A New Beginning - Our 1992 Russian Federation
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Oh I know, what I mean is that pop-culture wise China did not fully open its wings until the 2008 and later as while Chinese culture will be promoted, its pop-culture will have to deal with stiff competition from Japan, Korea, the US, the rest of Europe and our own so I do not see major reach outside of say Chinese music acts which would still be limited to our Chinese immigrant community.
Very informative. Fascinating to see the thought process of the various nations involved. Honestly I think you could do a few more if you want to. Germany, Japan and the UK come to mind.
I will try do a few i next week, as Friday and Saturday im doing normal updates.
Well i would say that you got Chinese part mostly right .
On interesting note i believe that China will probably take a lot of inspiration from this left leaning Russia given that by Xi's time it will have decent living standards, become a rich country etc. I actually see them trying to copy our concept of left-wing nationalism and addapt it to themselves. In a way from Soviet times
France is also quite interesting and i see us being able to compromise on a lot of things. We both share a goal of diminishing American influence down the line. It's also in line with French geopolitical ambitions, tought biggest obstacle for them is trying to balance Russo-German relations which are set to be quite warm .
USA having cautious approach makes sense, from one side they do want to cooperate, but from other they don't want to be challenged. In all honestly impression i got from Bush was that he has more conservative view of Clinton's approach. Where Clinton seeked to bring Russia into the West and bind it to Western World order Bush generally seeks to keep it at bay and only work together when necessary on subjects of common interest.
I don't know, Chinese movies were around at the time. But generally when it comes to cultural exchanges i would say that government backed NGOs also count. Not to mention if we take that into account it will be quite hard for Europe and third countries like India to catch up with the likes of Japan and USA and despite USA and Japan having greater cultural influence we should still have warmer relations with China in the end.
So i would say that efforts aimed at promoting each other's cultures should be counted under people to people exchanges even more so than media as both countries are investing considerable efforts to bring each other's cultures closer to each other's.
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I mean at this point in time Western European culture was making massive inroads with Euro-pop proving a major music genre across the world, along with the rise of European film with even in places like America began to consume them. Really I would say Europe and India already have a larger pop-culture scene when compared to China and will likely be more prominent across Russia no matter how much the Russian government tries otherwise.
I am not saying that Russia and China will not have warm relationship but that it would mostly be a political and economic one since China simply falters in cultural soft-power at this time with India having more of a cultural scene if we do not count Hong Kong, which honestly was more of its own thing.
On subject of Russia itself, it will be interesting to see which cultural changes will this wast new wealth cause, Japan was pretty wacky with its rise and S.Korea also seems to be quite extravagant and China is copying whole tourist destinations for itself. I do see reneval of interest in European/pre Revolution Imperial architecture mixed with modern urban planing.
Also i still believe that due to more money to throw around and advance in technology we should see some sort of breakthrough in Russian animation , at least coming from independent creators.
We should at least support Euroasian E-Sport coup aimed at promoting domestic game industry as otl Russia was one of the first's, if not the first country to acknowledge E-Sprot as official Sport.
Also i still believe that due to more money to throw around and advance in technology we should see some sort of breakthrough in Russian animation , at least coming from independent creators.
We should at least support Euroasian E-Sport coup aimed at promoting domestic game industry as otl Russia was one of the first's, if not the first country to acknowledge E-Sprot as official Sport.
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Eh don't know about that. Im skeptical about enlarged Union State , but otherwise Yemen could separate in two parts, Bosnia as well,Macedonia, Yugoslavia is still in question as they should have troops on Kosovo and our backing.
Etiopia might go after Eritrea, Nigeria might divide itself, Lybia remains to be seen. UK falling appart is interesting but as long as there's strong USA interest in the region its unlikely. Then there's Afganistan which might, or it might not survive Taliban rule etc.
Also while Venezuela invading Guyana and getting half of its territory is interesting there's still a danger of USAs intervention there.
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Matador de Lagartos
Banned
I thought about separating Yemen, but I realized Iran is going to be in a stronger position than OTL, which may make the Saudis more cautious to commit.
China got Taiwan, so my understanding is that Venezuela got Guyanna during the crisis which led to the annexation of Taiwan, when the United States was less likely to intervene. A big part of it is timing.
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Matador de Lagartos
Banned
Of all the nations I put on the enlargement, I believe Georgia may be the least likely of them all.
Ukraine is going to go throught a major crisis, maybe even a civil war, and I would be much surprise if this doesn't lead at least to the virtual annexation of most their territory. So I can understand the argument that Lviv may never be a part of the Union State, but Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov? Forget about it, they are going in no matter what.
Kazakhstan has a very large russian majority, had it's own colour revolution controlled by a relatively minor russian intervention OTL and was one of the most pro-USSR countries during Gorbachev's demise.
Armenia is between a rock and a hard place.
I didn't include Moldova because they exited Romania so probably aren't very thrilled to be part of another bigger country, as well as due to their membership in both NATO and the EU. They are much more useful as a tool to undermine NATO unity and unanimity, considering they can be controlled.
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The map feels like it's leaning a bit towards ASB honestly...
Concerning Kazakhstan, unlike Belarus or Ukraine , Russians sooner or later will lose demographical competition, in OTL both Russians and Kazakhs had 6,5 million people in Kazakhstan in 1989 and in 35 year Kazakh population more than doubled and become 14 million while Russian decreased to 3 million because of migration back to Russia. Even if Russian population would not decrease they will be only 27 % instead on 15%. Plus considering the fact that fertility rate 3.1-3.2 of modern Kazakhs, by the 2050 Russian percentage will decrease even more. Despite the pro-Russian position of Kazakh population and government , joining of Kazakhstan to Union has same probability as Hungary joining the Germany after Austria.
Honestly, what we need to explore further would be the response of the Eastern European countries to Russia’s err, recent developments and all that, @panpiotr
Thanks! The Poles, Balts, and Western-minded/nationalistic Ukrainians reacting poorly would be interesting to read, especially with how the point of view of Eastern a Europe to our resurgence would illustrate the backlash to our resurgence in the wider international community.
The rise of R-Pop and R-Idols
The rise of R-Pop and R-Idols
While one might be confused at the rise of R-pop/R-idols and what it actually is one must first understand that R-pop has nothing to do with Russian Pop-Music or Independent Music in general as R-Pop is less of a Music Genre and more of a set of characteristics that Russian Idols agree to emulate and fallow. In fact both R-pop and Russian Pop Music tend to see each other as rivals and competition for the Russian and global entertainment market as a whole and over which betters represents Russia to the globe.
The History of R-Pop and R-Idols.
Unlike most music genres R-Pop did not start in the music scene but rather among the massive rise of the Anime, Comic, and Manga market, the rise of Conventions across Russia as a whole. From 1993 Mos-Con the main convention in Moscow became increasingly popular bringing with it a larger crowd but also an increase in participants with Cosplayers becoming a major attraction to the convention who would attend the talent competition where Cosplayers would sing and dance bringing increasing attention to the Convention but also to themselves as people would begin to buy up more of their own merchandise as their popularity grew. This lead to the catalyst for R-Pop to form as more people would cosplay and entertain as a full time job creating several small underground hits although would remain somewhat limited to the anime, manga, and comics community.
This would change with the appearance of Zhanna Niktina. Originally well known in the pornographic industry due to her blue eyes, blonde hair, long hair, exchanged bust and tallness she would become enamored with the Anime and Manga fandom, but especially with the cosplay scene where she would naturally stand out quickly becoming a favorite around the major cons. However her real stand out was that apart from simply looking beautiful she had a talent for singing and dancing which she would use to dominate the talent competitions in the cons making here a sort of celebrity in the community. While she might have remained as just a major cosplayer and later influencer Zhanna had the opportunity to actually sell and show her talent across Russia as here background had let her gain easy access to recording equipment and distribution by her website and general internet.
By the time Vladi-Con 1995 occurred she had partnered with Karina Semenova, and Zhenya Volkova, women who had fallowed in her footsteps and created the R-Pop group Love Live. Love Live along with dozens of other groups would quickly gain massive amounts of attention from the event and more importantly fully transform into major economic drivers as their merchandise had risen to the millions as hundreds of women saw their success and moved to emulate them leading to the meteoric rise of R-Pop movement. Further advances would be the 1998 documentary The Rise of R-Pop which apart from documenting said rise would bring R-Pop as a movement into the mainstream although most people would ridicule said movement and in general would not be treated seriously by most.
It mattered little as the documentary did its job in further driving the demand for R-Pop across Russia and world which would create a major rivalry between R-Idols and the greater Russian music industry as there was a de-facto ban of R-Pop across Russian television with both Muz-TV and MTV Russia proving especially willing to degrade the name of those R-Idols with constant attempts at drama, leading to the creation of NERB by Zhanna Niktina as a place for different R-Pop groups to come together, gather resources and help with the distribution and selling of merchandise as an alternative form of distribution to other major music distribution companies. All of this would pay off as by 2004 R-Pop had become a multi-million dollar industry with major audiences from Russia, Japan, Europe and the rest of the world.
What defines R-Pop and R-Idols
While we can now say how R-Pop rose the question remains of what R-Pop and R-Idols actually are and why they are not considered as part of the Russian Pop scene. In the most simple of terms R_Pop is a music and performance act, done by women with breast enhancements, wearing revealing clothing, done mostly in groups of up to three or more. Of course this is the most simplistic way to look at what defines a R-Idol and there is more to it than just that.
For starters while having cosmetic surgery is something one has to get it, unlike K-Pop idols, R-Idols mostly avoid the face entirely preferring to leave it intact with the majority of groups actively making it a rule to avoid cosmetic surgery to the face. Originally done by Zhanna Niktina and Love Live, it would for the most part become a hard rule as many fallowed their example. While in terms of appearance R-Idols wore revealing clothing most was made by themselves as most attempts to buy a pre-made costume was seen as lazy and in bad form due in large part over the large overlap between the R-Pop community and the cosplay one.
Finally the biggest difference overall when compared to the greater music and Idol industry is that R-Idols are mostly in charge of their own recording, production, distribution, and selling of their music, music videos and merchandise with little in the way of agencies. Mostly a vestige of its time when R-Pop was mostly part of the Anime, Comic, and overall nerd community, most early R-Idols had little access to real publication and so would mostly publish their own work by the way of the internet and selling of copies of their work in conventions and fan meet ups. This changed little as Russian Television was a no go and most major music publications saw R-Pop as either a threat or not worth bothering. Its here that an alternative would form with NERB being less of an agency and more of Forum where R-Idols could meet, gather resources, and provide each other with the necessary resources to distribute their work.
All of this would also come with the difficulty of doing all of the work which has lead to most R-Idols to have small but dedicated fallowing which is made up with a near 100% of revenue going to the R-Idols and their talents. This has further seen a diversity in music, themes, tones, and genre as R-pop as a whole would not be defined by its music but by the R-Idols and their characteristics.
Why Its Popular
The most commonly cited reason one will enjoy R-Pop are the R-Idols and how sexy most of them are considered as a whole. Even then this is not unique to R-Pop as K-Pop and contemporary Pop and Rap has shown, and so another reason is that R-Idols are considered more approachable when compared to most celebrities and idols. While this might seem contradictory the general rule of avoiding changing the face with plastic surgery would prove a major boon as most people could ignore the revealing clothing and cosmetic surgeries by looking at the face. With many either having a beautiful face or simply a "girl next door" appearance, R-Idols had a rather large demographic range with many being as popular with women as they were with men.
In fact this would give R-Idols an appeal that anyone could become an R-Idol and for the most part they could as one only really needed a breast implant and recording equipment which most people were able to afford even if it took time. With an easy barrier of entry one could become an R-Idol which for the most part saw a large number of R-Idol groups who while having fans in the hundreds had a more intimate relationship as many would foster a parasocial relationship with their audience allowing for more investment, merch sales, and donations. With the lack of any major agency to lord over them and instead being made up of groups most R-Idols were able to take up a large part of the revenue from their merch, donations, and so on.
From there the saturation of R-Pop lead to massive amount of diversification in terms of costume, tone, music, performance and so on as the most R-Idol groups needed to be unique or have gimmick that made them stand out from the wave or R-Idol groups out there.
Finally the other reason is that R-Pop and R-Idols are unique to Russia as a whole in the same way that K-Pop and J-Pop idols are considered part of their nations culture and not just another type of music. Just like them R-Pop has its own rules, fan community with its own culture and is a unique version of pop-culture that would not be replicated until decades later with the advent of virtual idols.
Reaction and Effects of R-Pop Across the World
Across the globe R-Pop and R-Idols would be received differently with places like Japan, Vietnam, Latin America Ukraine, and most of the former Warsaw Pact all being the major demographic outside of Russia to enjoy and consume R-Pop as the dream of becoming an R-Idol made it popular in those regions with many wishing to gain some amount of fame and recognition and leave their less rich homes behind.
Places like Western Europe, America and the Anglo sphere was more critical of R-Pop as many simply saw it at best as cheap imitation of their own Pop music scene or as something only for pervs and weirdos. An underground scene did exist and overall there was more money to be made simply due to the larger spending power of most people, but R-Pop as a whole would not become more famous until later on into the late 2010s with the rise of Anime into the mainstream.
Finally places like China and most of Africa and the Middle East would see R-Pop as not only a perversion but as a poison that was affecting the minds of its population and so would be ban across said nations. Ironically China would still be one of the largest markets for R-Pop as the illegal trade of R-Pop content would quickly reach into the millions even with the ban.
In Russia itself R-Pop would become incredibly popular but there was diffidently a divide as those either of an older demographic or simply into other types of music tended to dismiss it outright and in many cases had a hatebase around it with entire communities existing to hating it. The rise of R-Pop lead in large part to the growth of the Russian cosmetic surgery scene as Russia became one the nations with the largest number and percentage people that had cosmetic surgery with South Korea not being far behind. As a whole R-Pop would become a major factor along with pornography and digital piracy for the rise of the Digital Silk Road, a massive network of content that was sold to places like China, Japan and the rest of Asia as Russia provided said content.
Finally done with the R-Pop write up. North Korea is next.
Could it be…the Entente Cordiale reborn, this time against a Triple Alliance of Britain, America, and Germany?
Reverse Maidan hardly means civil war. It's quite unlikely that Ukraine will fall appart opposed to falling firmly on our side . And generally that pro Western sentiment, national sentiment won't be gone in Western and Central Ukraine. While they'll be pro Russian don't expect them to join Union State.
It also had time to build its own national identity as we spoke in one of previous threads and expect that Russian minority to diminish further as younger generations move back to Russia. Of course Kazakhs will also move to Russia but all things considered they have more births than Russians, especially in Kazakhstan without Russian sozial Services.
Regarding Armenia, as member of CSTO they should be quite pleased with themselves and we achieved some sort of settlement with Azerbaijan. Regarding security they themselves are in CSTO, but otherwise without Georgia they are separated via Land and landlocked. Really they should be fine as our loyal satellite.