Russian Republic (Anglosphere)

The "Россия Мир" Flag, adopted as the official flag in 2035.

The **Russian Republic** is a nation located in Eastern Europe, bordering the United Federation of Russia to the east, Alania to the south, Ukraine to the south and west, the European state of Baltica to its west and Novgorod to its north. The nation is administrated as a "transitional territory" under the European Union. The nation is home to over 48 million people, making it the 3rd most populous nation in Europe, behind the European Union and Ukraine.

After the Russian Collapse in 2033 following Vladimir Putin's death, the European Union launched an all-out invasion with the Organization of Ukrainian Liberation, or OUL, who rose up against their occupiers shortly after the nation's collapse. The country itself, while having de jure self-governance under the daughter of former dissident Alexei Navalny, Daria, in reality the country is ran and administered by non-Russians, with the head being the Overseer, held by Olesky Honcharuk since the nation's founding. The Russian Republic also finds itself a heavily militarized state against the Chinese-aligned UFR.

In the first few years after the nation was founded, the Russian populace was controlled by fear and brutality. Almost the entire law enforcement agency was comprised of non-Russians, resulting in many counts of power abuses driven by hatred. European President Sanna Marin once said that the Russian Republic "is only Russian by name", a point later re-iterated by the current leader of West Russia, Daria Navalnya. As of 2050, the Russian Republic are slowly gaining autonomy under Prime Minister Greta Thunberg, although by nature, they are still a fully-fledged European puppet.

## History

If history has told mankind anything, it is that vengeance can be brutal and without remorse. The Russian Republic rose from the ruins of the old Russian Federation as a rump state of the previous Putin regime, and the country symbolizes the dominance of the Europeans on Russia, and perhaps this time, for 1000 years.

While Russia has consistently gotten into territorial disputes and wars throughout its entire history, the areas that became part of the modern Republic were considered by many to be one of the few truly integral parts of the Russian people, having been the original territory of the proto state of Russia, known as the Duchy of Muscovy in the 15th Century. In the centuries since, Russia has expanded beyond its borders to Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, but the nation was shrunk time and time again from internal chaos and sometimes by external forces.

Starting in the 1920s, Russia became the scorn of the West due to their communist ideals, which transitioned into a general distaste of Russia even after the collapse of communism in the 1990s. Tensions were always high between Russia and the West, and it came to a head in 2022, when Russia invaded the pro-West Ukraine. Relations broke down completely afterwards, as Russia was effectively cancelled by the Western World, while Ukraine held on for months on end as the invasion devolved into a war of attrition. The war would finally end in May 2023 with Russia practically annexing all of Ukraine, with the latter only falling due to the New Depression happening from Russia being cancelled for so long, and with skyrocketing oil prices from the Second Iranian Revolution.

It was with this hatred of Russia that sowed the seeds for the European Invasion of Russia in 2033, when, after the death of Vladimir Putin, the old Russia imploded, and devolved into civil war. Seeing the chance to destroy a nation they blamed for instability and the New Depression, the European Federation (and their sphere known as the European Union) invaded Russia, while supplying the rebelling Ukrainians, promising them with "any territory they wanted. During the negotiations which will result in the signings of the Mariupol Accords, the Europeans, filled with hatred against Russia, decided to tear both the Caucasus region and Novgorod away from Russia, reorganizing the rest of the Russian Republic - a state made to control the Russian people to such an extent that they will never be able to threaten Europe ever again.

The EF officially formed the Russian Republic on December 8th, 2034, after sorting out the governing body. They managed to convince well-known dissident Alexei Navalny to be the head of the nation and was convinced that he has the power to lead Russia to eventual unification with Europe. However, this was not in the EF's plans at all - while Navalny would in theory be in charge, practically all of the decisions will be made by the Overseer, a position that is meant to "keep Russia in check". What the Overseer is really meant to do is to strip Russia of all of their power, and literally use whatever means necessary to ensure that Russia can never threaten Europe ever again, effectively being able to rule Russia as a tyrant. The position was eventually given to Oleksiy Honcharuk, who had close connections with Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he was the President of Ukraine.

For the first two years after the Russian Republic was formed, life was practically hell for any Russians living in the country. Racism and Russophobia was widespread all across the entire country, and constant surveillance was guaranteed to keep all Russians at the whims of Europe. The distrust was so great, the EF even banned Russia from having any local media sources, forcing them to switch to European television. They were also not allowed to have any sort of law enforcement, control over any of their natural resources, and for many Russians, they were even denied the right to travel to other EU member states, with lengthy visa applications required to be granted the right to travel. Despite criticism from virtually everyone, both the EF and Ukraine repeated that this is necessary to keep the Russians in check.

Of course, this level of repression became very much unsustainable and dystopian, which caused race riots and conflicts between the Europeans and the Russians in the country. The insanity of the Republic's oppression came to an end in 2036, when former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin was elected as the next President of the EF. Within days, she lifted all travel restrictions that Russians once needed, instead only requiring a passport like most countries. She also publicly condemned the inhumane practices in the Republic and urged for reform to better integrate Russia with Europe in order to truly subdue them. 2038 would saw the election of Greta Thunberg as the new Prime Minister, and being born in 2003, Thunberg was more pragmatic about dealing with Russia, as she pushed for the better treatment of Russians in the Republic.

Alexei Navalny died in 2040 after months of speculation about his heart problems, and was succeeded by his daughter, Daria Navalnya. Daria, unlike her father, was more demanding of her European overlords, and requested for the lifting of multiple bans which were deemed extreme and authoritarian even outside of Russia. This included lifting the complete ban of the Latin letter "Z" in Russia, which was prohibited to use in any capacity, even as a standard letter for a word or a name, for example Zoo. Up until then, names containing the letter Z were changed with an official name conversion form, while words containing Z were replaced with similar sounding letters, like C. Daria also demanded for Russia to once again be allowed to use the Cyrillic Script again, which was actually banned as it was deemed "a threat to national security for representing Russian autonomy". Despite of some skepticism, both Marin and Thunberg gave their seal of approval, reversing what Daria called "language colonialism".

In spite of the seemingly loosening of control in Russia, their European overlords continued to ensure that Russia will be able to be kept in check at all costs. The Russian media remained in control of other foreign media groups, albeit a recent legislation in 2043 allowed Russian branches of foreign media companies. In addition, the police department remained firmly in the European grasp despite of Daria loudly protesting the non-independence of the police force, with Thunberg responding that the police being in Europe's hand will ensure that Russia cannot have another madman again.

Thankfully, Russia in the 2040s was able to slowly move away from a state built on foreign vengeance, and more focused on an eventual reunification with Europe. The loosening of control of Western Russia was deemed controversial by many Ukrainians, who felt that Europe is going too soft on them and will result in another Putin rising to power again. Marin however, re-iterated the need for a full integration by both soft and tough means, and in 2050, the Russian Republic has a booming economy, with negotiations of becoming a fully-fledged European state starting recently.

## Society

Life within the Russian Republic, at least for the first few years was hell. They were effectively occupied by the European Union, while they were denied even the most basic levels of independence from the grip of the EU. For one, the Russian Ruble was scrapped entirely, and the Euro became the sole legal currency of the Russian Republic. Any sense of governorship by the Russians was outlawed, as Russia is divided into 10 "sectors", each with a governor directly selected by the Europeans. In addition, RT News was deemed to have "polluted the minds of the Russian people", and as a direct result of it, all independent Russian media was banned. No Russian news outlets were allowed to exist, forcing all Russians to receive their information from European media, which constantly paints Russia in general of a bad light. However, many people in the modern day argue that the Media Ban was justified from the fear of a resurgence of Neo-Putinists and the general hatred against Russia at the time.

### The "Z" Ban

Not long after the Russian Republic was established, the letter "Z", which was deemed to be the symbol of Putin's regime, was banned. The ban wasn't entirely out of the blue, as most non-EF European states (Eastern Europe in particular) have laws banning the use of the letter "Z" to be used as a standalone context, with some even banning "V" and "O" out of fear of Russophiles switching to these letters in acts of defiance. However, the Russian version of the law, officially named "The Anti-Putin Regime Glorification Act" was deemed far too extreme, even by future Prime Minister Greta Thunberg. The Act banned not only the use of "Z", "V" or "O" in a standalone context, but the Latin letter "Z" was banned entirely under any circumstances. All names that contained the letter "Z" were forced to be changed to the letter "S", which itself was also banned in a standalone context. The letter "Z" was also banned to be used as a part of a word, even in an everyday context. This caused major issues with teaching, as many words in European languages contained "Z", and as a result, the Russian version had similar sounding letters as replacements instead, "Sug" being an example, being the Russian version of "Zug", meaning train in German.

In addition, the "Z" Ban also extends to any geographical names, and cities containing "Z" were renamed entirely. The most notable city to be affect was Voronezh (Воронеж), being forced to change its name to Voronesk (Воронск). Other foreign cities and places were renamed on Russian Atlases based on the rule as well, including Leipzig and Guangzhou, becoming Leipcig and Guangchou on Russian maps, or the U.S. State of Arizona, renamed to Arisona.