence as UIS peacekeepers enter Tashkent

By Jack Horn
Denver Post – October 13, 1995

(TASHKENT, UIS) In a move that stunned international observers, Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov has agreed to withdraw his nations declaration of independence and has asked the UIS federal government to assist Uzbek government forces in quashing the rising Islamic fundamentalist movement in Uzbekistan. The move was widely seen as an attempt to regain control of his country after rioters drove Karimov out of the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.

“This is only a temporary measure,” Karimov told reporters, “we have received concessions from UIS President Luzhkov not to interfere with free and fair elections on the issue of independence, just as they have agreed to do in Turkmenistan.”

No date on a referendum has been announced, although it was reported that a vote on independence would be delayed until the “UIS federal government is confident that the central authority of the Uzbek government is strong enough to repel another attempt by radical Islamic fundamentalist from seizing control of the country.”

After riots in Tashkent spiraled out of control, numerous factions soon emerged claiming to be in charge. Perhaps most troubling was the emergence of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, led by radical Islamic fundamentalist Jumma Kasimov. Although the IMU only controlled a few blocks of territory in Tashkent, and did not appear to have much appeal with the Uzbek population, Russian state television had devoted much of its coverage to the group. Calling Kasimov a “dangerous Muslim terrorist”, the Russian media also claimed that he would turn Uzbekistan into “Chechnya with nuclear weapons.”

UPDATE: As of 11:00 local time, federal UIS troops have regained control of nearly 75% of the city of Tashkent. It is believed that Kasimov has fled into neighboring Afghanistan.

Protesters wave the old flag of the USSR as UIS troops enter Tashkent to help the government restore order

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY FIVE: A SHEEP IN WOLF'S CLOTHING

PART SIXTY FIVE: A SHEEP IN WOLF'S CLOTHING

Well, sooner or later Zhirinovsky would start acting like…Zhirinovsky. This update is based on the famous fight between Zhirinovsky and a female opposition leader that occurred in 1995. As I mentioned earlier, this really sunk Zhirinovsky’s political career. One news report I read talked about a liter line of women outside the door of the LDPR office in Moscow the day after, there to renounce membership in the party. But even so, that occurred when he was just an opposition party member in OTL. What would happen if it occurred in TTL, with Zhirinovsky as president? And what is happening to the vice president? He now “owns” what amounts to the entire state media apparatus, and uses his position to ensure his networks gets all the advantages over the opposition (such as making sure only the VGTRK is the only network allowed to cover the President’s speech to the Duma). But how is that going over with the junta or even the reformers?

BTW, special shout out to Dan1988 for helping me with some questions I had about the VGTRK! Thanks Dan!

Some of the new names in this update:

The VGTRK state television:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Russia_State_Television_and_Radio_Broadcasting_Company

Rossiya 1 (Russian State media channel):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossiya_1

Fausto Bertinotti (Italian Communist leader):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fausto_Bertinotti

Delo (Slovenia Newspaper):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delo

Lubyanka Building (KGB headquarters):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubyanka_Building

Lega Nord:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lega_Nord

National Alliance (Italy):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Alliance_(Italy)

Silvio Berlusconi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi

Lamberto Dini:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamberto_Dini

MTV’s Jersey Shore show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_(TV_series)

Yevgenia Tishkovaskya:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/vlad-the-outrageous-shows-off-his-freudian-tendencies-takes-another-whiff-of-oxygen-struts-his-sexist-stuff-1601131.html

And an article about the OTL fight between Zhirinovsky and Tishkovaskya:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19950914&id=t0goAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Uc8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6776,2740440



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, your removal as head of the KGB by UIS President Yuri Luzhkov ushered in your entry into politics. However, the image of you being escorted out of the Lubyanka Building in handcuffs haunted you during your initial campaign in 1996.

Putin: Yes. Andrei Zavidiya couldn’t get enough of that image. He covered every newspaper and every news broadcast with it. For too many Russians the image of the head of the KGB being escorted out of the building in handcuffs was simply long overdue. They loved it, even if they didn’t have any issue with me personally. And Zavidiya was emerging as a very powerful person because of his willingness to sell his soul for the right price.

BBC: What do you mean ‘sell his soul’?

Putin: He initially supported Alexander Lukashenko, but once he started taking over the state controlled media all he could think about was profits. Before long his Rossiya 1 news station was seen as the most reliable news network in the country. Mainly because they would broadcast anything…as long as it was sensational and would help sell advertisements. He even began to cover Vladimir Zhirinovsky again by late 1995. He hated him with a passion, but suddenly he realized that Zhirinovsky sold newspapers and advertisements, so he decided to sell out his principles and ended his media blackout on Zhirinovsky.

BBC: So you are saying that one of the richest men in the UIS secretly harbored a dream of bringing back communism, but changed his mind only after he became a billionaire?

Putin: Yes. He soon became obsessed with money and profit. And he would put anything on television, as long as it made money. He would sell out his own mother if he thought it would bring good ratings. Sadly, as other newspapers and news stations would tout a particular political line, Zavidiya would attack anyone, he didn’t care! Unfortunately this allowed him to gain credibility. Can you imagine that? The man known for putting pure filth on television still has more credibility than his opponents! Talk about a sad state of affairs in the UIS. What have we come to when a whoremonger like Andrei Zavidiya is seen as more trustworthy than a man like me?


GOVERNING COALITION IN ITALY COLLAPSES

By John Turner

New York Times
Published: April 19, 1995

Italy's Government coalition collapsed today as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his resignation amid accusations of violating UN sanctions on the Union of Independent States.


In a press release President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro said he was likely to install an interim government until new elections, most likely in June. Economist Lamberto Dini is expected to be appointed the new Prime Minister.


Berlusconi’s government was plagued by in-fighting after his election in May of 1994.

Forming a coalition with Lega Nord and the National Alliance, Berlusconi’s government was seen as fragile from the moment he took office. Berlusconi’s refusal to sell his holdings in his media company Fininvest remained a source of friction with many in the country. However, it was the revelation that he was attempting to purchase the Slovenian newspaper Delo in conjunction with Russian media mogul Andrei Zavidiya (the current Vice President of Russia) that proved too much for the fragile coalition.


“I don’t doubt that Berlusconi will find a way to wiggle out of getting prosecuted for violating international law,” commented Fausto Bertinotti, leader of the Communist Refoundation Party, “but I do hope this ends his political career. I can’t imagine the Italian people being able to forget that this man was willing to partner up with Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Vice President just to make a little bit of money.”


Italian American group calls on MTV to cancel upcoming “Jersey Shore” television show

November 25, 2009

By Paul Rosi, Newark Star-Ledger


In a move that surprises nobody, MTV's forthcoming series "Jersey Shore" is under attack from an Italian-American group over what it calls “degrading and offensive stereotypes of Italians.”

UNICO National, which is regarded as one of the largest Italian-American service organizations in the country, has asked MTV to abandon next week’s premier of "Jersey Shore.”

Few anticipated anything less after MTV released a promo spot of the upcoming show with the promise that “Jersey Shore” would feature the "hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos" on the (Jersey) shore. "They keep their hair high, their muscles juiced and their fists pumping all summer long!"

UNICO President Andre’ DiMino responded by calling the show “trash television.”

“This is nothing short of an assault on Italian-American culture,” DiMino said in a press release, “It serves no purpose other than to demean Italian-Americans, to portray them as cheap caricatures of outdated stereotypes.”

An MTV spokesperson responded by telling the Star-Ledger that the characters featured on the show “take pride in their ethnicity,” a statement that DiMino ridiculed.

“This is poised to become the single most offensive television show since “Father, My Boyfriend is a Chechen” premiered on Russian television in 1997,” DiMino said. “And I might add that the characters in that show “took pride” in their ethnicity as well.”

“Father, My Boyfriend is a Chechen” premiered on Rossiya 1 in the summer of 1997 and became an instant sensation in the UIS. However, the show was often referred to as the low point of Russian television. Russian media mogul Andrey Zavidiya, the former Vice-President of Russia, received criticism from both the right and the left in the UIS for allowing the show to air. Many former communists regarded the show as an example of the growing influence of capitalism in the country, accusing Zavidiya of putting profits over quality. Critics from the Liberal Democratic Party attacked what they considered a sympathetic portrayal of the Chechen characters during a point upon which the country was at war with the breakaway Republic of Chechnya, even if they often were portrayed in a demeaning and stereotypical fashion. However, as appears to be the case with “Jersey Shore,” Zavidiya used the controversy to boost interest in the show.

“I assume MTV is doing the same thing that the Rossiya 1 did back in 1997,” DiMino added, “they want controversy so people will tune in to see what all the fuss is about. But I cannot in good conscience sit back and say nothing about this trash that they are about to air.”


“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”


Published by Interbook, © 1998


CHAPTER SIXTY ONE


As Vice President Zavidiya walked into the room he seemed oblivious to the impact his presence had on everyone. Regardless of if they were a reformist or a hardliner, a politician or a general, they all hated him. But he was oblivious to this as he smiled and patted people on the shoulder. Just last night the VGTRK released a poll indicating that the support for the war in Chechnya was “less than 35%” and that “over 55% of Russians felt that the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia had abandoned its principles by partnering up with the Liberal Democratic Party.” He single handedly angered both the military and the reformists with that report. There was already indications that the fragile coalition in the Duma was about to collapse ahead of parliamentary elections in December. Vladimir Putin had already registered a political party of his own, The Unity Party, which was already taking steps to rally disenfranchised communist and Liberal Democrats to the fold. If he could win enough seats in the legislative elections then he was poised to become a front runner in 1996 during the presidential election.

“Mr. Vice President,” General Sergei Stepashin said coldly as Zavidiya took a seat, “I am somewhat surprised to see you here…considering you were not invited.”

“What are you talking about?” Zavidiya said with a chuckle, “I’m Vice President, why wouldn’t I be at a cabinet meeting?”

“Because we are discussing sensitive issues in regards to Chechnya,” General Stepashin replied forcefully, “and quite frankly, nobody wants what is discussed here to be all over the news tomorrow night.”

“Don’t be silly,” Zavidiya said with a laugh, “so what is the plan with regards to Chechnya?”

The room was silent as Zavidiya looked around. Suddenly the smug look on his face disappeared.

“You can’t be serious,” he said nervously, “I am Vice President of the Russian Republic! I can’t just be told to leave!”

“Mr. Vice President,” General Lebed said coldly, “you have clearly shown that you regard your position as Vice President as a part time job. I can assure you that we will be able to conduct this meeting without you. We all feel it is in the best interests of the country that we don’t put you in a position in which you are forced to choose between your duties to your country and your duties to your company. Quite frankly, we all know where your loyalties lay in such a scenario.”

Zavidiya looked wounded at the accusation that he cared more for his company than for the country. He turned to me with a desperate look.

“Gennady,” he said frantically, “I know you believe in a free media, in an open press! I know you do! We may not agree on much but we agree on that! Don’t let this happen! You owe it to the country! We cannot let the press be silenced just because we don’t tout the party line. We cannot!”

I said nothing as I stared at him. I didn’t believe he cared about a free press. He just figured out that a free press meant more money for him. He was grasping at straws.

“I was only doing my duty!” he yelled at me.

“I know,” I said firmly, “but you need to leave.”

The Vice President looked around the room one more time, hoping and praying that someone would speak on his behalf. He simply couldn’t believe that we wouldn’t bow down to him any more. That we no longer cared about what he was going to say about us anymore in the news. He stood up sadly as he slowly walked out of the room. As he closed the door behind him I spoke up.

“All right then,” I said, “we need to shore up the coalition and bring Mikhail Arutyunov back into the fold. I think the best situation is to have President Zhirinovsky speak to the Duma next week. If he can do what he did after the failed coup perhaps we can avert disaster in December and hold this coalition together.”

Russian President punches female deputy during speech to Duma; coalition government “dead” according to opposition leader

By Jack Horn
Denver Post – September 14, 1995

Vladimir Zhirinovsky fights with a female deputy during his speech to the Russian Duma yesterday


(MOSCOW, UIS) In a scene that looks like it came out of the pages of professional wrestling, Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky erupted into a sexist tirade against opposition lawmaker Yevgenia Tishkovskaya before attacking her during the live broadcast on Russian state television. The fight between Zhirinovsky and Tishkovskaya (a female deputy) has created a firestorm in the UIS, with UIS President Yuri Luzhkov calling it a “national embarrassment.” The incident started when Tishkovskaya called Zhirinovsky a “liar” during his speech in front of the Duma. Zhirinovsky made claims that NATO troops were “occupying” southern Chechnya, a claim that caused many of the liberal members of his coalition government to groan and boo at the statement. Zhirinovsky, however, singled out Tishkovskaya, saying that she needed a man to “put something in your mouth to shut you up,” before grabbing his crotch and saying that he “had something that would work.”

The statement brought many of the lawmakers to their feet in protest, and caused Tishkovskaya to walk up to the president and slap him across the face on national television. The Russian president looked stunned at the brazen act of courage from the opposition lawmaker, but as members of the opposition party began to cheer Zhirinovsky became enraged. The Russian president grabbed Tishkovskaya by the hair and threw her to the ground and began punching her before liberal lawmakers pulled him off the deputy. However, after Zhirinovsky was dragged off Tishkovskaya, the female lawmaker threw a punch that landed on the face of the Russian President, blooding his nose.

“He is a paper tiger,” commented opposition lawmaker Gleb Yakunin, “a bully who gets beat up by women! He is nothing more than a sheep in wolf’s clothing and we exposed to the world that he is a coward and a bully!”

Opposition leader Mikhail Arutyunov told Russian State television station that he considered the coalition between his party and the Liberal Democratic Party “dead.” Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis also called the coalition “damaged beyond repair” and hinted that he may also leave the Liberal Democratic Party. Vice President Andrei Zavidiya did not comment on the incident, but his television network, Rossiya 1 (which held the exclusive rights to broadcast the speech and owns all rights to the footage), released a statement indicating that fight was the “highest rated event ever shown on Russian television” and added that both Tishkovskaya and Zhirinovsky were slated to appear together in an interview on the Russian news program Vesti the following night.

 

[Pellegrino]

PART SIXTY SIX: WINNING BY LOSING

PART SIXTY SIX: WINNING BY LOSING


Although Zhirinovsky seems like the comeback kid time and time again, this time he has really gone to far with voters, and rather than try and make amends he only makes the situation worse (as he did in OTL). We also see a lot of new names, folks who played a major role in Russia in the mid 1990s...

Alexi Kudrin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Kudrin

Bank of Cyprus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_cyprus

Michael Sarris:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sarris

Northern Rock bank (Britian):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rock

Boris Berezovsky:
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/23/17431221-russian-tycoon-berezovsky-found-dead-in-london

Yegor Gaidar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yegor_Gaidar

Democratic Choice of Russia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Choice_of_Russia

Yabloko:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yabloko



__________________________________________________

Cyprus now looks to seize whopping 25% from the bank accounts of wealthy depositors

March 24, 2013


By Michael Robertson
Reuters



NICOSIA -- Cyprus announced yesterday that it was preparing to seize a quarter of the value of large deposits at Bank of Cyprus as it desperately struggles to raise the funds for a bailout from the European Union and to avoid a “financial collapse of epic proportions.”

Finance Minister Michael Sarris indicated that "some progress" had been made in regards to talks between Nicosia and officials from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, his announcement that Cyprus was prepared to impose a levy of around 25 percent on holdings of over 100,000 Euros at Bank of Cyprus earned harsh criticism from his German and UIS counterparts, who expressed serious concern over the unprecedented move.

“Considering UIS nationals account for nearly 60 percent of all accounts over 100,000 Euros in the Bank of Cyprus, it appears clear to us that this is an attempt to have the Union of Independent States pay for Cyprus’ economic mismanagement,” commented UIS Financial Minister Alexei Kudrin, “we doubt this proposal would have even been considered if it had been EU accounts in question.”

Cyprus rejected claims of UIS persecution, and questioned Kudrin’s decision to play the “Zhirinovsky card” in regards to allegations of Russian persecution.

“This sort of rhetoric from Moscow is not helpful,” Sarris said.

The proposed levy also drew harsh criticism from Germany, which expressed the opinion that that the levy could prove just as painful for ordinary Cypriots than to Russian investors.

Germany expressed “deep concern” over a potential “flood of money from the island” on Tuesday; when banks are due to reopen after a week long lockdown.

Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky attempted to calm in London in regards to the Northern Rock Bank. Berezovsky purchased the Northern Rock during the 2008 global financial meltdown, and has struggled to ease fears of UIS reprisals against the British bank.

“For one thing it would be impossible for the UIS to levy a 25 percent tax on Northern Rock holdings,” Berezovsky told the BBC, “it still remains a British company, and is covered by British law. Much of this rhetoric is coming from Rossiya-1, which I might add is owned by the Galand Conglomerate, which I might further add is owned by Andrei Zavidiya.”

Zavidiya is one of over a dozen Russian billionaires who deposited nearly 40 billion Euros into the Bank of Cyprus. Although Zavidiya owns a large percentage of the former UIS state controlled media, he is nonetheless seen as a controversial figure in the UIS. The former vice president under Vladimir Zhirinovsky from 1991-1996, Zavidiya’s critics have often attacked him for “meddling in politics to further his own personal fortune,” and the billionaire was briefly charged with corruption in 2004 under accusations that he bribed several politicians in the UIS in order to obtain preferential business contracts. However, his acquittal, coupled with his subsequent entry into international banking, has resulted in his financial empire expanding. And many believe that this may be a ploy on the part of Zavidiya to expand his empire even more.

“Just a few days ago he was in negotiations with the Cypriot government in regards to loaning nearly 17 billion Euros to the Bank of Cyprus,” commented Berezovsky, “however, those negotiations fell apart. If his track record is any indication, what he is doing right now is using his media empire to destroy the Bank of Cyprus. Mark my words, after there is a run on the Bank of Cyprus on Tuesday morning the Cypriots will agree to anything Andrei Zavidiya demands.”


“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”


Published by Interbook, © 1998


CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

The room was in a near riot. Generals were yelling at each other while reformists were screaming at the President and the Liberal Democrats. I knew the coalition was dead yesterday when I had to help drag Vladimir Zhirinovsky off Yevgenia Tishkovskaya, but I was shocked that even the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense seemed broken beyond repair. The fragile coalition had been torn apart, and I was not even sure if it could survive until the legislative elections in three months, let alone the next presidential election in 1996.

“We need to impeach the president!” screamed Aleksandr Korzhakov, “you heard President Luzhkov! He is a national embarrassment.”

However, General Tikhomirov was screaming that he would personally shoot the first MP who suggested such a thing in the Duma. He was afraid that if the liberals took over the war in Chechnya would end and he would be blamed for the defeat.

Suddenly the door opened and Vice President Zavidiya walked in smiling. All of the screaming stopped as everyone glared at him. But Zavidiya was not bothered in the least as he took a seat next to President Zhirinovsky. He looked around the room, still smiling.

“What?” he asked sarcastically, “you can’t be blaming this shit on me? You did this to yourself. Apparently Gennady couldn’t keep his Duma under control.”

“Yes!” Zhirinovsky said angrily as he pointed to me, “she was one of yours! You let her do this to me!”

“Give me the order and I will have Burbulis sent to Kunashir!” General Tikhomirov said as he jumped out of his seat.

“If you lay one hand on the Prime Minister I will see to it that you are arrested and shot for treason,” General Sergei Stepashin said as he stood up. The standoff caused Zavidiya to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” General Stepashin asked angrily.

“You two,” he replied with a laugh, “why don’t you just pull out your cocks already and just measure them?”

The two Generals look poised to jump on Zavidiya, but the Vice President seemed unconcerned as he stood up.

“I hate to interrupt this wonderful party,” he said, “but I just wanted to confirm that the President will be on Vesti tonight.”

He then turned to Zhirinovsky, who eyed him suspiciously.

“I think it would be a good opportunity to tell Tishkovskaya what you really think about her on national television,” he said as he put his hand on his shoulder, “Everyone in the country will be watching.”

Zavidiya started to walk out of the room before he stopped again and turned around.

“Oh, there was one more thing,” he said as he glared at General Lebed, “I quit.”

Zhirinovsky jumped out of his chair and started to scream at the Vice President.

“No offense Mr. President,” Zavidiya said as he interrupted him “but General Lebed opened my eyes. The people deserve a full time Vice President, and that isn’t me. I appreciate all you have done for me, and I look forward to seeing you tonight.”

Zhirinovsky turned to glare at General Lebed, who looked nervous as he watched the Vice President walk out of the room. I couldn’t stand for the charade any longer. I jumped up and ran out after him.

“What the hell was that?” I said as I grabbed his arm in the hallway, “you want to make an enemy of Zhirinovsky, fine. You want to make an enemy of the reformist as well, fine. But you seriously want to piss off the military on top of that? Are you nuts! Everything you have is based on an agreement by the government that you run the state media. What makes you think that we can’t take that away from you?”

“Mr. Prime Minister,” he said coldly, “it actually isn’t up to you anymore. I don’t know if you noticed, but the VGTRK is now a privately held cooperation. You would need to get the board of directors to fire me.”

“And what makes you think that we don’t have enough influence to do just that?”

“You honestly have no idea who is on my board of directors, do you?” Zavidiya said with a chuckle, “my God, you really are clueless.”

I stood there, unwilling to admit that he did have me puzzled. Who could it be? Was it someone in the cabinet double dealing with Zavidiya? Was it a General from the 16-man Committee? How did I not know who was now running the largest media cooperation in the UIS? I heard the elevator door open and, in the corner of my eye could see a woman standing inside.

“Gennady,” the woman from the elevator said, “are you joining us for lunch?”

I felt the blood rush out of my face as I turned towards the elevator. This couldn’t be! He couldn’t have!

“You should join us,” Zavidiya said, clearly holding back laughter “your good friend Victor Ivanenko will also be there for lunch. I am sure he would love to tell you all about Yukos and his various business ventures, including a partnership with the Galand Conglomerate.”

I said nothing as I stared at the elevator, still stunned by what I saw. Zavidiya chuckled as he walked towards the elevator, before stopping one last time and turning around to face me again.

“You know, in the sport of boxing there was a time, back in the 1920s, when the judges were considered so corrupt that their decisions were actually ignored,” he said as he glared at me, “do you know who picked the winner of the fight back in the 1920s?”

I said nothing.

“The journalists.” He said with a laugh. “Hope you get a chance to watch Vesti tonight. It will be a hell of a show.”

With that I watched as the now former Vice President stepped into the elevator with Yelena Baturina, wife of UIS President Yuri Luzhkov.


Transcript from Vesti News, September 15, 1995

Guest: President Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Yevgenia Tishkovskaya

Moderator: So Mr. President, will you apologize to Ms. Tishkovskaya here and now?

Moderator: So Mr. President, will you apologize to Ms. Tishkovskaya here and now?

Zhirinovsky: Absolutely not!

Moderator: Don’t you worry about the impact this decision will have next year when you run for reelection?

Zhirinovsky: No. I know that the people will come out and support me. They will vote for me.

Moderator: But polls indicate your support with female voters has dropped 40-points since this incident.

Zhirinovsky: That doesn’t concern me; in the end it will win me more votes. Because real men want to vote for a President who is firm, a President who knows how to put a woman in her place. And the Russian man will tell his woman how to vote. And those women will listen to their man unless they are a lesbian like Ms. Tishkovskaya.

Tishkovskaya (angrily): This is ridiculous.

Zhirinovsky: Let me tell you the truth. Ms. Tishkovskaya dreams of being raped, but she is too ugly for any man to rape her, so she goes around screaming at me, making my life miserable.

Tishkovskaya (angrily): This is absurd! You are a pathetic little man!

(Tishkovskaya stands up and removes the microphone from her lapel)

Tishkovskaya: (inaudible)

Zhirinovsky: How dare you! How dare you speak to me that way!

Tishkovskaya: (mostly inaudible, but the word “sue” can be heard)

Zhirinovsky: Well I plan to sue you! You nearly broke my nose! You filthy whore!


Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Trounced in Russian Legislative Elections; pro-capitalist parties fall short of a majority

December 18, 1995
By Vincent J. Shanks,
Chicago Tribune.



MOSCOW — In a bitterly contested legislative election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Russia lost nearly half of its seats, winning only 67 seats and finishing in a dismal fourth place. Many Russians were appalled at the obscene statements made by the Russian President, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who also headed the LDP. However, Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party may still wield some power as it appears that neither the free-market oriented reformist parties nor the reformed Communist Party are able to form a majority. The biggest winner was the formally unheralded Unity Party, founded by former KGB Director Vladimir Putin. Unity won 101 seats, but seems unwilling to form a coalition with either the reformist or the reformed Communist Party for fear of tarnishing its chances in the 1996 Presidential election.

The Worker’s Party (formally the Communist Party of Russia) won 100 seats, but has already angered many former Communists by indicating a desire to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democratic Party. Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Worker’s Party, earned scorn from many Communists when he renounced the Communist Party’s attempt to seize power during the 1993 Constitutional Crisis, and called on his fellow Communists to “reject the coup.” Many Communists feel that Zyuganov is little more than a mouthpiece of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. However, Zyuganov’s opposition to free market reforms has helped him repair his badly tarnished reputation.

The biggest loser, besides the Liberal Democratic Party, was the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia, which lost over one hundred seats as it dropped down to 69 seats. Many Russians opposed the coalition formed between the Party for a Free and Democratic Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party, as well as the PFDR’s support of the war in Chechnya (which PFDR head Mikhail Arutyunov called a “mistake”). Picking up the vast majority of those seats was the formally unheralded Democratic Choice of Russia, headed by Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis and economist Yegor Gaidar. The DCR captured 49 seats to finish a respectable fifth. The liberal Yabloko finished in sixth place with 41 seats while the radical right wing Bolshevik Party finished in distant seventh place with 8 seats. Six other parties split the remaining 15 seats.

Although the Liberal Democratic Party suffered badly in this election, there is little question that they remain a powerful force in the Duma.

“If Unity forms a coalition with the Worker’s Party and the LDP then they control the Duma,” commented Dan Edwards, a professor of Russian History at Northwestern, “but since it appears that Vladimir Putin doesn’t want to associate with the Worker’s Party or the LDP, everything is up in the air. The reformist parties have made it abundantly clear that under no circumstance will they form a coalition with the LDP, but without them they still only have about 160 seats, far short of the 225 needed to form a majority. I suspect that the Unity Party may try and form a coalition with the reformist block, but they share little ideology with each other, and many reformists feel that Putin is a lapdog of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. We may have a situation where there is no majority at all, which not only would produce a dysfunctional Duma, but could strengthen Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who would no longer have the Duma to act as a check on his presidential power. It is strange, but he might just end up winning by losing.”

 

[Pellegrino]

AFTER ZHIRINOVSKY- PART TWO: PLANTING THE SEED CAPITAL OF WAR

Some new names in this update:

William Roth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_V._Roth_Jr.

CARICOM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Community

Zell Miller: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zell_Miller

Paul O'Neill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H._O'Neill


***

UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on February 2, 2017.

Discussing the Dominica Crisis of 2003-2004.


BBC: Mr. Putin, the occupation of Dominica by Russian nationals loyal to President Zhirinovsky-


Putin: It wasn’t an occupation. It was a legitimate election. The Dominicans foolishly allowed any Russian with $50,000 to become a citizen, just like they did with any American billionaire with $50,000 who wanted to avoid paying taxes. They made a mistake and the Russian radicals capitalized on this mistake.


BBC: Mr. Putin, the United Kingdom launched an investigation and they came to the conclusion that at least half of those citizens had obtained their documentation by illegal means. It was believed that at least 4,500 Russians may have obtained citizenship due to bribery of one Dominican official-


Putin: And are we to believe that the British were neutral investigators? That they didn’t have political reasons to want to see the Russians discredited? Nearly half of the new citizens obtained their citizenship legally: by marriage. Perhaps a few dozen, maybe a few hundred, had snuck into the country illegally. But even those Russians found Dominican wives. The British were trying to created the illusion of an invasion when it was anything but an invasion.


BBC: Mr. Putin, nearly a thousand Dominican women came forward in the days following the election and told reporters that Russian men had paid them to undertake “sham marriages.” There was even evidence that Prime Minister Bentley Norris obtained citizenship by paying a woman he hardly knew to marry him for $2,000.


Putin: Alice Blackmore-Norris chose to marry Bentley Norris. Although she didn’t know him long I won’t question her reasoning. But I find it telling that she has stayed with him ever since and has been by his side since the day they were wed in 2003. I find it appalling how the western media tries to slander her with such vile rumors. Implying that she is some sort of prostitute.


BBC: Well, it can’t be denied that the tiny island of Dominica kicked off an international crisis after the 2003 election.


Putin: No, it cannot. And I won’t even deny the basic truth of your statement. Many Russians felt disenfranchised in the new UIS. The ruble was plummeting and oil prices were starting to drop. Through word of mouth many Russians elected to start over. There is an old saying in the United States: Go West young man. In The UIS we started seeing similar sentiments arising. But few picked up on the significance of it. Few understood the whispers emerging all across the unemployment lines and the homeless shelters and even amongst the offices of the Radical People’s Party of the UIS. Few noticed when an eccentric billionaire whose empire of corruption fell apart with the fall of Zhirinovsky began offering to help Russians with “small business loans” and “venture capital”. Most assumed he was trying to influence the judiciary due to his charges of corruption. To make himself look like a philanthropist. We never realized that he was planting the seed capital of war.


***

Screenplay of the film “The Special Relationship” (2010)


HBO Films

Starring:


Michael Sheen as Tony Blair

Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair

Adam Godley as Jonathan Powell




5. INT. 10 DOWNING STREET, NIGHT - We see TONY BLAIR at a table reading some papers. He has a look of incredulity.


ENTER CHERIE BLAIR

TONY

I just don’t understand how this happened?


CHERIE

Dear, would you like something to eat?


TONY

How does a country of 60,000 people not notice 30,000 Russian fascists who just happened to show up out of the blue?


CHERIE

Well they said that there are a lot of millionaires who are citizens of these countries. Most come by, buy some property, pick up their new passport and move on. Maybe they thought it would be the same with the Russians.


TONY

My God, this is a mess. What should we do?


CHERIE

Well, what does President Bush think?


TONY

After that fiasco in Afghanistan who knows what he has planned. God knows the last thing he needs is American soldiers shooting Russians in the Caribbean when they are suppose to be partners in Kabul.


CHERIE

So he’s not going to do anything?


TONY

I didn’t say that. It’s just…nobody seems to be on the same page anymore.


(long pause)


I wish Bob were still there.


***


Excerpts from the book “The Dragon’s Last Stand: A Biography of Former Vice President Rick Lazio ” by Frank Ryan.
Published by Random House © 2009




CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


By January first of 2004 it was becoming increasingly clear that the Presidency of George W. Bush was on life support. After his mishandling of the 9/11 terrorist attacks Bush had yet to see his poll numbers rise to over 33%, and by January of 2004 they had dipped to an anemic 19%. Bush’s cabinet proved to be even a bigger problem for his reelection, as two of his closest advisors, Secretary of Energy Dick Cheney and Secretary of Treasury Kenneth Lay, had been indicted in 2002.


Rick Lazio would soon emerge as one of Bush’s biggest critics in private. He feuded frequently with Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and Director of Homeland Security Oliver North and by the middle of 2003 Lazio began to openly court with the idea of running against his president in the upcoming election. The hostility towards Lazio from the president boiled over and by the summer of 2003 Lazio was completely removed from Bush’s inner circle, so much so that Lazio would learn from a reporter that former Montana senator William Roth had been selected by Bush to take over as Secretary of Treasury.


“Lazio initially denied that Roth had been selected but once he realized that Roth in fact had been nominated he suddenly became visibly angry.” Gale Norton said. “Not so much over being left out of the decision making process but over the fact that he wasn’t even told of the final decision and had to find out from a reporter from the New York Post.”


When President Bush was asked about the clear rift between the two he brushed it off, citing the historic role vice president’s tended to play in an administration, a clear jab at Lazio. But with the takeover of the tiny island nation of Dominica by Russian citizens tied to the deposed Zhirinovsky regime Lazio believed that it was an opportunity to save the Bush presidency, and in turn the Republican Party.


“Lazio felt that there needed to be an invasion,” Norton added. “He called it the Grenada Option: a quick military operation that could be sold for domestic consumption as a victorious war against fascism.”


But many in the Bush cabinet were opposed to the operation. Most felt that it could unnecessarily provoke the UIS, and it’s newly elected President Alexander Lebed. But although Lazio no longer had the President’s ear, he found an unlikely ally in Oliver North and the newly appointed Secretary of Defense Zell Miller.


***


Excerpts from the book “What Went Wrong: Inside the Bush White House"
By Paul O’Neill
Published by Benton Press © 2006



CHAPTER 8: THE GRENADA OPTION

George Bush said nothing as Director North and Secretary of Defense Zell Miller argued with Secretary of State Rumsfeld over Dominica. Miller, a Democrat, was a hawk but it was the forcefulness of North that most surprised me. North was one of the strongest proponents of working with the UIS after 9/11, and his push to invade Dominica seemed to be a complete reversal.


But by the time I arrived the cabinet was in complete disarray. Vice President Lazio had not been invited to a cabinet meeting in nearly a year and William Roth, who was selected to replace the maligned Kenneth Lay as Secretary of Treasury, died just three months after taking office. As his replacement I found myself in a firestorm on my first cabinet meeting as the issue of Dominica took center stage.


“Mr. President, the Monroe Doctrine still means something,” North said forcefully. “If we let the Russians occupy Dominica we are basically handing the election to the Democrats!”


“And what if that’s what they want?” Attorney General Harriet Miers shot back. “To force President Lebed’s hand? If we are seen shooting Russian citizens how do you think that will play with our fragile peace accord with the UIS? How will that play out in Afghanistan, where our troops are conducting joint operations?


Miller snorted at the counter argument.


“We have proof that half those Russians obtained citizenship through fraud! “ Miller shot back. “It’s a stolen election! If we let this slide you can rest assure that the phrase stolen election will always be attached to the name George Bush!”


The President looked tired; the last three years had taken their toll on him.


“What about CARICOM?” Secretary Thompson asked. “Why not have CARICOM clean up this mess?”


“The Haitians have made it clear that they don’t want any part in a military operation,” Director North replied. “They have a bad taste in their mouth from the last run in with the UIS they had. Jamaica is also out. So is St. Kitts and Nevis. They apparently have a large number of Russians who bought citizenship as well and they are now pretty worried about a potential domestic backlash if they take part. Grenada, Barbados, and Belize are considering a military solution. The Bahamas are also leaning towards a military operation.”


President Bush nodded his head.


“Mr. President,” North continued, “that’s not enough. We have reports that nearly a thousand Liberian military personnel arrived in Dominica two days ago as part of what is being called a ‘joint training exercise.” These are almost certainly Russian trained mercenaries. Also, we estimate that at least six thousand Russians in Dominica have military experience in Estonia, Croatia, or Afghanistan.”

”What sort of weapons do they have?” President Bush asked.


“Mostly small arms,” Secretary Miller replied. “AK-47s, AK-74s. No air craft other than some commercial jets. If we go in it wouldn’t take much to dislodge them. But Mr. President, if it is the army of Barbados and Belize fighting six thousand armed Russian and Liberian soldiers, well, I think we might see something akin to Israel in 1967. The Russians could win and win big, and that could force the UIS to intervene on their behalf. Lebed can’t be seen as letting 300 Russian patriots die at Thermopile.”


“Shit,” The President mumbled under his breath. “Can it get any worse?”


I felt a chill run down my spine at the statement. Famous last words I thought.


As if on cue I saw Press Secretary Scott McClellan walk in.


“Hey Scotty, what’s up?” The President asked with a forced smile.


“Uh, Mr. President, I think there may be a problem.”


“Yeah, there’s a lot of them coming down lately.” The president said with a forced chuckle. “Well, let’s hear it.”


“Uh, Mr. President…Dominica just issued a warrant for former President Bob Kerrey. They, uh, they claim he killed two civilians during the Kosovo Missile Crisis.”


The President chuckled.


“Well, we all know that dog don’t hunt.”


“I understand Mr. President but you see, they can still demand a hearing and, well, if it’s in Dominica, it may very well be a…problem.”


“So tell Bob not to take a trip to Dominica until this thing blows over.” The President replied.


“Sir, it’s more complicated than that. Dominica is a member of the British Commonwealth sir…”


I suddenly felt my heart skip a beat. I jumped out of my chair as I looked at McClellan. I suddenly realized what he was telling us.


“Mr. President!” I said frantically. “Former President Kerrey is on vacation…in London!”

 

[Pellegrino]

AFTER ZHIRINOVSKY- PART FIVE: TIPPING THE SCALES


CNN interview with Dick Gephardt, Former House Majority Leader

July 26, 2010


CNN: Congressman, the announcement that President George W. Bush was suspending his campaign after a dismal third place finish in New Hampshire was a political bombshell that shook Washington to its core, but it also effectively forced the Democratic Party to radically shift its approach to the 2004 election. You famously said that it was a mistake to try and paint every Republican as a someone who would continue the failed Bush policies of the previous four years. Kerry, ironically, doubled down and tried to make the 2004 election entirely about George W. Bush.


Gephardt: There have been many critics who have pointed out the mistakes made by the Kerry campaign. I don’t need to revisit all of them.


CNN: But Bush’s withdrawal had an unexpected effect on his reputation.


Gephardt: Yes. Ironically, it appeared that President Bush, unburdened by the pressures of the campaign, could return to doing what he did best: being a generally affable and likeable guy. His withdrawal was initially seen as a sign of weakness but before long it was seen as the ultimate show of sacrifice. Bush was willing to sacrifice his legacy for the benefit of the party and of the nation and to make peace with his onetime rival, John Engler. He knew that Engler was the only man who could beat Kerry and he knew that Tancredo or Brownback as the nominee would be a disaster. Despite his personal feud with Engler he still sucked it up and endorsed him.


CNN: Initially Bush seemed to be avoiding Engler-


Gephardt: Engler wanted to keep Bush at arms length because his poll numbers were hovering around 15% after New Hampshire. But by the time the convention rolled around Bush had done the unthinkable: he had gotten those numbers back in the mid 40s.


CNN: Yet Kerry still pushed the narrative that a vote for Engler was a vote for Bush.


Gephardt: Don’t get me wrong, people started to like President Bush because he wasn’t going to be reelected and as a result he started acting less like a politician and more like a person. His gaffes were monumental, but suddenly they became endearing. And Engler, although he embraced Bush at the convention, still pushed his own narrative that an Engler administration would look a lot different from a Bush administration. That was an easy sell since it was clear that the two never really saw eye to eye. But with all that being said, the basic message remained the same. Nobody though George Bush was a competent president. He was seen as way in over his head. Engler was always seen as his own man and even his staunchest critics saw that he was a seasoned and experienced politician.


CNN: So what could John Kerry have done differently?


Gephardt: (long pause) Well, there were two things I told him at the Democratic convention, two pieces of advice that he ultimately disregarded.


CNN: What were they?


Gephardt: First I said; don’t make this about George Bush per se. The Republicans know he was a disaster, but they think he was a disaster because he was green around the ears. Make it about his adherence to failed policies. If you think George Bush was the problem you probably would be OK with John Engler.


CNN: What was the second piece of advice?


Gephardt: Under no circumstances should you underestimate the UIS.


Excerpts from the book “The Dragon’s Last Stand: A Biography of Former Vice President Rick Lazio ” by Frank Ryan.
Published by Random House © 2009




CHAPTER TWENTY


With the announcement that President Bush was suspending his campaign after an anemic third place finish in New Hampshire, a week after finishing fifth in Iowa, Vice President Rick Lazio immediately began to entertain calls for his entry into the Presidential race…despite arguments from many Republican insiders that the race was out of his reach.


“Rick Lazio had one shot to win the Republican nomination and that was running directly against President Bush in Iowa,” Gale Norton said. “By waiting until President Bush dropped out he ended up looking like an opportunist.”


Most election watchers felt there was almost no way Lazio could win the race. Even Lazio seemed to recognize this as he privately told aids that his ultimate strategy was to win in Florida and muddle the field so that the winner would be selected at the convention. This scenario terrified many Republicans.


“Lazio had a very narrow window to the nomination,” Norton added, “but if he failed, which he almost certainly would, he would almost certainly throw the nomination to either Tancredo or Brownback.”


Sam Brownback and John Engler were neck and neck in South Carolina, while Engler held a small lead over Tancredo in Florida. A pair of wins for Engler would end the insurgent campaigns of Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Ron Paul. But Lazio’s late entry would almost certainly derail the best laid plans of the Republican Party. When word reached President Bush he contacted Lazio to ask him to reconsider.


“The relationship between President Bush and Lazio had deteriorated to such a point that the two didn’t speak to each other at all,” Norton added. “As a result President Bush had little sway over the Vice President.”


But as Lazio began to kick start his late entry into the 2004 Presidential nomination a curious scandal erupted, one that would sink Lazio’s presidential ambitions before it could even get off the ground.



UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on February 2, 2017.

Discussing the 2004 US Presidential Election.


BBC: Mr. Putin, there seemed to be a relentless series of attacks on Vice President Rick Lazio after his announcement that he was forming an exploratory committee in 2004-


Putin: And what does this have to do with the UIS?


BBC: Well, Mr. Lazio’s email account was hacked and some embarrassing emails were disclosed to Russian media sources.


Putin: Perhaps you should ask Mr. Zavadiya how he got those emails.


BBC: Well it was no secret that Lazio was the last man the Kremlin wanted to see in the White House.


Putin: From how the election went it appears he was also the last man Americans wanted to see in the White House.


BBC: Mr. Putin, let’s just cut the charade. What roll did the UIS have in hacking Vice President Lazio’s email account and why did RT elect to publish these emails?


Putin: First of all, the Vice President of the United States was using an AOL email account. It is a wonder it took so long for his email account to have been hacked. Second, this man was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers in Chechnya by his reckless actions as a congressman. He made arrangements for American weapons to fall in the hands of Islamic terrorists. Is it any surprise that a man so evil, a man with such little foresight, could be trusted to do the right thing? This was very newsworthy in Russia, and it should have been newsworthy in the United States. But the American media elected to ignore the contents of the emails and instead focus on the UIS, because it is easier to blame the Russians than actually look at the facts.


BBC: So the UIS hacked his email?


Putin: I don’t know who hacked his email, but if I were president of Russia I can assure you I would have had the KGB watching that madman carefully.



Excerpts from the book “What Went Wrong: Inside the Bush White House"
By Paul O’Neill
Published by Benton Press © 2006



CHAPTER 10: THE

George Bush said nothing as he watched the Fox News report on Vice President Lazio’s email scandal. There was plenty of dirt. Lazio had taken to calling President Bush “dumb as fuck” in several occasions as well as calling John Engler, the presumptive Republican nominee, a “fat fuck.” The coarse language was coupled with numerous misspellings, which led some to disparagingly call him “Typo Lazio”. But perhaps most damaging was the ambition. Vice President Lazio sent one email to a friend in mid-September of 2001 in which he openly predicted Bush’s resignation. He almost seemed to be gloating at the prospect of becoming president. President Bush then turned towards me.


“This…this is troubling,” he said as he muted the TV. “But…how did they get the emails?”


I already knew the answer. In the United States we all saw a Lazio campaign as a lost cause…but in the UIS it was seen as something else. Rick Lazio was seen as a war criminal by most Russians and the hatred the UIS and President Lebed held towards Lazio was palatable. Rick Lazio has less than a 2% chance of becoming President of the United States, but to the UIS, those odds were unacceptable. So they made sure that his campaign was stillborn…and in the process they handed John Engler the nomination. President Bush looked worried and deeply troubled, but I knew it had nothing to do with being insulted by Rick Lazio in a private email. President Bush had a thick hide. No, he was seeing the same thing I saw: the former Soviet Union had just meddled in a U.S. election. Whatever happened from this point on, it was going to be because the Union of Independent States had tipped the scales against Rick Lazio.