Deterioration of relations between Western countries and Russia

[arandomperson5000]

Ever since 2014 due to the Ukranian Crisis, relations between the Western countries and Russia have rapidly deteriorated to a point in which economic sanctions have been applied to Russia and has caused some to fear that there is a new cold war going on in Europe. As of right now there isn't really any events to represent this severe deterioration of relations in this mod.

[simsulla]

I would say it starts earlier when Putin 2000 and 2004, set about reconstruction of the impoverished condition of the country, apparently winning a power-struggle with the Russian oligarchs. Under the oligarchs, the relations with the west where much better.

Some aspects of this is in the mod. As the central European nations become democratic they move closer to the US sphere and are eligible to join NATO.

Also the Ukrainian revolutions, Crimea etc. is in the mod.

And it is worth mentioning, that the current US administration at least in word does not advocate a cold war with Russia.

[arandomperson5000]

While I do agree with you that this deterioration happened in between 2000 and 2004, I do think that relations between the West and Russia only began to severely deteriorate in 2008 after Russia went to war with Georgia to protect its spheres of influence in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This practicably destroyed any possibility that Georgia would join the EU or Nato with near and perhaps long term future, thus preventing an encirclement of Russia by its main rivals.

[arandomperson5000]

On the Baltic countries I have come up with an interesting suggestion for them in the recent tensions between Russia and NATO. While the Greater Russia decision allows Russia to claim russian populated parts of the Baltic countries, it is very doubtful that they would get away with this in real life without provoking a very harsh reaction from NATO as the Baltic countries are members. The suggestion I propose is adding new countries to those Russian populated areas in the Baltics such as Latagalia and Narva so Russia could use a similar strategy to what they did with the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in Ukraine rather than outright conflict with Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

[arandomperson5000]

Here I will the discuss the main points of the event chain for what could potentially be described as a new Cold War between Russia and the U.S and its allies.

2008 Georgia War The start of this event chain will occur in 2008 when the conflict in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia flares up again into war. The goal for Russia is to incorporate Abkhazia and South Ossetia into their sphere of influence and to prevent any chance of Georgia joining NATO which if they did could create a second front for Russia to deal with if Russia is ever at war with NATO. The main goal of Georgia is to reincorporate Abkhazia and South Ossetia into their country and join NATO which would guarantee the prevention of another war between Georgia and NATO. As for the U.S and its allies, it is vital that Georgia wins the 2008 conflict as it would provide them the means of surrounding Russia which would severely hamper the ambitions of Russia.

2014 Ukrainian War and Crimean Crisis Here tensions between Russia and NATO really start to heat up with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia and the Russian backed separatist Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics. This would cause alarm within many countries in Europe as smaller countries such as Latvia and Estonia with sizeable Russian minorities could become victim to pro Russian separatist unrest which would ultimately deestablise the entire balance of power with Europe. To mitigate this as much as possible the U.S and its allies would provide military and economic support countries to countries such as Ukraine and to apply economic sanctions on Russia for its expansionist policies. This would make very difficult for Russia to achieve its goal of uniting Russian speakers outside of Russia into a single country without destroying its economy in the long run. However the process you described for the downfall of democratic states in general could be used by Russia to raise ethnic and political tensions within North America and Europe preventing a unified front to stop their ambitions.

Optional The Balkans With the collapse of Yugoslavia there is no neutral country in the Balkans anymore that could withstand the influence of outside powers such as Russia and the U.S, this has created a situation that is quite disturbingly similar the situation of the Balkans just before World War 1, a massive area of ethnic tensions that has tangled the great powers within in the local politics of the Balkans. Today this has made the region a sort of a chessboard between the NATO and Russia. The goals of Russia of are to support its traditional ally Serbia at all costs in preventing an encirclement and eventual absorption into NATO. As for NATO its goals are the exact opposite with it being to ewithxpand into the former Yugoslavia preventing or getting rid of any Russian strongholds of influence within the region. We can see this strategy being played out right now with Croatia and Slovenia becoming NATO members and Montenegro granted accession into NATO recently much to the anger of Russia and Serbia, to counteract this it appears that Russia is trying to exploit the political and ethnic tensions within these countries as for example Russian support of the opposition of Milo Đukanović the current leader of Montenegro who is in favour of Montenegrin membership in NATO leading to allegations of Russian support to an alleged coup attempt in Montenegro in October 2016.

[devinity1337]

The current relations between Russian and the West (America-sphere) seems to be a natural outcome of Russia's return to Great Power status, and wanting to exert influence outside of its borders/natural allies.

Forcing a conflict outside of mechanisms already present in the game may be a bit heavy-handed. Say I wanted to play a progressive, democratic Russia focused on education and social justice? Why would I get involved in a conflict with the US?

[arandomperson5000]

Well the event chain I'm planning will have very specific triggers and will modifiers for example the 2008 Georgian war is likely to happen if Abkhazia and South Ossetia are independent even if Russia is a progressive democratic government however the ai choices will have special modifiers that if Russia is not a republic and is a democracy and has good relations with Georgia the ai of Russia will be more likely to not go to war with Georgia if it is a progressive democracy.