Aynu Mosir

**Aynu Mosir** (Ainu: Айну Мосир, *Aynu Mosir*), officially the **Republic of the Aynu Mosir** (Ainu: Респубирика Айну Мосир, *Respubirika Aynu Mosir*), and occasionally spelled **Ainu Mosir**, is a country in East Asia off the coast of eastern Russia, made up of the islands of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.

## Etymology

The namev *Aynu Mosir* (alternatively *Ainu Mosir*) is Ainu for "people's land" (as opposed to *kamuy mosir*, the "spirits' land"), which is the traditional name of the region, hence the use of "the" in the country's full name.

### Soviet Union

*Main article: Ainu Soviet Socialist Republic*
During the Japanese Civil War, the Soviet Union initially only supplied the People's Republic of Japan with military aid. This policy was reversed in 1953 when the USSR invaded and annexed Hokkaido; the reason why is unclear, though possibly the Soviets already knew the communist rebels were likely to side with China in case they were to become hostile to the USSR (which they did). After the culmination of the civil war, the Soviet Union vaguely promised to return the island after "the situation settled".

Following the Sino-Soviet Split and the PRJ siding with the PRC, as well as the increasingly ethnonationalist stance of the PRJ, the Soviet Union decided to retain control of the Ainu SSR. Diplomatic talks between the Soviet Union and the PRJ did little to resolve this issue. Numerous reforms were made to promote the endangered Ainu culture, and Sapporo was heavily developed. By 1970, the Ainu SSR had a decently strong economy based on agriculture and coal, with timber and aquaculture supplementing it.

### Independence

During the Fall of the Soviet Union, the Ainu SSR declared independence and changed its name to the traditionally-used Aynu Mosir. Increasing instability in post-Soviet Russia led to the Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands hosting a plebiscite on whether to be fully independent, to join Wolha, or to join Aynu Mosir. The last option won and they officially acceded on January 1, 1992, doubling the country's size. The Russian government threatened to retaliate but the independence of other states like Chechnya and Dagestan prevented this. There were a number of proposals for Aynu Mosir to rejoin the People's Republic of Japan which gained significant media coverage but were otherwise minor.

## Government

Aynu Mosir is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic. The head of state is the President (Пресиден *Presiden*), who is directly elected by the populace for a four-year term with a maximum of two consecutive terms. The President appoints the Prime Minister, the head of government, from the Members of Parliament, who are also directly elected albeit by residents of the constituency they are in.

The current President is BLANK from the BLANK party.

## Culture

### Religion

Like many post-Soviet states in East Asia, Aynu Mosir is mostly irreligious, at 60% of the population identifying as atheist or as having no religion. This declined from about 85% in 1992 a year after independence. In Sakhalin and much of the Kurils, Eastern Orthodoxy is the primary religion, and adherents make up about 10% of the population. In Hokkaido, the dominant faiths are other forms of Christianity (primarily Catholic, mainline Protestant, and Latter-day Saint) and Buddhism which make up the remaining 25% and 5% of the population respectively. State atheism under Soviet rule suppressed religion of all kinds, from Orthodoxy to indigenous beliefs. After independence, the country was quickly proselytized to by Christian missionaries, mainly on Hokkaido island (i.e. not in Sakhalin).