The Bear and Eagle Revisited

Day 3,164, 08:57 • Published in USA USA • by Azazel Romanov


I’ve delayed writing about this topic for too long, especially given my experience and involvement with the issue. I have probably been one of the most involved Americans with the Russian relationship, dating back to our mutual involvement with Circle of Trust. I was the Secretary of Media during Cerb’s creation of our special bilateral alliance with the Bear and Eagle Engagement. I served proudly as CoT’s Military Commander with the greatest support from khotko, then Russia’s President, as we became the strongest military coordination team for CoT during its time of greatest need during the CoT-TWO war. I even moved to Russia and changed my name to Romanov to help khotko and grow closer with our Russian friends. I am truly disappointed at the state of our relationship today, and I am especially disappointed in the direction Russia has decided to take in the wake of recent events.

When I was in my first term as President, I was in love with our Russian friends. Even as we were moving towards the foundation of Sirius that would happen later, I was committed to keeping Russia as a close ally due to their support and dedication. Khotko is probably one of my favorite people in this game and he really carried me and the team during our stint in CoT. I had also become acquainted with other Russians like nimnul, though I can’t say we were as close as I was with khotko. Nonetheless, I had no complaints with Russia and knew at the time we would support each other at any cost like we had during the CoT-TWO war.

Fast forward to my last term as President. I’ve never been a war president despite my experience and in fact detest having to manage wars. However, I knew throughout my term that we were at risk of being attacked due to our continued occupation of Indonesia, which admittedly, I was not enthusiastic about. However, countries like Bulgaria, FYROM, and Chile decided to implement a plan of attack to liberate Indonesia, and undoubtedly at the time, to implement revenge upon the United States for our occupation. We were hit from all sides and at great cost fought back against these nations. I sent out several appeals to our allies to see what could be done and ask what support we could expect. Latvia agreed to support us and indeed launched an airstrike to drain Bulgarian resources. Greece openly offered support without invitation to help us maintain our security.

I knew I could count on Russia to contribute in a similar way, and given their proximity to the war, expected such support. At first, I knew they had a close relationship with Bulgaria, but hoped that Bulgaria’s attack on our borders would press them to commit themselves to the United States as they had in the past. Instead, I was told that Russia couldn’t attack Bulgaria and they instead encouraged me to accept peace terms with Bulgaria and others, which meant accepting extended NAPs which would prevent us supporting allies in the event of a direct attack. However, I am an understanding person, and decided to accept Russia’s position with regards to Bulgaria, and told them as such. Instead, I asked if they would launch an airstrike against Indonesia to divert damage and allow us to focus on Bulgaria ourselves. Again, Russian leadership, including nimnul, said no, despite some interest from other Russian political leaders. They pressed me again to accept peace. I’m not one to accept terms beneath our position, and pressed on to allow terms favorable to US security and our allies’ security.

Russia was called to act during our invasion. They did not. Nimnul says he ordered Russia to fight against Bulgaria, and I can admit this is true. However, it is not an accomplishment to order the defense of an ally, it is expected and necessary for alliance. It should not have been a debate. It should not have been a tough decision. Bulgaria was your friend at the time, but we were your brothers. We cemented our support for one another with the Bear and Eagle, in which "both nations agree to defend each other from threats both foreign and domestic." We fought for one another. We joined together to create one of the strongest and longest standing alliances currently in existence in eRepublik.

I will always remember the contributions Russians and Americans have made for one another. I will always be proud of those commitments. But I cannot be proud of this moment. We need to figure out how we are going to work together in the future, or we need to figure out how to split apart. This is not a sustainable relationship, and it needs reform or revocation. It is time for decisions to be made.