Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

Much of the power of the oligarchs has been diminished by pre-war and wartime events. Several of the most-powerful have ended up abroad with their Swiss bank accounts with the Kremlin raging at them for their 'treason'.
There are some who remained. I'll have a think about that for my planned update on Friday which covers the US, where some oligarchs went too: safer than Europe.
No one would want to be in Russia's position at the minute. You're spot on with the damage and impact done.
I didn't think about fracking. Wasn't it a combination of Saudi and Russian interests which did major damage to these efforts in OTL... or am I getting that mixed up somewhere?

China providing logistical support to Russian Army forces moving West? Has Beijing lost its collective mind?

Such a dangerous game on all parts. The US could quite reasonably respond by invading the Vladivostok area.

This is all something I only had a basic idea on. Fracking is something new but interesting. I shall read up on this more.




Nope, they are playing the long game. They have been doing it since just before the war started and aim to maintain course to see their own victory no matter what emerges from the Russia-v-Coalition fight.



This is all win win for China.
The Americans have been trying that game to sew division. The best bet would be to tell a little lie and let Russian and Chinese do all the hard work with that rather than direct manipulation. Finding out the right lie is the hard bit though.



Plenty of people think they are very smart. That is a current Russian fear.



I didn't know that. When I think of hydrocarbons in Russia, I always thought it was in Tatarstan, in the Arctic to the northwest and off Sakhalin.
China stealing all of that would see nukes I think.
For Russia and the West to make up, it would take a lot. They did kill Obama and have done so much more. Of course, China taking over Siberia would put the West in a difficult position.

Let us hope so!

Wow, those maps certainly put things into perspective.
Russia's future post conflict will certainly be interesting. All that infrastructure and investment pointed westwards is something to think on.

One Hundred and Forty–Four

John Kerry was sworn in as the nation’s forty-eighth vice president late in the evening of August 27th: three weeks to the day since Obama had been assassinated and Biden elevated to the presidency. The bitterness of the nomination process and then the voting was something quite extraordinary. So was the timescale though. In the three previous cases of a vacancy to the office which Kerry filled, there had been gaps of fourteen months, two months & four months respectively where the United States didn’t have a vice president. With utmost haste, and high political drama, in 2010 it took such a short space of time to fill that role with someone new. The country was at war, one which could very possibly go to the nuclear stage in the minds of many, and the vacancy in such an important position wasn’t one which it was thought could be left open… especially since it had been created by the opening attack of the ongoing war. Not everyone agreed with that line of thinking, that being that it was an urgent priority to fill the position with such haste. There were those who were opposed to Kerry too yet the main point of contention in Washington among those who fought such a battle as they did around this issue was the matter of the speed of the process. Shortcuts had been made and things rushed. Pressure had been put in Congress to hurry along hearings and then move to a series of votes which culminated in first the Senate and then the House voting aye. In the Senate, the result of the vote was sixty-five to thirty with three abstentions (and two vacant seats). In the House, it went three hundred & twelve for, one hundred & sixteen against, with nine more representatives not voting. An attempt to delay both votes had been made by a series of legal challenges filed aiming to get the Supreme Court to intervene though those were for the time being unsuccessful. Despite Kerry’s swearing-in, efforts would continue along the line of trying to declare that his accession to the vice presidency was unconstitutional. This matter wasn’t going away.

A few days before the two votes and then the short ceremony where Kerry took the oath of office, there had been the belief among Biden and his top people in the White House that they were looking at another week of the Congressional delay. However, outside intervention had come. The scandal known as ‘Cash from Russians’ had erupted. The whole matter was more contentious than the Kerry confirmation. It came about due to the voluntary exiling of themselves by several rich Russian nationals – their infamous oligarchs – to the West starting last year. Many went to Western Europe but others had come to the United States. Money from several of these people had found its way into the campaign war-chests of politicians nationwide at the state and federal level. These donations were overt with some but covert with others. They were buying influence for various reasons and their money was accepted. Then Russia had gone to war with the United States, attacking America on its home soil as its opening move. A stalled Department of Justice investigation received renewed vigour now when there was ‘new evidence’ (the validity of that was much disputed) that several of these exiles were actually still allied to the Kremlin, thus seeking to subvert the war effort in America through complicated and nefarious schemes. Grand juries had been convened to hear evidence and indictments produced. FBI raids had then taken place in the full glare of the media. This shook both parties, the Democrats and the Republicans alike, and, depending upon the spin taken by particular elements of the media, each party was hurt worse than the other in this. Blame, deflection and denials were thrown about everywhere. Cash from Russians became bigger than it was. It moved away from the corruption issue, which was what it was all about, into something else entirely. Politicians of all stripes used it as an excuse to fulfil their own agendas. It stung badly several figures and organisations opposed to the Kerry confirmation, something that no one had seen coming. A couple of senators and representatives and also the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association (NRA) came out really badly from Cash from Russians. The NRA had back in 2004 been behind a lot of the anti-Kerry movement when he had run for president then and was caught up now in this scandal while attempting to once against forestall his confirmation to the vice presidency. That lobbying arm of theirs – the Institute for Legislative Action – had their national offices raided looking into donations from rich Russians. As to the members of Congress involved, the ducked and dived the barrage of incoming fire that came their way.

A loudmouth billionaire based in New York, someone who the year before had taken to Twitter, fired off several cutting tweets about ‘Democrats taking money from Russia’: this caused quite the stir, as intended, and would be the start of something big there. It was both parties who were caught up in this though.

Aiming to take the pressure of themselves and colleagues, several members of Congress reversed – no, reconsidered – their positions on the Kerry matter and this led to the votes occurring when they did. Regardless, the investigations continued unabated. The political careers of many, and the personal liberty of some, were going to be curtailed when all was said and done with this matter.


Wartime censorship was something that wasn’t being enforced in the traditional manner across America in this war. It would have been impossible to achieve if tried. The growth of mass media, plus the internet, just made the concept of censorship when it came to information about the ongoing conflict a foolish notion. The principle of the ‘people have a right to know’ and the contrasting view of ‘sharing of information aids the enemy’ both had their place in the modern era. Getting the right balance there was the trick.

It was something that there was currently a marked failure to do.

Self-censorship by media organisation was being tried but these were profit-driven companies. They had to make money. Providing news was what they were in the business of doing and they did so. Judgements calls were made within them on what was a secret and what wasn’t… though some people just didn’t give a damn as they aimed for the latest scoop for their own careers. Information came out of them that the US Government didn’t want revealed. It was broadcast to the American people yet rapidly went around the world straight away. There were those who wrapped themselves in patriotism when revealing things that they did; others declared that they were acting responsibly for the good of the American people yet couldn’t engage in the ‘flag-wrapping and jingoism’ of others. Critical analysis of the war was made where actions taken by their government was broadcast and printed. Intervention from the Federal Communications Commission came again and again though that was all over the place.

Leaks occurred across the internet. There was more deliberate intent to expose damaging information on this platform that through the traditional forms of media. Lack of proper regulation here was telling. The FBI did intervene at times and there were efforts by ‘other Government agencies’ as well in this arena. Websites were shut down, often with pressure brought to bear on internet service providers. People wanted to share information though. They wanted to tell others what they knew and expose what they saw as injustices, failings or just for attention. This was a war that their country was involved in like no other due to the attacks made against America. Putting things on the internet, whether it be true or false (a lot more of the latter than the former), was what countless Americans decided that they would do. The consequences for many of them would be quite severe in the long run. Had they not heard of the Patriot Act?

The leaks had an impact politically across the United States, especially when there was political drama around some of the things revealed. Examples of this were plentiful. There was the matter of the USS New York. This was an amphibious assault ship with the US Navy which had been involved in getting US Marines ashore in the Russian Far East as part of Operation Eastern Gamble. She’d been lost in action. The details of her loss weren’t properly revealed, nor had many lives were taken too, just the destruction of a ship which contained steel taken from the Ground Zero disaster area. This caused a stir and it was an emotional matter for many Americans, hence why it became a political issue. The Pentagon was furious that the news had come out that the ship had been lost for it told the Russians something that they didn’t know. Yes, it was only one ship of many, but it was information which they regarded as benefitting the enemy. To those who made a big deal out of the loss of the New York, what they cared about was that steel taken from what had once been the Twin Towers. The fate of missing American nationals – civilians, not military personnel – was something else where information on that was leaked. There were Americans who’d been in the Baltic States and Belarus who remained unaccounted for. Russia had made that big show out of releasing Americans from out of their own country, using Turkey as a conduit for propaganda purposes, but there were others elsewhere in territory under the control of them and their allies. Diplomats, business travellers, tourists and students were missing. The numbers of them and speculation on their fate were leaked. This became quite the issue, causing another political drama, and causing questions to be asked that the US Government didn’t have the answers to give, let alone want to provide. Footage of American soldiers in action of home soil emerged on the YouTube platform. They were in the wider Los Angles area and looking for the Spetsnaz team who’d struck in Nevada with intelligence information that they were in California now. Civilian police units were with them but these were soldiers who were caught on camera with where they were operating identified. The images came down from YouTube but it had already been downloaded by some and was then shared elsewhere. Those who supported the release of this footage were those who were opposed to what they deemed the unconstitutional use of military force on national soil despite the legal decisions that had been taken on that matter that Washington said made it all constitutional. Putting this all out there told Russia much though and it was argued that it could only help those Russian special forces continue to evade capture and therefore strike elsewhere.

There were many, many secrets that weren’t being revealed though. The US Government was managing to keep many other things under wraps. The assortment of intelligence agencies with all of their acronyms – far too many had made it into popular culture in recent years for their liking though – were busy making sure that the war that they were fighting, just the same as those fighting men & women on the frontlines were, was something that they had the upper hand in. Where they could stamp hard on leaks, they did. The Pentagon too was throwing much attention at doing the same. Most military operations were taking place overseas and thus out of sight away from home. Embedded journalists were controlled and through the territories of members of the Coalition were the war was being fought, there were more restrictive measures employed against the media than were being done at home. Of more relevance to the Russians should they have known, of more value than the fate of a lone ship lost in battle or the hunt for Spetsnaz in California, was what was happening with the Army National Guard (ARNG). Much of the Air National Guard had gone overseas already, yet the United States was now preparing to deploy the ARNG too. Fully-federalised at the beginning of the war, elements were to remain at home in support of national security operations though a tremendous portion was beginning now to be deployed beyond America. Six full combat divisions were readying to go to Europe and another was tasked for a deployment to East Asia. None of this was something publicly available. Sure, Russia could speculate that this was likely, though they weren’t getting any leaked intelligence on that note. The logistics of this were going to mean that this wasn’t going to happen overnight when it came to their deployment, then also supplying them, but the process started today. The 29th Infantry Division would be the first to go to Europe followed by others soon enough.

Could Russia stop this? No.


While the Pentagon kept schtum on this matter, at a press conference Defence Secretary Nunn and Chairman Casey both chose today to make announcements concerning the opening of military tribunals concerning Russian war criminals in captivity. These were those other Spetsnaz in custody: the Obama assassination team. Those which had survived the successful hunting down of the then-president’s killers were to be tried for grave breaches of international law concerning the conduct of warfare. The announcement concerned the charges laid though details were absent on venue and other matters. The Biden Administration, through Nunn and Casey, were making a big show of this.

The Spetsnaz weren’t being charged for the killing of Obama. Nor were they going to be tried as war criminals for launching their attacks while not in uniform either.

There had been the wide belief that this was to be the case and it came as a surprise to many that neither of those acts were deemed by the Pentagon to be war crimes. They weren’t though. The public might have been clamouring for such a thing and some rather strong statements had been made by political figures calling for that to be done yet those acts weren’t something that such prisoners could be successfully prosecuted for. Legally, they hadn’t committed a war crime on either occasion: not to internationally-agreed statues that both the United States and Russia had long ago signed up to.

Instead, they were to be tried for other acts. The taking of hostages and using poison-tipped bullets broke both the Geneva and Hague conventions on the laws of war. Those hostages had included civilians while the poison was a still untreatable chemical substance which had also been seen elsewhere worldwide in other Spetsnaz attacks too. These were serious crimes committed by these prisoners. The question was asked of Nunn whether the United States would be seeking the death penalty for the accused. He turned that over to Casey who stated in the affirmative that that was to be the case.

Within hours of this, Moscow released a statement. There were American and other Coalition prisoners in their custody. These POWs were to be charged with war crimes related to the acts of indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, committing acts of murder against captives taken in ‘terrorist-related’ special forces operations and also the use of chemical weapons too (White Phosphorus) with the intention of killing lawful combatants. Russia would too be seeking the death penalty in their own military tribunals against those accused in their custody.

Tit for tat continued.


End of Part Six