When Lieutenant General Grigory Sobolev seized power and brought an end to the war, the plan had effectively started, and she’d flown to Moscow to meet with General Sobolev and Alexei Kasyanov to set up the Russian Provisional Authority or RPA that would administer the government of Russia in coordination with General Sobolev while a new constitution was written and then voted on by the people. New political parties had had to be created, and a new Justice Department was developed that would enforce the laws as they were written.
The first governmental meeting had taken place two months ago. A lot had happened since she’d set up shop. In some areas of Russia, it had taken nearly a full week for combat operations between the warring factions to subside. Once that had been achieved, the Allied armies had quickly moved in and occupied the major cities across the country. Unlike what had happened in Iraq, the military and local police were not disbanded or dismantled. The RPA kept them intact and planned on using them to help stabilize the country; in fact, they’d placed them on the Allied payroll to make sure they were paid and continued to work. Allied Forces would work more as advisors and mentors with the Russian military as the country began the process of rebuilding and healing the wounds of war.
When Russia had surrendered, a total of two and a half million Allied soldiers had moved into the country. Once the occupation was fully up and running, nearly half of those soldiers would continue to stay on in Russia as part of the occupying force. The rest of the soldiers, along with their equipment and planes, were being transferred to fight in Asia against the Chinese and, if the Indians refused to surrender, then against them as well.
So far, her meetings with Russian leadership had gone very well, but Ambassador Hicks knew that the situation was still tenuous at best. Every encounter was a walk into the lion’s den, and she had to be prepared for every possible scenario. She put on her headphones and listened to some Bach as she studied every imaginable angle.
Sitting across a conference table with General Sobolev, Ambassador Hicks began, “General, before we turn to the civilian sector of this meeting, I need to ask for your help and assistance in the Russian Far East.”
He shot a glance to General Zolotov before he spoke. “What can we do for you, Ambassador?” he asked.
Hicks looked at General Cotton, the Allied Commander in Europe, and the man who was overseeing the military occupation of Russia. Cotton then turned to speak directly his counterpart, General Zolotov, who had taken over as the Minister of Defense.
“I’m having some problems with General Chayko complying with some of our requests,” explained General Cotton. “I was hoping you might be able to intercede on our behalf and help get things moving.”
The new head of the Russian Army had been causing some waves. While General Mikhail Chayko had taken over command of the Russian armed forces after the coup, he was not at all happy about or accepting of his country’s defeat. He still felt that he could have won the war, or at least ground it to a stalemate, if he had been allowed to use tactical nuclear weapons. Now that he was in charge of the military, he’d been doing his best to slow walk and throw up as many obstacles as possible to the successful implementation of the occupation.
General Zolotov nodded. “I understand. I have people keeping tabs on him as well, and I’m aware that he has not been as cooperative as he should be. I’ll speak with him at once and remind him that if he’s not going to comply with the terms of the surrender, then he will be replaced.”
Sobolev interrupted angrily. “If he won’t comply with my orders, I’ll have him lined against a wall and shot tonight!” he shouted as he pounded the table. “I won’t have my presidency or the terms of this transition period undermined by members of the military or political elements. I’m determined to get Russia back on the right track and return us to a thriving economic member of the world.”
“I don’t know that we need to go to that extreme just yet, Mr. President,” Hicks said cautiously. “Everyone is still going through a period of transition right now, figuring out their roles and what’s going to happen. It’s going to take some time to heal the wounds of war and move past the conflict.”
Sobolev was still fuming a bit, but he reached over and grabbed his cup of tea. After a sip and a deep breath, he turned his attention back to General Cotton. “What specifically do you need help with, General?” he asked.
“I need some of your engineers to help us with the fuel farm situation outside of Irkutsk and Chita. Our engineers are linking your rail lines to connect with our deployed forces in Mongolia and northern China, but there some aspects of your railroads and fuel storage facilities that we are not familiar with.” General Cotton handed over a couple of documents that were written in Russian, explaining the technical specifics of what they needed.
Sobolev perused the paper briefly, but seeing that it was more technical than he could understand, he passed it over to Zolotov to have taken care of. “We’ll see to it that this is corrected,” he asserted.
“If we can, I’d like to talk about domestic issues,” Sobolev said, changing topics. “We have a lot of ground to cover, and that’s a far more pressing area if we’re to make the occupation successful.”
Ambassador Hicks nodded. Getting Russia back on its feet and able to feed its people again was critical, as was repairing their electrical grid, roads, railway and other critical aspects of the country’s infrastructure. The Allies had done a real number on these areas as they’d readied themselves for the final assault on Moscow. She was glad it hadn’t come to that. St. Petersburg was a mess from the siege, and she couldn’t imagine how bad Moscow would have been.
“Excellent,” Ambassador Hicks began. “We have some ideas on how to get your electrical grid fully operational by summer.”
The group talked for many more hours as plans were drawn up, and timelines set for activities to begin. It seemed that Hicks’s classical music ritual for her preparation toward this meeting had helped.
Prime Minister Rosie Hoyle rubbed her temples in frustration as she listened to an argument between the Secretary of State for Defence and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The war with Russia was barely over, and already they were clamoring for their forces to be returned home. “Will these fools never learn?” she thought.
The two of them were blathering on about the costs of the war and the size of the military. The American occupation plan for Russia called on the Allied nations to commit troops to Russia for up to ten years, and now the Americans had shifted the entire Alliance’s focus to dealing with China and India.
Once these two had finally paused long enough to take a breath, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Damian Hunt, added to the chaos. “We need to convince India that they have to withdraw from the war,” he insisted. “They can’t continue to support China and be a part of this Eastern Alliance any longer.”
Liam Clark, the Secretary for International Trade, replied, “We’re already facing a lot of backlash from the Indian community here in the UK over this issue. If we have to participate in any sort of military action in India, it’s certainly going to inflame people’s sentiments at home.”
PM Hoyle pushed her chair back and stood, causing the others at the table to stop bickering and look at her. “Enough. The people of Britain have been lied to and deceived enough,” she insisted. “We’ve suffered horrific civilian and military losses thanks to Michael Chattem and been humiliated on the global stage. We as a nation are going to regain our self-respect and trust within this Alliance, and we will do our part. Britain will commit to the Russia occupation for as long as needed. If the Americans and the rest of the Alliance deem an attack on India necessary, then our military will be a part of it.”