Nikolai Riosovsky

**Nikolai Viktorovich Riosovsky** is the oldest son of President Viktor Riosovsky and brother of Pavel and Alexi. Nikolai has had a complicated life since the murder of his mother at the hands of Chechen terrorists. Not too long afterward, the then fourteen year old Nikolai ran away from home, via a train to Poland after forging his father’s signature on his exit documents. As under Russian law a minor is required to to have parental consent to leave the country.

The incident nearly caused an international scandal, as Nikolai presented the Polish border guards his passport and was immediately held by the Polish government. Meanwhile, his father had not slept in days wondering where his son was and was relieved when he received word from the embassy in Warsaw that he had been found, though abroad.

Through with the graciousness of the Polish government, they agreed to send Nikolai to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. President Strawdowski of Poland personally phoned Nikolai’s father and assured him that as a father himself he would guarantee Nikolai’s safe return. This was a rare instance of cooperation between the Russian government and a NATO country, though both parties did not consider it necessary to advertise the incident. Nikolai’s father was keen to keep it under wraps, as he did not want any of Russia’s enemies to hear that one of his own children had been abroad and totally vulnerable to kidnapping.

Upon returning to Moscow, Nikolai was immediately confronted by his father for his actions. He confessed to feeling alone with his mother being dead, that due to his father being the leader of the largest and one of the most powerful nations on earth that he had little time for him and his brothers. To Nikolai’s surprise his father did not fly into a rage but instead listened intently and promised to do what he could to help, however he did not let Nikolai’s actions go unpunished and he was sent off to the Moscow Suvorov Military School, one of the most prestigious secondary schools in Russia, with an emphasis on preparing its pupils for military service.

After four years of education at the school, Nikolai graduated in 2013 and was accepted into the Russian Army as an infantryman. One of the most awkward moments of his life was when he had come to attention to salute his father, who instead of returning the salute simply chuckled and hugged him.

**The “Military Operation”**

Less than six months after being accepted into the Army, troubles began in the neighboring nation of Ukraine. After President Yanukovych rejected a lucrative trade deal with the European Union, thousands of protesters gathered in the Maidan square in the capital Kyiv, at first demanding that the trade deal be accepted, though eventually these calls turned to one’s for revolution.

President Riosovsky became concerned with the idea of a pro-western revolution right on Russia’s doorstep and decided that the only solution to prevent it would be to militarily intervene in the revolution. In late November of 2013 he ordered full combat readiness of troops in the Western Military District and began massing them on the borders of Ukraine, and in allied Belarus. By mid January over 290,000 Russian soldiers and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles were in place all along the border. Nikolai had been assigned to the 56th Combined Arms Army, which along with 45,000 thousand troops were make a an attempt at securing Kyiv via an attack from Belarus.

The massing of troops along the border did little to deter the Maidan rebels who successfully overthrew the Ukrainian government on February 20th of 2014, killing President Yanukovych in the process. However, this was what the Russians had been hoping on the whole time as it was the trigger for the imminent invasion. At 4Am on February 21st, President Riosovsky gave a speech on national television announcing the start of the “limited military operation” to “cleanse Ukraine of American funded neo-Nazis” and other “anti-Russia elements who threaten genocide of our brothers and sisters in the Donbas and Crimea”.