January 2000
Research: Under political pressure to restore the greatness of the Russian people, President Putin decides to dust off some old Russian military projects, most of them being nothing but prestige operation in the hope to boost national moral and unity. One of those however receives particular attention. NUCLEAR POWERED FLIGHT, already having been done as a test flight in the 60s, but got stopped due to the advent of missiles and submarines, was dusted off from the Tupolev design bureau. The aim was to create a sizable aircraft that could fly for months, essentially serving the role of an airborn submarine. It would allow to keep AWAC planes and bombers in the air for months with crew rotation and make detection, first and second strike, nuclear or conventional, much easier and cheaper to manage.
Economy
1: International sales to african and south american leaders of old Soviet era ground equipment to free Russia from the cost of maintaining nearly obsolete equipment and make some profit with that.
2: Modernization of the Russian Rail Network with an emphasis on heavy transport of either commercial goods or military assets.
3: Creation of a Plastic's division in Gazprom, state owned petroleum company, and construction of a first plant aimed at making plastic in Russia, rather then sell the oil to say, the germans and buy back the finished products.
Political:
1: Integration of the Communist party in government function as part of a coalition in the Duma (Parliament), prime minister is now
Veronika Tolstoi. The communists, even if part of a coalition, still take great time to constantly propose things Putin's party would refuse as to make it seem like he's unwilling to cooperate.
2: Corruption, as it impairs the ability of the government to work, and thus to fight against enemies of the state, will be considered as high treason and, most likely, be sentenced by death from now on. A few well known high level officials are made example of.
3: Unemployment benefits demand mendatory participation to a 'Social Rehabilitation Through Work' program where the person goes to work in exchange for a small pay and his living expenses taken care of. Foreign observers call it a modern gulag for the poor but Russian officials stress that they are paid as to allow them back in society and can leave whenever they want as long as they don't end up in the streets. Loitering is also now taken more seriously with homeless being given the choice between prison and work camp. Needless to say, prison conditions are made so horrible work camps becomes the best alternative.
4: Creation of a modern electronic surveillance facility outside of Moscow to be operated by the Federal Security Bureau. Its size should allow future development and the storage of everything ever written in the history of mankind on its data bank, this, obviously, on the sole objective on cracking down on terrorists from the Caucasus. Of course, as corruption is now considered High Treason, 'random' checks on corporate servers and in the files of important individuals are possible.
WAR 5: Renewed offensive in Chechenya with the aim to make Grozny fall as soon as possible while containing the fights there, so fighters are as unable as possible to retreat in the mountains and make this a guerrilla nightmare.
WAR 6: Complete media blackout and interdiction in Chechenya, no civil flight and regular air patrol to bomb anything coming through its borders as they could be 'Foreign terrorists' coming to help their Muslim brethren. All of this, of course, to facilitate the use of heavy artillery and deny any and all collateral damage to the civilian population.
WAR 7: Subtle manipulation from the communist party to rally soldiers to their cause, with no actual unified message, eg, you think we should bomb the Chechens more? The communist party would do it, join it. You think we should stop bombing the Chechens? That's what the communists want! Keep the message as vague as possible but convince people that somehow, the communists wouldn't have done this the same.
WAR 8: Fabricate report that the other Caucasus countries are supporting Chechenya and domestic terrorism in Russia. Doesn't matter if it doesn't work in foreign country, the aim is to get Russians on board the idea of broadening the war.
Diplomacy:
TO TURKEY: Ask to please close off the Caucasus because Russians could start thinking that Turkey supports muslim terrorists. Nobody wants that. Plus being friendly with the Russian bear could always be handy and Russia is willing of backing Turkey should it decide to do something that doesn't involve killing Slavs.
TO GREECE: Extend the offer to sell Soviet weapons for cheap to them, diplomatically explain that if they could forward any US hardware that wandered off NATO bases Russia would be very, very grateful.
