[RUS] The eUkrainian Case Study - useful tips for eRussia

Day 670, 07:46 • Published in Russia China • by mihail.cazacu

Hi! I'm the Romanian Ambassador to Ukraine and I would like to share with the Russian readers a few thoughs based on my experience in Ukraine.

When Romania TOed Ukraine last month everybody believed we are going to rob the country blind, replace the president and then have the next president press the “Retreat” button every time we would attack, thus conquering Ukraine down to her last province. True, we could do that. After all Hungary did rob the Ukrainian treasury last time they TOed that country. And then they voted PetiB as president of Ukraine. 🙂

But guess what? There are cleaner ways to play this game!

Not only did we let alone Ukraine’s treasury, but we’ve also left the Congress as soon as the peace between Ukraine and Romania was signed.

Well, we also did two other things: we protected Ukraine with 3 MPPs: one with Romania, one with Croatia and one with Poland. The MPPs with Poland and Romania brought peace of mind to the Ukrainians. They were afraid we might attack Podolia and Poland might attack Volhynia. By signing MPPs with us the game mechanics guaranteed we could not attack Ukraine even if we wanted to.

And then we did something which was less obvious: we also had Ukraine sign and MPP with Croatia. Why was that MPP necessary? Because we knew the greedy Hungarians, driven by revenge and Real Life Issues would try to conquer North Western Croatia (a territory which was once part of Medieval-Hungary). So by having Ukraine linked to Croatia through an MPP we ensured Hungary would automatically declare war on Ukraine.

Hungary’s strategic thinking is still anchored in the 19th century colonial mentality. They think they can be a great power only by occupying other people’s rich provinces. Of course, they do it with the “best intentions”. Like in the case of Ukraine, where they held Dnipro (Kiev) and Siveria, for "Ukraine’s protection".

For 3 months the Ukrainians had begged Hungary to return those provinces back to them and for 3 months the Hungarians had refused to do it. There was no way Ukraine could recover them through RWs as the country was poor (her treasury had been robbed by the last Hungarian TO) and had a small population. But we wanted to prove to the Ukrainians and to the whole world brains beat brute force any day.

This is why we had the Ukrainians sign the MPP with Croatia: the Hungarian attack on that country automatically placed Hungary at war with Ukraine. We had sent over 500 elite soldiers to Ukraine on the occasion of the TO. Now Ukraine had a strong army (even though partly Romanian elite troops) and an opened war with Hungary. Which meant either Hungary returned Dnipro and Siveria willingly, or Ukraine would have the possibility to launch direct attack on those provinces.

Suddenly the Ukrainian negotiating position became very strong: a direct attack on Dnipro or Siveria would block Hungary and divert resources from her other fronts. In order to avoid that, Hungary agreed to withdraw from Dnipro and Siveria. Ukraine didn't need to fire a single shot. Hungary paid for the RW. And unless Hungary evacuates Siveria as well, the risk to be blocked by an Ukrainian attack remains extremely high.

That was the big stick Ukraine showed to Hungary and it worked. Now why is all this relevant to Russia?

It’s very relevant because it shows even small countries can achieve notable results by playing their cards right.

Russia is a world power in eRepublik just like in Real Life. Hungary still holds a rich Russian region, North-Caucasus. And Hungary racketeered Russia for the Urals.

Yes, racketeering is the right word. Why did you have to pay for the Hungarian companies in the Ural province?! Russia and Hungary were allies which means those companies could have continued to do business in Russia AND export goods to Hungary even if owned by the Hungarians. So why did you have to pay all that gold then?!

Indonesia holds another rich Russian province: Western Siberia. How much are you going to pay for Northern Caucasus and Western Siberia? And what for exactly?!

You are now in serious trouble in North America. You’ve spent your own money to do Hungary and Indonesia’s dirty work. OK, to some extend you had the moral obligation to do that in exchange for their help in liberating Russia. But right now look at how the whole North American adventure is going to en😛

1. Russia will have all the American MPPs activated against her while Hungary will be clean!

2. Even better, Hungary will have Russia as a protective fence between the angry Americans and Hungary’s colony of Heilonjiang.

3. Oh, and while you were ruining your finances in North America the Hungarians and the Indonesians were milking Northern Caucasus and Western Siberia. Of course, all that for Russia’s “own good”.

So why can’t Russia play her cards like Ukraine did?

You’ve paid your debts already. You’re now able to stand on your feet without anybody holding your hand. You can still negotiate an end to the war with the USA, closing the MPPs against you. Even better, offer the Americans their regions back in exchange for MPPs with say USA and Romania. That would strengthen your negotiation position with Hungary and Indonesia. Either they return North Caucasus and Western Siberia for free or you take them by force.

And if they dare to attack you, I think everybody easily imagines what it would mean for them to fight alone against Russia, USA and Romania. They could not conquer Croatia. How would they conquer Russia?

Facts speak louder than words: we’ve shown we always keep our word. We supported Ukraine recover her original provinces. Right now you have an excellent opportunity to extract yourselves in a clean way out of the North American mess AND recover your rich provinces for free. And we are willing to support you in exchange of normalized relations.

You have a competent Romanian ambassador in Russia who has already expressed the willingness of the Romanian government to better the relations with Russia. Work with him on the details.

You hold now a better set of cards than Ukraine. Play those cards right!