NationStates Jolt Archive

Samarqand, Central Depkazia

Lying in the valley left by the river Zarafshan, this vast and ancient city had seen Alexander, Temüjin, Tamerlane, and others. And now it had Edmund.

Lots of stories existed to explain the rise of this great man, young man, unidentifiable Asiatic man. Some said that he'd won a multinational lottery jackpot on a roll-over week and bought, bribed, and extorted his way to power. Some said he was the son of a high-ranking Soviet officer who got his hands on a nuclear weapon during the break-up of the USSR and either sold it or used it as a tool to gain power directly. Others said the Russians had hired him to do as he would with Middle Asia so long as he kept it, and all the trouble to the south, from bothering Moscow while it tried to hold together something of a state.

Whatever the truth, people now found it hard to imagine life without Premier Chokareff, whose ridiculous personality cult was exemplified by a platform in the middle of Sarygamysh Koli -a vast lake- that supported a life-size solid gold likeness of the President riding atop a hippopotamus armoured in silver, and which rose and fell with the massive fluctuations of the tempermental lake's waterlevel... even though nobody could see it from the shore.

Edmund Wolfgang Chokareff, who recently had declared himself a gate emissary between heaven and earth, was, "making-do" with the iconic Madrassah surrounding Registan Square, having kicked out students and scholars so that the fine buildings could serve as temporary palace until a new one was constructed for him in Samarqand, which he had only this week declared as his new capital. He had with him a nameless member of staff, actually a high-ranking government official whom the Premier had forced to give-up his name, possibly because he had trouble telling people apart, spending as he did much more time looking at his own image than at other people. The official was being dragged about, trailing the President across half the country at the expense of his usual governmental duties, giving his opinion on sandwiches and being not infrequently obliged to dodge slippers thrown in his direction. He was now taking down instructions, at last, on a matter of national policy.

It didn't seem to matter that he was deputy minister for cotton production.

"...and uncut the phonelines."

"I'm not sure that'll, exactly, work, sir... the Russians, and the others, probably don't use lines we blew-up fifteen years ago..."

"Are they stupid?" Asked Chokareff in a haughty tone, twirling above his head the tassel he'd sliced from a hundred and fifty year old rug in the course of his earlier dictation on how much mercury it was safe to put in the people's drinking water.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter, we're not going to do that, that's a foolish idea, no-name, fire your assistant. We're going to tell Moscow and Beijing... Beijing, do the Chinese have satellites? Why don't you know? Have you been in a cave for twenty years? We'll write it in the desert, then they'll see. Of course they are watching, this is Depkazia, not some stink backwater! They want our gold! Our uranium! They want our gas, we have more than Europe beyond the Russias, you know! Here's what to do, no-name!.."

Qizilqum Desert, Northern Depkazia

Not far from Muruntau, the world's largest open-pit goldmine and site of, according to some geologists, earth's largest gold deposit, trucks and people were coming together on an amazing scale. They weren't coming to take gold away. They were, in fact, bringing rocks in. Rocks from the east, and the vast mountains that rose towards the borders with China and North Pakistan.

Over the next days an epic project took shape. In the desert, made from thousands of tonnes of rock, Russian words in huge letters appeared, big enough to be observed from space even if the modern world hadn't possessed satellites able to read the curseword currently shaved into Chokareff's usually covered hair.

"Come to Samarkand."

It had begun as what the officials in Taegu's National Reconnaissance Office initially thought was a giant prank. Giant Cyrillic letters carved into the Central Asian landscape loomed up on the screens that monitored information sent down by the retooled Intelsat over the Pacific Ocean. A hurried translation of the words by the Russian linguistics officer revealed the true meaning of the cryptic phrase carved into the steppe.

"Come to Samarqand."

The Presidential Palace, Taegu

"Is this supposed to be a joke, Henry?" laughed President Choi, staring at the glossy 8"10 photo that had come from the NRO in his daily briefing dossier. "Come on now, I've got more pressing matters to deal with this morning."

Henry Han, the president's Quinntonian-born foreign advisor, shook his head, a serious look on his face. "It's real," he said. "I contacted the Quinntonian consul earlier today and he says the recon offices in the States picked up the exact same thing. They believe it's genuine too."

The broad smile was still on the president's lips as he picked up the report on Depkazia that had been included in the dossier, sandwiched between his daily briefing on activity along the Dra-poel border and a paper asking for Presidential endorsement to bring a baby panda to the National Zoo from Xiaguo. "Located in Central Asia, capital is Samarqand, president is Edmund W. Chokareff...massive gold deposits?"

Han nodded once. "Some say the biggest in the world. We haven't been able to ascertain for ourselves since we have no presence in the country. Hyunhan and the other chaebols are breathing down the necks of the Finance Ministry to officially allow Geronian business in Depkazia."

"The Christian faction is not going to like this," murmered Choi with a concerned look on his face. "They're not going to see an economic opportunity here; all they're going to see is the fact that the country's run by a man with a personality cult centering around a hippopotamus," he said with a pause, looking at the paper more intently. "And a SILVER hippopotamus at that."

"It doesn't matter," spoke Henry in a matter-of-fact voice. "What matters sir, is that you've got to play up to the chaebols. You made a promise to open up to industry in the last election. Failing to do so now would be a political mistake. Your administration would stumble."

"You forget sometimes Henry that there are 19.8 million Christians in this country and a lot of them aren't going to like the fact we're doing business in a country that for the better part, resembles what's across our Northern border," groaned Choi. "You've got to look at the whole picture."

"We're not a theocracy yet, Mr. President," said Henry. "But we've got to do something about this."

The president of Geronia paused for a second and then grabbed a piece of the stationery on his desk and began writing. "I'm authorizing members of the Hyunhan chaebol to directly contact the government of Depkazia to arrange for economic ties between our two countries. But for now Henry, I'll hold off on establishing full diplomatic relations until we figure out where everything stands. And we've still got the representatives from The Estenlands coming on the 28th."

"Right away sir."

When foreign diplomats came to Depkazia, they would be arriving in a land isolated out of strange habit almost as much as by deliberate conspiracy. The people tend to be friendly, though often preoccupied by their constant battles to stay on the right side of Chokareff's unordthodox legal system. The weather varied with altitude, but for the most part was characterised by long, warm summers and relatively mild winters, though these were not felt seven and a half kilometres up at the top of Mount Kaznakaryo so much as in the valleys below or in the deserts to the west.

They came to a land defended by the authority called National Depkazi Federal Defence Association Co-ordinate, which administered the violent instincts of nine hundred and twenty-seven thousand regular and part-time soldiers, sailors, and airmen, organised still into lumbering Soviet-style formations. Relics of the Cold War lurched and rumbled around this land like the last hold-outs of a dying race, neanderthal man hiding-out in land too poor to interest cro-magnon. Turbojets still whine in the air of this place in spite of isolation, maintained by facilities at Tashkent built by the Russians a generation ago, and feeding on Depkazi fossil fuels, the true extent of which remained undiscovered.

Depkazia's isolation came from deep subservience in the nineteenth century, when the place looked like little more than a wall of rock and sand to mark the end of Russia before its empire gave way to Britain's in the south. Local concerns were then of no significance to the Empire. Then, Depkazia's population had been almost entirely unimpressed by the Russian revolution, and spent several years fighting Bolshevik forces without anyone in the rest of the world noticing until, finally, it was made a Soviet Socialist Republic within the Union, but a poor one, its starring role merely as a corridor into the Afghanistan War. Since the fall of the USSR, Depkazia had embraced independence from Moscow, moving away from the former Soviet sphere, but had failed to go anywhere else.

That was, at least, until today.

44,112,964 people, according to information gathered in the last census (which went unpublished because the Premier declared that it must be made up, as the odds of the number four appearing so many times was simply too suspicious), live today in Depkazia. Between them are maintained a significant number of varied industries. Chokareff had now decided that their efforts should be redoubled and exports begun.

The President was keen to deal with the Chinese in order to export natural gas especially, and also electricity, petroleum products, and cement, in hopes that Depkazia could fuel development of China's western regions, and open something of a modern manifestation of the silk road. He hoped to also sell power to other neighbours, perhaps in Pakistan and elsewhere. However, for any of this to be possible, much work and investment was required.

Chokareff's government outlined several points for the attention of foreign governments and companies.

1) Depkazia's significant hydropower potential requires further development, and experienced, modern contractors are required to help in completion of two on-going dam projects in the mountainous east, begun by Chokareff and falling foul of financial restrictions and massive technical challenges, as one will be, when completed, the world's tallest dam.

2) The government also is offering contracts, worth tens of millions of dollars, for the modernisation of Soviet-era refineries processing gas and petroleum.

3) Exploration of oil and gas fields may require foreign experience if it is to advance at a significant rate, and Depkazia may be prepared to pay for exploration and to purchase modern extraction equipments, though the government intends to maintain control of resulting finds and exploitation.

4) It is vital that Depkazia attain revenues in the short term with its existing means, which means finding markets, especially for- a) Cotton, b) Gold, c) Uranium, d) Mercury, e) Textiles, including traditional rugs and upholstery, f) aluminium, g) chemicals and fertilizers.

5) The issue of security for oil and gas exports is an important one, as landlocked Depkazia has a growing need to get gas exports especially to oceanic ports, and is interested in investigating possibilities through Pakistan and Afghanistan, though the challenges in any direction appear formidable.

[tag] Will post later, considering we have the largest and wealthiest oil company in the world (by far), this thread has aroused interest!

OOC: I'll TG Estenlands about this. Another golden opportunity for the Russian empire...Let me guess, Edmund gives each important visitor a massive portrait of himself charging gloriously into battle, riding upon his majestic Hippo? :p

OOC-Who and what are you? Where is the claim?

IC-Tsar Wingert saw the sattelite photos and was debriefed about the pertinent information. "We must make a public showing here, contact the NATO embassies and explain to them that Moscow would very much appreciate some sensitivity in this matter. Also, inform Versialles that there is an excellent opprotunity for investment that may be coming up.

Tsar Wingert the Great.

The Quinntonian government tells Geronia that they would very much like to see relations opened up with this new nation as it represents an untapped Mission Field, and Quinntonia feels that it is important that we get there soon, in order to capitalise on the entire sitaution. WE will be more careful this time than we were with opening relations with Dra-pol, and, it does look like we are invited.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: That's not a bad idea, Mr.Cheese. Only now I'll have to think of a better one. Curses!

Claim? Here, I suppose: claim? (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=376859&page=99).

What? Erm. Hard to say. Chokareff's just shut down his People's Popular Atheist Labour Republic and declared himself Allah's latest emissary, of a sort, by an ability to translate the divinely motivated movements of his stolen hippopotamus (if any zoos in AMW are missing a young female hippo...), as well as the wear patterns exhibited on its teeth.

If the religious composition of the nation is of as much interest as it seems to be, let me say that, since independence from the USSR, Sunni Muslims and atheists have been most numerous (more than eleven million of each, vague because I've not really decided the balances), followed by Shi'a Muslims and Eastern Orthodox (each two to four million or so) and just a few thousands of others. However, after more than a decade of the Atheist Labour Republic and more than half a century of the Depkazi Soviet Socialist Republic before that, people tend to see their religious categorisation as regional cultural quirks that they maintain much as they're proud of their regional accents, for example, and nobody's very 'hard-core'.

I've assumed that Kazakhstan and the sub-continent have recently been bleeding a trickle of refugees through the area carrying different ideas, and it remains to be seen just how serious Chokareff is about his conversion to Islam and his weird mangling of that faith.

Roycelandian Satellites picked up the message in the desert.

"Samarkand? I wonder if they have Silk for sale there..." wondered His Majesty.

"Wiggles, why don't you go to Samarkand and see what they want?"

"Alright" said Wiggles, mentally trying to work out where the hell Samarkand was, before finally placing it.

"And bring me back something exotic!" shouted His Majesty as Wiggles exited to pack...

While the Southern and Eastern regions had experienced decades of booming economic growth and living standards were now equivalent to those of Americans, the western regions had lagged substantially.

Naturally, Emperor Zhang had expressed interest in the natural resources of Samargand and has extended an invitation to Samargand to send ambassadors to China.

China Petroleum is quick to express interest in the development of oilfields.

ImPetroCo, best described as a cross between the East India Company and Shell/BP, have expressed rather a lot of interest in developing Depkazia's Oil Fields, and have flown in their own people to Samarkand (in an Imperial Airways DC-3, no less) in an effort to convince Chokareff that Roycelandian investment is the way forward.

His Majesty, meanwhile, privately mentioned to Commander Blackadder that if the usual incentives didn't work, he could always send Patty The Daytime Hooker to "entertain" certain high-level functionaries in the emerging Nation.

Commander Blackadder, meanwhile, is getting in touch with Samarkand to see if they might be interested in any of Imperial Armaments or Colonial Small Arms' fine wares...

The multi-media, cable, railroad, airport, movie maker, and now oil driller company Stille Inc. expresses it's deepest desire to invest in these new markets in any way possible.

PS: Almost forgot, the Austrian goverment sends it's greeting ect ect ect....

Roycelandian, like any other aircraft flying into the country, are intercepted by MiG-19s in the ridiculous colours of the Depkazi Aeronautical Battle Force and escorted, often in unsettling fashion with the fighters constantly over taking and dropping back, flying dangerously close, moving above and below, and, in the case of especially slow machines such as the DC-3, circling around and around.

Contacting the Depkazis at this time without actually going to Depkazia is not the simplest of tasks, since phonelines were cut around independence and will need to be replaced. Ultimately, though, Samarqand does intend to send diplomats to China.

The Roycelandians will most likely find Chokareff's armies seeking replacement for their general purpose machineguns, which presently are a mix of early PKs and archaic Russian Maxims, though in most areas the nation has continued to arm itself.

Depkazia's oil fields currently represent tens of millions of barrels in those being exploited, hundreds of millions proven, and a few billion suspected. Its natural gas fields surpass those of all Europe outside Russia, Nigeria, China, probably Algeria, and possibly Quinntonia, being surpassed really only by those in the UAE, United Elias, and Russia.

Samarqand remains strangely defensive over these resources, being keen to avoid having major powers dominating them, and will be attempting to run pipes along more than one route.

Presently the nation is one of the world's biggest cotton producers, which really only means that Depkazis have an absurd quantity of cotton per person as the Premier disallows a substantial reduction in the industry that he sees as traditional.

(OOC: Cut short, have to get going.)

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is immediately keen to open talks with the new Chokareff government. A glistening white Tu-154 sporting the eagle of United Elias on its tail, touches down to deliver a new Ambassador to Depkazia, who immediately seeks an audience with the President. Initial dialogue will mostly focus on broad issues, identifying that as a capitalist, mostly muslim but also secular country, UE and Depkazia and much in common.

Soon, a delegation from the Elias Petroleum Corporation also finds it way to the capital, offering an agreement in response to the government's request. As the world leader production and refinement of hydrocarbons, EPC had access to the best technology, the most experienced personnel and expertise in operating across the world. The deal is as follows: EPC will take a 25% stake in Depkazia's oil industry. In return they would design and co-ordinate the development of pipelines, the modernisation of refineries and also prospect for additional reserves. Where possible it is pointed out that Depkazian personnel and companies would be contracted to actually do the work to increase the impact on the local economy. Furthermore, EPC in conjunction with the large Elias Merchant Bank, Zilkha and Zilkha, would provide the Depkazian oil industry with 50% of the funding for these developments at a low rate of interest.

Apart from the petrochemical aspects of this agreement, the Foreign Affairs ministry also says that if agreed, Depkazia would also become eligible for Foreign Military Assistance packages, in the form of discounted defence systems either from Elias corporations or from Elias military surpluses. Possibilities would also exist for Elias military personnel to be sent to advise on the training and organisation of Depkazia's defence forces.

Contacting the Depkazis at this time without actually going to Depkazia is not the simplest of tasks, since phonelines were cut around independence and will need to be replaced. Ultimately, though, Samarqand does intend to send diplomats to China.

Stille Inc., recently bought out Eichelberger Corp. and know has an experienced team of cable layers and TV providers. With just a little bit of upfront cost Austria will happily accept the full load of taking the phone lines, TV Media (cable and Satillite), and even electric lines for only 500,000,000 and any other revenue made. Thus, your citizens wil be happy and you will of course have some royalties* and other knick-knacks.


* Fancy word which means a stream of bribes payed forever on so the person doesn't sue (declare war, murder, ect ect....)

CNPC (China National Petroleum Corp) has also made an offer to Depkazia to develop her petroleum resources. Being a fraction of the size of EPC but with the backing of the Chinese government, more generous terms are given.

With the world's second (and possibly 1st, depending on what measurements are used) largest economy in the world, the Minister of Finance also dangles the prospect of a Chinese free-trade agreement and listing of the joint operation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, resulting in billions of dolllars of interest-free investor capital.

She also points out that China are in the process of disposing of thousands of older but capable tanks and fighters, and Depkazia would also qualify for cheap chinese arms.

When the Indian National Union comes up as the only nation condemning Chokareff outright, Mumbai is unusually surprised. No small amount of nations recieve curses from the Indians; Morocco for oppressing the Saharawis, United Elias for helping them do it, France for oppressing everybody...the list goes on. But in Depakzia, Mumbai expected to find a head of state that everyone held to be crazy. Who on earth, Parliamentarians say, does such crazy things? Think of the money! The accounting! The debt! Anyone who bothers to invest in such a silly place, they say, is in for a thorough draining of the pockets, among other disagreeable experiences.

But as is the case with many nations that Mumbai finds revolting, Indians also find themselves inclined to render at least a little aid, "to keep the place from going to the dogs." Fortunately, it appears that other rather agreeable places, like Roycelandia and China, have decided to do the dirty work, but if ever Chokareff's state finds itself starving it can count on Mumbai to help out.


One Indian head of state who sees an opportunity in Depakzia is the President of North Pakistan, Mustafa Shareef. Although Shareef isn't quite as eccentric as Sultan Walid Al-Haji of Rajasthan, who would hardly stop at hippos and artificial lakes if he wasn't spending the entire government budget on feeding his massive opium addiction, he does have a liking for self-embellishment. A gold statue of Shareef, clutching an assault rifle and pointing ambiguously "out," features prominently in Peshawar's main traffic concourse, and while it doesn't rotate to face the sun it does glisten.

Therefore, it isn't long before one of Shareef's elderly Il-14s comes rambling across the border with one of the president's sleezy advisors on board.

Imperial Armaments and Colonial Small Arms are overjoyed to see the potential Arms Market in Depkazia.

Indeed, they are already suggesting the Vickers Machine Gun, the Lewis Gun, and the Bren Gun as replacements for the ancient DP and Maxim Guns. In fact, if Depkazia decides to adopt the Vickers, Lewis, or Bren guns, Roycelandia will supply them with free .303 ammunition for the guns in perpetuity.

To sweeten the deal, cases of Self-Loading Lee-Enfield rifles are also being offered at bargain rates, touted as being ideal for Border and Customs units, Desert Troops, and anyone else who wants long range, solid design, and a powerful cartridge...

ImPetroCo, meanwhile, are offering to build facilities help the Depkazis work with their Natural Resources, in exchange for obtaining Oil at Cost Price...

While the Strathodnian govenrment doesn't have any official standing in regard to Depakzia, in much the same way as they don't have any offical standing on msot palces outside of india, europe and Subsaharan africa it isn't to say that soem kind there isn't any interest. Of course When Mumbai decides to take a dim view of a situation then Lilongwe tends to follow, but in this case they really see what all the trouble is, after all as far as your average Strathdonian is concerned there isn't much difference between Chokareff and the likes of Louis (who must Strathdonians tend to reffer to as Lewis, just to annoy any more cultured visitors), Wingert or even Igomo, he is merely an recent addition to the long line of mad idiots who seem to be coming into power recently (although it should be noted that Emperor Royce is not any such list, yes soem Strathdonians may find him a bit odd, but in the same way msot people find Monty pythona bit odd, amusing and down right admirable for the amount of effort involved in the oddness).

Leaving all that aside The Strathdonian Warden service have recently been a little concerned over the appearance in the officail record of national hippos of a discrepency, it appears despite all the best tracking, monitoring, huting quotas and anti poaching work there does appear to be at least one Hippo missing...

Regarding Roycelandia...
Post-Soviet Depkazia, having facilities tuned to produce Russian small arms munitions, is keen to make continued use of these, and of its existing ammunition stocks. It is with this in mind that The Immortal Regiments of The Depkazi People's Will, A.K.A. the Depkazi army, requests a customised Vickers to serve as its general purpose machinegun using the 7.62x54mm Russian round.

However, as the nation already produces its own AK-47 and AKM assault rifles and RPK heavy-barrel rifles, limiting interest in some other Roycelandian arms, but Samarqand was prepared to investigate the viability of a semi-automatic Lee-Enfield type weapon in 7.62x54mm calibre as an alternative/compliment to a pretty battered stock of Dragunov rifles. In the interim, a small quantity of the purportedly bargain-priced .303" SL-LEs are ordered for evaluation in various desert and mountain exercises due to take place in coming months. If they perform well (or for other random reason appeal to the Premier's tastes), and Roycelandian firms attest that viable 7.62x54mm conversion can take place, there is every chance for future orders to extend the range of Kalashnikov-reliant infantry squads.

There was also some reported lack of satisfaction, amongst troops, with the locally-developed PPSh-98 submachine-gun, which was chambered for the 9x18mm cartridge as used in the Makarov pistol, standard for most Depkazi armed services.

Though a vague interest in submachine-guns, a small-scale trial of self loading rifles, and an approach for rechambered Vickers machineguns may not appear to represent history's biggest arms deal, it is worth noting that Chokareff's government is essentially propped-up by the military, which is loyal to him so long as he is generous to it, and as such it is a large organisation with need for many thousands of such machineguns.

At the same time, the military has expressed to China its interest in the Norinco Type 62 light tank and the Type 63 light amphibious tank for its mountain and marine units, not being aware of any more recent developments and probably being more interested in value for money than anything else, anyway.

Addressing Austria...
There is some confusionover the Stille Inc approach, which promises to shoulder much work in telecommunications updates in behind the times Depkazia, but quotes a possibly misunderstood or mistranslated figure that would be far beyond Samarqand's means. "500,000 million" is being read as, well, five hundred thousand millions of dollars, or half a trillion, by most reckonings. Unfortunately, that represents something close to the value of Depkazi gross domestic product since the turn of the millenium, and a good deal more than the current budget, even given expected increases in economic activity since the dissolution of the Atheist Labour Republic.

Chokareff remains interested in Austrian telecommunications, and would like to see his various palaces outfitted with satellite television systems. He is also keen to have a new telephone network established for government use across the nation, and is also interested in establishing a Depkazi "intranet", as the nation currently has no internet users, and the President is not keen to plug his people directly into that, "potentially confusing and damaging resource, which would offer little Depkazi-language material in any case".

Meanwhile...
Samarqand has begun to stage fanciful parades and shows based on its natural resources, primarily gas and oil, and to make a big fuss over the fact that major companies from multiple nations are lining up to compete for a piece. Little actual progress is made on negotiations, let alone deals, as Chokareff presents himself internally as a man the whole world wants to please. Parades that mix the distinctly Soviet legacy of Depkazia with traditional nomad culture now contain pieces dedicated to global interest in the nation, with marchers dressed-up as absurd caricatures of Chinamen, Arabs, and Roycelandians come to pay tribute to the Depkazi homelands and Premier Edmund Wolfgang Chokareff.
Certainly all of the energy companies investigating Depkazia's potential will be left in no doubt as to whether they face potential rival bids.

Pertaining to Pakistan...
North Pakistan is presently balanced atop a fence dividing the lands of Depkazia's honoured friends and hated enemies. The problem lies in the North. Chokareff, with high hopes especially Caspian oil, requires secure access to sea ports. It could also use allies to back it in some of Chokareff's more dangerous ambitions.

Samarqand is seriously unhappy about Indian condemnation, and it will not be long before Shareef's diplomats begin to learn the extent of Chokareff's confidence and potential confrontationalism. First thing being first, the Depkazis are keen to find out simply who and what is where in Pakistan and there about. If North Pakistan appears potentially useful to Chokareff, either in getting him access to the ocean or in standing by him in pursuit of likely dangerous aims, it may, given the Premier's... flair for the dramatic, benefit out of proportion and reason with little regard for Depkazia's realistic means.

Popular opinion in the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth is not far removed from that expressed by the Indian National Union over Samarkand, though one would be hard pressed to find a Beddgelen describing China or Roycelandia as in any significant way agreeable.

The Civil Service stops short of any serious open condemnation of Chokareff at this time, because post-'soviet' backwaters are hardly breaking news and, more to the point, because some in the Commonwealth have the distinct impression that an Igovian criticism would be probably given pride of place on the loon's CV when seeking deals with reactionary states and institutions.

Quinntonian diplomats were scouring the nation and looking to get in on the many infrastructure deals all the while funding hordes of Orthodox and otherwise missionaires to sneak across the borders.

WWJD
Amen.

Kitri (probably the worlds smallest economy) sends greetings to Samarkand and as a gift sends you 12.000.000 lightly fried egg's and one fifty ft gold slug. And offers you free pizza delivery for life.

His exelency President Bob

The Japanese government desperately searches for an ambassador to send to Samarqand, and finally comes up with Tatsuhara Emishi. Tatsuhara is a remarkably fierce royalist; thankfully he also possesses a silver tongue which easily equals that of Foreign Minister Shimizu Yuki.

Tatsuhara is soon dispatched to Samarqand with orders to flatter Chokareff as much as possible to ensure a Japanese embassy is permitted.

Imperial Armaments have assured Depkazia that they can manufacture Vickers MGs in 7.62x54R, along with the SLLE. (OOC: It's a conversion that's been done a lot in RL, especially in places like Afghanistan with lots of British gear and Russian ammo lying about).

As for SMGs, the Roycelandian armed forces use the 9mm Suomi (with 72rnd drum mag) and the .45 Thompson M1928A1 (with 50rnd drum mag).

It would be no problem at all to rechamber the Suomi for 9x18 Makarov, and the Thompson could be conceivably rechambered, too...

If Chokareff is looking for ocean access through North Pakistan, a quick look at the map will thwart his ambitions. Shareef's state is blocked from the sea by an Indian National Union that counts among its provinces Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan, among others. Cross-border relations can hardly be described as friendly. To the west, there is Afghanistan, which leads to nowhere worth going, and to the east there is Shareef's arch-enemy Kashmir and its Prince, Parak Singh. Sea access is simply not part of the equation.

But allies? North Pakistan can provide in that regard, says Shareef's discomforting representative. Even though Baghdad is, by far, Peshawar's best friend and Shareef asks for Elian approval on even rather trivial descisions, if the Elians are as interested in Depakzia as he is there shouldn't be any reason why a friendly relationship with North Pakistan can't exist.

Although, to say that Shareef has an ego to match Chokareff's is quite accurate, and to say that Shareef's government acts with a great deal of tactfulness and wisdom would be giving it far too much credit.

As a representative of the African Commonwealth's governmental party(The List for Unity), over-worked minister of foreign affairs Booker Mbeki flies to Depkazia. Having served in some capacity under the Commonwealths former leader, quirky dictator Nwabudike James, he was considered ideal for the job.

He went as part of Commonwealth policy to increase relations with central-asian/former russian nations - Relations with Russia itself and the Middle East are going to hell as of late, much to the lament of the Secular Party who used to have good relations with the autocratic regimes there.

With him came the offer of access the African Commonwealh markets. Foodstuffs, health care supplies, engine parts and a variety of African woods. And if the honoured Premier played along and traded with the Commonwealth on a permanent basis, it was hinted that he could eventually get Katangan uranium and parts of the specialized Commonwealth weapons-industrial complex(ballistic missiles, anti-material armaments and helicopters).

In return, it was hoped that the Premier would trade some of his nations vast natural wealth, particularly gas and perhaps oil, which the Commonwealth had little of.

Tsar Wingert’s counterpart, Igoriij Romonav, vassal of Wingert and King of Kazakhstan, could not be trusted for a job of this importance. So, Tsar Wingert decided to send his second eldest daughter, Adrianna Groznyy, Queen of Nigeria (though she had never actually been there). She made waves when she showed up at the border with an armed retinue that consisted of a fully mechanised regiment of 2,500 battle hardened Ukrainian Tsarist troops. She purposefully picked a place on the border where she would be stopped , based on satellite information of the military of the region, and moved boldly into the nation. The regiment was accompanied by almost 1,000 royal retainers, and even zookeepers who took with them a breeding pair of hippos, and various other lavish gifts to provide His Majesty with the proper respect for one of his class, magnificence and breeding. The HL was very happy to see a member of the blood ruling the old Soviet estates, coming as they did from a very similar background in the Ukraine, where they fought for their independence from the USSR.

The procession is not designed to invade, though they will be able to protect themselves, but rather to impress, with banners and standards and so on aplenty. They will stop when challenged and do whatever required to pay the proper respect.

Tsar Wingert the Great.

Sneaking across Depkazi borders, while possible, isn't a great idea. The nation has been home to an Orthodox population for many years, and produces its own preachers and scholars, and the Christian community has to some degree taken its own Depkazi course over recent generations, and bringing back old lines of thinking is as likely to cause conflict as anything else, and it certainly isn't news to anybody. Other than that, the practicalities of crossing vast deserts or frozen mountains mean that a lot of these visitors are likely to die before getting anywhere in particular, if they aren't picked up by the massive border forces that are quite large enough to maintain heavy presences anywhere that isn't virtually impassible anyway. Since refugee crises were caused by the invasion of Kazakhstan, conflict in China, and instability apparently endemic to Afghanistan and the sub-continent, Chokareff's forces have tended to lose patience, and it is down to sheer chance as to whether violators of Depkazi sovereignty are arrested or robbed and murdered by the unit that spots them.

The Premier does quietly make note of increasing missionary interest in his people, and, refusing to address the issue at this time, stores the information away in his unfathomable mind for possible later use, specifically in the, "Overthrow/invasion/assassination, how to avoid" folder.

Japan's approach...

Chokareff is apparently pleased by his initial meeting with Tatsuhara, and gives him the grounds on which to be called, in future, Ambassador. Japan is granted an embassy in the outskirts of Samarqand. The President seems pleased to realise merely that Japan is fully independent and supporting itself once again, though this is really no indication of his future diplomatic position towards the Japanese.

Roycelandian orders...

Roycelandia's Imperial Armaments have not long to wait before receiving an order for eight thousand converted Vickers machineguns and an initial four hundred SLLE. Several officers and men who hear about the discussions are excited by talk of Tommy Guns, having just recently seen some of the generally rather ancient gangster movies allowed into Depkazia, but command is more interested in the Suomi conversion, having thoughts of employing it in the mountains and with some internal security forces. Decisions have not yet been made on that matter.

To the south...

Samarqand has begun to open communication with Tehran over Depkazi interest in pipelines and road and rail transport to the coast. For now it remained unclear as to whether Chokareff would have much success in this, though transit fees for Depkazi oil and gas, plus the friendship of a neighbour must be at least interesting to the Iranians.

Shareef remains interesting to Smarqand, in any event, and Chokareff's government is soon trying to learn all it can about North Pakistan's enemies, internal and external, with every intention of helping vigarously to defeat them, the Premier thinking himself a much more important man than most other national leaders, and one with a divine and destined obligation to act where it is possible to act, instead of merely sitting around, looking important. The North Pakistanis will, if anything, be more heavily laboured with displays of massed Depkazi infantry (and traditional mounted infantry) whenever they make diplomatic contact.

Chokareff's supporters in government and military are of the belief that men like Shareef (as Edmund himself), fits of self importance aside, can sometimes be more reliable than really good leaders, in that perhaps they can be flattered, impressed, and aided into a position of friendship driven by loyalty or habit. Shareef's government, at the moment, may be able to get ridiculous degrees of help from the Depkazi military government, which hopes to secure as many friends and borders as it can before trying something stupid in the near future.


More, later...

OOC-I'm hurt, being ignored like that. Kidding. Hey BTW, where are you getting teh information regarding you oil and gold production, I have been trying to find something regarding the size of teh deposits and am either getting teh wrong pages or something, because the numbers I keep getting are way lower than what you are claiming. I'm not being accusatory, just asking for help, FYI.


IC-Queen Adrienna now crosses the border, moving the military units into a defensible position around the massive household that she is bringing along, sattelite informatio shows that there is considerable military presense on the border, but now that they are some 5 kilos into the nation, with nothing happening, she is beginning to wonder what this all means...


Tsar Wingert the Great.

OOC: Hey, I said more later, I've not got to you or African Commonwealth, yet, heh, needless to say, our uncommonly large (horribly trained and modestly equipped) army will meet them close to the border, anyway.

Gas, well, the CIA factbook indicates that in reality Turkemistan and Uzbekistan have between them reserves that fall between those of Algeria and the USA. It also indicates the hundreds of millions of barrels of proven oil reserves that I have mentioned (in Depkazia, tens of millions in the areas being exploited, hundreds of millions known) and doesn't quote the much smaller reserves being tapped by the other constituent states. However, some believe that the whole of the Caspian seabed may contain more, and it is certain that much/most of the nations' reserves are yet to be properly prospected. Other sources claim proven reserves for Turkmenistan five or six times higher than stated by the CIA site, and some agree with it. Presumably this is because exploration is relatively behind the times in the region, and in Turkmenistan especially, and is on-going.

Edit- Oh, I meant to indicate that some reserves in Depkazia will be still slightly bigger anyway, due to even less exploitation than in reality over the last decade or two, and the more serious troubles apparently had by the late USSR in this world.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is immediately keen to open talks with the new Chokareff government. A glistening white Tu-154 sporting the eagle of United Elias on its tail, touches down to deliver a new Ambassador to Depkazia, who immediately seeks an audience with the President. Initial dialogue will mostly focus on broad issues, identifying that as a capitalist, mostly muslim but also secular country, UE and Depkazia and much in common.

Soon, a delegation from the Elias Petroleum Corporation also finds it way to the capital, offering an agreement in response to the government's request. As the world leader production and refinement of hydrocarbons, EPC had access to the best technology, the most experienced personnel and expertise in operating across the world. The deal is as follows: EPC will take a 25% stake in Depkazia's oil industry. In return they would design and co-ordinate the development of pipelines, the modernisation of refineries and also prospect for additional reserves. Where possible it is pointed out that Depkazian personnel and companies would be contracted to actually do the work to increase the impact on the local economy. Furthermore, EPC in conjunction with the large Elias Merchant Bank, Zilkha and Zilkha, would provide the Depkazian oil industry with 50% of the funding for these developments at a low rate of interest.

Apart from the petrochemical aspects of this agreement, the Foreign Affairs ministry also says that if agreed, Depkazia would also become eligible for Foreign Military Assistance packages, in the form of discounted defence systems either from Elias corporations or from Elias military surpluses. Possibilities would also exist for Elias military personnel to be sent to advise on the training and organisation of Depkazia's defence forces.


Bump for a response.

Samarqand kept the Middle Easterners waiting for quite some time, diplomats several times being told that the President, on whom such major decisions ultimately rested, was busy playing chess (which he did from the great tower of an ancient mosque, with the aid of strangely animated six foot pieces and a Dragunov rifle). Actually the delay was owing still to lack of decision in related areas such as possible co-operation with Iran over export practicalities and to allowing the possibility of revised deals with interested parties seeing the level of competition.

Still, making sure that Baghdad regarded Samarqand as a positive force was more important than making sure that the Roycelandians had such an opinion, and potentially more important than was the case with Beijing. Depkazia had been out of the game for a long time, if indeed it had ever really been a player, but it did appear to Chokareff that Elias Petroleum Corporation was making an offer that wasn't too bad, by historical standards.

After some further delays, during which the Premier considered the possibility of satisfying the Chinese by involving them more seriously in the development of gas rather than oil exploration and exploitation, Edmund had a camel dropped by helicopter into the Caspian, to see if it could swim, and then shook hands with EPC delegates in demonstration of his acceptance of their approach.

The African Commonwealth was cordially received and also offered an ambassadorial exchange. Samarqand would be perfectly happy to export natural gas and possibly some oil to the Commonwealth, though it would be a slow process while Depkazia tried to organise its links to foreign ports on the Indian Ocean. Chokareff personally butted in to declare that Depkazia and the African Commonwealth should trade cotton for rubber while other industries built themselves up.

On the Kazakh frontier...

Mounted infantry wandered most of Depkazia's fringe, picking their way through minefields and vehicle traps and braving deserts and mountains thanks to great local knowledge and traditional skills.

Queen Adrienna and her party were met by such a patrol, four men at first in what turned out to be a far strung-out party of fourteen riders, roaming back and forth at the border several miles out from motor pools and their almost perpetually static mechanised infantry. The border troops wore dusty, faded Soviet-era uniforms modified with regional decorations, some of the jackets quilted by hand. The last members of the party came far behind with camels, and never came within a few hundred yards of the horsemen, always lingering at a distance with RPK rifles, RPG-2 launchers, and weapons of similar vintage in evidence.

The four riders who came forward to meet the Tsarists, three armed with AKMS rifles and one a local PPSh-98 submachine-gun and a saddlebag full of hand grenades, weren't clearly hostile but may have been intimidating in their aloof facial expressions were they encountering a smaller party of travellers instead of a mechanised regiment. One, who rode ahead of his three halted comrades with a hand gesture calling for the Tsarist vanguard to halt, wore a square breastplate with a circular disk at its centre and looking like it had been passed down from a Mongol warrior, and had fur sewn around his Soviet cap that still displayed the crest of the Depkazi SSR.

"Captain Inoyatova, Officer Border Guard The Immortal Regiments of The Depkazi People's Will, you are leaving Kazakh territory! Advance and be known, or we be having war, now!" He called out, brandishing his Kalashnikov and pulling the trigger several times (having not chambered a round).

“Finally,” said Queen Adrienna, then she ordered the attendant commander to relay the order to stop the regiment and attempt to communicate with the patrol.

The whole regiment screeched to stop, with engines idling and tank treads finally quiet in the creaking, and as the massive cloud of dust that was formed by their movement began to settle down, a small group of men began to move forward in a light armoured vehicle, new except for the thick coat of road-dust on it. Every member of the patrol had many guns pointed at them, most with some idea of subtlety, others, such as the tanks pointing in the direction of the camels, with none.

As the vehicle came to a stop in front of the lead member, a man stepped out of the passenger side, as the gunner standing on the back casually aimed at the area near the Captain, but not directly at him. The man was large, standing at over 6 feet and very broad, with a scarred and battle weary face and a many times broken nose. This one carried the eyes of one who had seen much death and he looked through the Captain as much as he looked at him. He was wearing a steel breastplate, and had a sword belted to his right side. This contrasted sharply to the Tokorav that was also strapped to his belt, and the rich black silk that he was wearing, to match his thick black cape, fastened on with a silver set of buckles. The Captain would notice that he also had a combat knife stuck in his boot, one that seemed well worn and quite old. The man had wisps of black in his hair, but it had almost all gone grey, and his hairline was rising at a rapid rate, with his long hair tied to the back to be kept out of his face. The two warriors looked at each other for a moment, both sizing each other up, both seeing men to reckon with, and then after a long pause the strange newcomer spoke, “I come in the name of His Imperial Majesty the Tsar of all the Russias, whose vassal rules Kazakhstan in his Holy name and whose daughter, Queen Adrianna, Queen of Nigeria by Divine Right heads this convoy and we have been invited to head to Samarqand by your leader! We would be willing to accept you and your men as an honour guard and as guides, if you could take us there. And we would be willing to pay handsomely,” The last bit he says as he opens his gauntleted fist to show a ruby of impressive size.

Tsar Wingert the Great.

Stille Inc. expresses it's sorrow on the obviously incompetent telegram (person?) and has promptly sued him and his small private (and independent) buisness and bought it up. It will not happen again. Back to the telecommunications, the offer stands, again. (500,000,000 & revenue after royalties)

Japan's approach...

Chokareff is apparently pleased by his initial meeting with Tatsuhara, and gives him the grounds on which to be called, in future, Ambassador. Japan is granted an embassy in the outskirts of Samarqand. The President seems pleased to realise merely that Japan is fully independent and supporting itself once again, though this is really no indication of his future diplomatic position towards the Japanese.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry breathe a sigh of relief to know that they have been successful in planting an ambassador in Depkazia. Ambassador Tatsuhara eagerly begins moving into the embassy, hoping that a successful job in this post will lead to greater things in later life.

To the south...

Samarqand has begun to open communication with Tehran over Depkazi interest in pipelines and road and rail transport to the coast. For now it remained unclear as to whether Chokareff would have much success in this, though transit fees for Depkazi oil and gas, plus the friendship of a neighbour must be at least interesting to the Iranians.

Shareef remains interesting to Smarqand, in any event, and Chokareff's government is soon trying to learn all it can about North Pakistan's enemies, internal and external, with every intention of helping vigarously to defeat them, the Premier thinking himself a much more important man than most other national leaders, and one with a divine and destined obligation to act where it is possible to act, instead of merely sitting around, looking important. The North Pakistanis will, if anything, be more heavily laboured with displays of massed Depkazi infantry (and traditional mounted infantry) whenever they make diplomatic contact.

Chokareff's supporters in government and military are of the belief that men like Shareef (as Edmund himself), fits of self importance aside, can sometimes be more reliable than really good leaders, in that perhaps they can be flattered, impressed, and aided into a position of friendship driven by loyalty or habit. Shareef's government, at the moment, may be able to get ridiculous degrees of help from the Depkazi military government, which hopes to secure as many friends and borders as it can before trying something stupid in the near future.


More, later...

Utter the word "enemy" to Mustafa Shareef and he will say one name before any other; Parak Singh.

Parak, the Prince of Kashmir, has been Shareef's arch-rival ever since his ascent to power, mostly due to both men claiming the right to govern the other's territory. The fiercest border clashes were fought during the mid-1980s, but to this day Siachen Glacier and the Chorbat La are witness to frequent fighting.

So if Chokareff wants to know Shareef's enemies, the Kashmiris top the list, and it is no secret that either side will jump at any opportunity to invade the other. After that is the Indian National Union, which took Islamabad from North Pakistan not too long ago and has declared intentions to take the remainder of the Mumbai secession (corresponding roughly to the Northwest Frontier Province and F.A.T.A.). Beyond that, Shareef is more or less opposed to anyone that United Elias doesn't like.

If the example of Parak Singh and Mustafa Shareef teaches the world anything, it is that two very strong personalities have a difficult time interacting. So Chokareff should probably watch out for Shareef if their two nations do enter into something approaching a formal alliance, but he shouldn't be too worried about manipulating him since the President is hardly the brightest bulb in the box.

A communique is again dispatched to Baghdad, asking for Elian approval.

A Roycelandian DC-3 soon lands in Samarkand with the 8,000 7.62x54R Vickers MGs and the 400 SLLE rifles.

As part of a demonstration test to prove the Vicker's sturdiness and reliability, one is set up at a firing range and fired continuously, non-stop, for 24 hours, with no jams or malfunctions.

(OOC: They really did this with Vickers guns, too!)

The Roycelandians have also bought a dozen Tommy Guns and a dozen Suomi SMGs to show the Depkazis as well...

Captain Inoyatova was about to shake his head at the suggestion of providing escort, since it was not really according to proceedure, but the sight of the ruby stopped him.

"Oh... of course Nigeria..." he said, having no idea where that might be. "Perhaps the tanks can await your return outside Tashkent. "Sergeant! Bring up the rear guard and prepare to lead on to Tashkent!

"The Queen... and" he added, glancing at the officer's hand, "yourself, you will come with us to Samarqand, yes?"

The border guards weren't desperately keen to be seen escorting the entirety of a foreign mechanised regiment into the new national capital.

Meanwhile...

Roycelandian planes (I assume more than one, since it'd have to be a heck of a DC3 to carry several hundred thousand pounds of gun) are received with interest when they join An-2 transports, Mi-2 helicopters, and MiG-19 interceptors amongst other machines.

Though commanders and engineers on hand almost universally favour the Suomi, Premier for Life President Elect High Marshal Admiral of the Fleet Aeronaut Doctor Edmund Wolfgang Chokareff, Popular Conduit First Class, Gate Emissary from God's Holy Nature to Man acts on a personal fondness for certain cinematic output and requests for himself an early model M1928 Tommy Gun in .45 calibre with forehand pistol grip and drum magazine before ordering his military to co-operate in testing 9mm Makarov conversions of the M1.

Samarqand wonders if the Roycelandians may want either to offset the value of arms delivered against Depkazi products, or to, as a state or with private companies, purchase an agreeable quota of Depkazi cotton, fabrics, and traditional rugs. Markets for such things are desperately sought, and Samarqand sites traditional experience and intimate skill along with low wages as attractive aspects to such products. Roycelandian aircraft will have a difficult time if they want to pay for fuel to return home, as the Depkazis try to make a gift of their domestically sourced and refined aviation fuel.

And...

Chokareff will say to Shareef how it is a great shame that Afghanistan must divide him from Indian life with such a slight sliver of land as it has in the Wakhan Corridor. That's a mutual annoyance, he states. Kashmir, meanwhile, is a problem for the Pakistanis, and, apparently, Depkazia has already found itself some mysterious foreign irritants.

As luck would have it, Depkazi security forces have, this week, all at once, captured Afghani-influenced Islamic conservatives refusing to accept the advice of the hippo, Kashmiri agents looking to undermine Depkazi-North Pakistani friendship, and Azeri nationalists promoting Baku's right to Iran's provinces of East and West Azerbaijan...



(I'm going to need a map of AMW's subcontinent if I'm ever going to understand this :) So many countries! Oh, and, Afghanistan, in AMW is is NPC? Do we know what the government may be? Is it still Taliban, if the US et al have not invaded?)

On the subject of thw Wakhan Corridor, Shareef advises Chokareff to do what he does; pretend it doesn't exist. It isn't as though the Kabul government can do anything about it. And when the Afghanis protest, a raid by his Su-22s is usually sufficient to quiet them down.

The President, in his reply communique, goes into great detail about his airforce, without a doubt the favorite service. Its combat record is quite impressive, and its pilots unusually well trained given the financial situation. Shareef is quite eager to show it off to a friendly power.

Stille Inc. expresses it's sorrow on the obviously incompetent telegram operator and has promptly sued him and his small private (and independent) buisness and then bought it up at rockbottom prices, but that is another story. It will not happen again. Back to the telecommunications, the offer stands, again. (500,000,000 & revenue after royalties)


This offer I hope, will be good enough for you and me. If you have any mumblings, ravings, thoughts, comments, or questions please reply.

The Roycelandian DC-3s (and there are indeed several) disgorge their crates of guns (including an early production M1928 Thompson SMG for the Depkazi President), and are more than happy to take and purchase rugs, cloth, fabric, and arts and crafts for sale or display in Roycelandia...

Fortunately, the Imperial Air Force sent early model DC-3s which have engines capable of running on 100 octane petrol, and so refuelling (which can be paid for in Imperial Wibbles, Gold, or Diamonds) shouldn't be too problematic...

Royce: I think they are trying to give you fuel, rather than make you pay for it...

OOC: I know, but gold and diamonds are heavy and any that we don't trade for goods we can give for petrol so we don't have to carry them back to Roycelandia. After all, one box of gold weighs as much as several boxes of exotic fabrics, incense, perfumes, and so on...

Chokareff is easily interested in the North Pakistani airforce (though just as likely to lose interest at any moment without a word of warning). His own airforce is named the Aeronautical Battle Force of the National Depkazi Federal Defence Association Co-ordinat, and is supported by the Counter Skies Unit of People's Territorial Defence. The main force is fifty-eight thousand strong and has a token irregular force augment of forty-five hundred further personnel, and over one thousand aircraft, having significant abilities to maintain and repair such machines as are in service, and limited assembly capacity. Chokareff also has strong air defence systems in the Counter Skies Unit, or so he thinks, being somewhat overly proud of his SA-2 Guideline and, particularly, his SA-5 Gammon batteries, deployed by the USSR probably to protect against the Indians and possibly the Chinese.

Whether anybody else thinks so much of the Premier's hundreds of MiG-19 Farmer and Su-7 Fitter A is another matter, and one perhaps best left unaddressed.

Perhaps, though, we shall find out, since Chokareff's fighters have begun to fly patrols and reconnaissance missions closer and closer to the Afghan border at the Wakhan Corridor, with the intention of starting over-flights, if nothing happens.

In other news...

Samarqand has decided not to initiate a major overhaul of domestic telecommunications. Stille Inc. has, however, been offered small contracts, if it has the means to meet them, for satellite phones, navigation systems, and televisions for Presidential and government buildings and vehicles. Also to repair severed links for government land-lines to China, Iran, and North Pakistan. The President has declared that, "The Depkazi people do not need telephones, Depkazi families stay together: they do not have friends and family in distant cities." and, "The [Depkazi] people will not understand television: they have radios to hear, and can work while they listen, but not while they watch."

And...

The Roycelandians, though initially finding it almost impossible to get the authorities to take payment for the fuel given to their commercial transports, soon find a change of heart once people are convinced that security forces aren't watching too closely (or simply don't care about the President's insistance that they refuse payment), and workers and officials will take anything on offer. Eventually a third period of commerce in this situation arises as the government experiences a trademark change of heart, and government forces arrive at the airbase to accept gold and follow-up talk of corruption and theft.

Chokareff hopes that Roycelandia will become a significant buyer of Depkazi cotton, textiles, aluminium, plate glass, and even gold, once the initial arms-related trade is complete.

More widely, Samarqand wants to develop Depkazia's hydroelectrical power generation, for which it has major potential, and its electrical distribution grid to allow electricity exports to China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, especially in the winter months, but this will involve laying powerlines through extremely difficult mountainous terrain. Discussions over laying gas pipelines through Iranian territory are on-going, and in the meanwhile China looks to be the only viable destination for Depkazi fossil fuels on a significant scale, so long as Chokareff remains convinced that the Russians are stealing his water.

Things were turning out quite nicely in this part of the world as far as Baghdad was concerned. With EPC moving into Depkazia, and North Pakistan having been brought into the UE bloc, it was certainly progress. Shareef is given Baghdad's blessing in his dealings with Chokareff. As far as Afghanistan was concerned, UE had often held ambitions of freeing up that country, and more importantly finally getting to grips with some of UE's most notorious terrorists and criminals who had found exile in the vastness and remoteness of the Hindu Kush. Even before Depkazia's own views had been heard, a special forces training base had been opened on the North Pakistan/Afghanistan frontier.

(As for Afghanistan in AMW, I have two possible solutions: one that it is under Taliban control or we could say that the Soviets were succesful and that it has a some sort of communist regime. Of course in either case, the power of the regime beyond Kabul and Kandahar would be extremelty limited oweing to the tribal nature of the country.)

<QUOTE>Captain Inoyatova was about to shake his head at the suggestion of providing escort, since it was not really according to proceedure, but the sight of the ruby stopped him.

"Oh... of course Nigeria..." he said, having no idea where that might be. "Perhaps the tanks can await your return outside Tashkent. "Sergeant! Bring up the rear guard and prepare to lead on to Tashkent!

"The Queen... and" he added, glancing at the officer's hand, "yourself, you will come with us to Samarqand, yes?"

The border guards weren't desperately keen to be seen escorting the entirety of a foreign mechanised regiment into the new national capital.<QUOTE>


The large armoured warrior closes his gauntlet around the ruby and says, "I will allow the main portion of the honour gaurd to stay behind, including all of the pieces of armour. Your men can guide them to Tashkent, where they will make a small camp outside teh city and await their Queen. I, and Her Royal Majesties retinue will follow you, along with a small personal bodygaurd, consisting of no more than 100 fighting men and some lightly armoured transport vehicles. The retinue, however, numbers at about 1,000 servants. This is who you will guide to your master. I will give you the ruby for agreeing to do so, and another like it when we reach Samarqand. Do you understand?"


OOC-That would mean about 900 or so fighting men and with most attached pieces of light and heavy armour will move to Tashkent, where they will camp close enough to the city that they could attack should they need to get out of their or avenge their Queen.
The rest, with a small gaurd, that will be travelling in lightly arnoured transport trucks and so on with some heavy machineguns mounted and little else, will travel with the retinue, and the retinue will be taken, but consists of apparent non-combantants. It is really just to impress people with its spectacle.

Tsar Wingert the Great

In other news...

Samarqand has decided not to initiate a major overhaul of domestic telecommunications. Stille Inc. has, however, been offered small contracts, if it has the means to meet them, for satellite phones, navigation systems, and televisions for Presidential and government buildings and vehicles. Also to repair severed links for government land-lines to China, Iran, and North Pakistan. The President has declared that, "The Depkazi people do not need telephones, Depkazi families stay together: they do not have friends and family in distant cities." and, "The [Depkazi] people will not understand television: they have radios to hear, and can work while they listen, but not while they watch."

Stille Inc. expresses it's sympathy for the continually cut off republic of outside news and hopes that their bubble will not burst apoun their ears to harshly when the world comes in anyhow.

(Well, I suppose that, so long as it works for everyone, I shall work on the assumption that the Taliban is still in Afghanistan (after all, they seem to be persisting in reality, if slightly displaced), but falling far short of total control. I can't imagine anyone ever really keeping Afghanistan under control, so that works for me. In RP terms it's a good playground, I suppose.)

Premier for Life President Elect High Marshal Admiral of the Fleet Aeronaut Doctor Edmund Wolfgang Chokareff, Popular Conduit First Class, Gate Emissary from God's Holy Nature to Man saw to it that UE businessmen and energy workers were treated to Depkazi hospitality. That included things they may like, gifts of fine textiles, narcotics, crafts, fine dining and well appointed quartering often attended by girls rounded up by the Premier on his various national tours, and things they may just have to suffer through or subtly escape, such as camel treks and horse rides into the mountains, ridiculously long parades of military, agriculture, and quaint tradition were also keenly offered along with local remedies and cleansings. Often a guest in Depkazia would be brought out of a relaxed state sprawled over carpets and cushions, wrapped in silk and the soothing vapours of incence, by the probing of an intense little man with a long steel rod, with which he would probe into the ear canal intent on removing wax, which he would invariably find in surprisingly large quantities.

For now, though, it was still the North Pakistanis that Chokareff seemed most eagre to impress, odd as that may seem, with the Iranians -whom he seemed largely unable to understand- coming next. He certainly had offended the religious sensibilities of more than a few diplomats from the south, usually by comparing his hippo to the most important of prophets, typically with a notable bias towards the beast. This was less a problem with the Armenians, whom Wolfgang was also courting when he found a spare moment between fingernail inspections in his government/hareem/neighbourhood.

Others in the world continued to stand clearly on Chokareff's other side. First and foremost, the Premier had persisted in accusing the Russians of stealing his water, and was talking of poisoning rivers flowing down from his eastern mountains into other lands, and of building a wall... he had send agents to China and Morocco to, "...have a look at possible templates".

Next, he made regular arrests of Azeri nationalists, so many, in fact, that one was left to wonder from where exactly his security forces were snatching them, and these were subjected to horrible experiences. Some were thrown from trebuchets into the sea or across the desert, but, most often, at mountains, as the Premier made a game of seeing over how big an elevation it was possible to throw an Azerbaijani. Others were buried alive in elaborate games of hide and seek, which Edmund encouraged, "his children" to play (it was not clear whether these actually were his offspring).

Finally, there was Afghanistan. Since it had come to his attention that the bulk of the Northern Alliance's several thousand fighters, with strongholds close to his borders, were of ethnic origin rooted in the Depkazi nation, the President had started to take an interest. Encouraged by Shareef's suggestion that Afghan sovereignty wasn't worth much in the remote northeast, Depkazia's military had been making a habit of airspace violations, and now there was even talk of defence aid to various rebel areas. Rumour of mobilisation of mountain units in the Pamirs by now had spread far and wide, and people were being arressted for talking of a Depkazi invasion of Wakhan, speculation that Chokareff was not helping to dispel by describing the territory as, "an obsolete frontier conjured by one dead empire and one since reduced to grand-theft hydro".

On the Kazakh frontier...

The border patrol seemed to be satisfied. Perhaps the situation still was not exactly to the book, but Inoyatova convinced himself that he had done well be dividing the Russian force, and agreed to lead on, no doubt spurred by the thought of rubies.

The trek to Samarqand was a long one, with much desert to cross. The visitors might get an unfairly negative impression of Depkazia's infrastructure, as Captain Inoyatova took the queen and her party by dirt roads rather than the Soviet-era trunks that cut through major lines of communication (now partly obsolete due to the fact that Depkazia no longer looked to the markets of the former Soviet Bloc). He did this without explaining it, but it was because he desired to get all the way to the capital without being intercepted by anyone who would out-rank him and be in a position to take-over, thus perhaps robbing him of his second ruby. You can bribe someone to carry-out a task, and it will work, but it will not be carried-out in your best interests, Depkazia was a place where this sort of law could still be observed on a very practical level.

Still, in time, the terrain would change, and the impression of gradual progress through the vast country would be evident enough. Soon enough, the waters of Zeravshan, spreader of gold, ran along the course of the travellers, and the turrets of Samarqand rose on the horizon, signposting the world heritage listed crossroads of cultures. The procession would have to struggle past a suddenly appearing mass of Depkazi migrants, the best minds and bodies to be found across the varied lands of Chokareff's domain, brought here to the ancient city he'd made capital with clear intention of relating his rule to that of the great Tamerlane and to the conquest of legendary Alexander. Craftsmen, scholars, scientists, engineers, architects, soldiers, artists, all roads -trunks or dirt tracks, and the golden river- seemed to converge upon this city of twenty-seven centuries.

At this the Queen and her commanders ordered a full stop to be made and the guide to be given the second ruby. He would be pleased with both the improved size and quality of the second one. Then, the aging Tsarist warrior would ask of him one more service, “Allow the Queen’s retinue time to make themselves presentable and we will parade into the city in Royal fashion, and before that happens, get someone of sufficient rank to come out and meet us so they do not believe this is an invasion force of some kind.”
He, of course expected that people would already be spreading the news, and even if the good captain ran off with his payment, someone would eventually come to whom he could begin the process of introductions. In the meantime, the guard polished the desert dust off of vehicles, cleaned weapons, took carefully packed dress uniforms and swords out and got ready as servants got into more Para-military uniforms in order to bear great Royal and Imperial standards of the Tsars, Russia, Nigeria, Ukraine and the great House of Groznyy. Drums, pipes and especially trumpets would be played, as the spectacle of all of the servants and soldiers working furiously began to attract attention. The Imperial Russian anthem began to be sung in deep manly voices with the accompanying band as the preparations were made and the vehicles were quickly put into a presentable order, suitable for travelling slowly down streets. Priests of the Orthodox Christian faith began to walk up and down the procession, burning censures of incense and praying the Byzantine Rite Liturgies. And quietly, somewhere near the middle, Queen Adrienna was being dressed in her Royal Regalia, which she hated as a soldier in her own right, and was preparing to be paraded into the city for all of the people to see.

The breeding pair of hippos was being prepped for marching before the procession, as the first of many gifts to the King.

Tsar Wingert the Great.

The Roycelandian Government, noting the situation in Afghanistan will lead to chance to get involved in a spot of Imperialism By Proxy, has been in touch with Samarkand, offering to help with equipment and technical advisors...

Samarqand...

Colonel Xurshid Adzhibekova was a strange site as he marched, in exaggerated national parade fashion with steps that looked to have benefited by a grant from the Ministry of Silly Walks, a fairly small figure in an old Soviet-era field uniform, completely alone in motion as he progressed down the central road. The street was lined on both sides by AK-clutching soldiers, and the city otherwise suddenly clear of people, the migrants having apparently been directed away.

The Colonel was, apparently, the highest-ranking active officer stationed at the capital on the day of Queen Adrienna's arrival. The truth was that a favoured General normally tasked with defending Chokareff's finest city was now, by virtue of his favour, in the east, leading Depkazi soldiery into Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor with the intention of putting it under Samarqand's administration. Adzhibekova would meet the northerners in the General's stead.

The reception certainly looked to be respectful, but, not far away, Edmund was still, for whatever reason, cursing the Russians as schemers and thieves against whom Depkazia ought to fortify herself.

(Afghanistan developments in this thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=463126))

Tchokareff changes name, Samarqand declares nuclear co-operation with Tehran...

Depkazia, amongst the last places to be over-come by the Bolshevists and incorporated into the USSR and the last to accept the dissolution of the same, has been an unknown quantity for a long time. As the world moved on without it, the Central Asian domain was forgotten in the transfer of Soviet power to India and the struggles of the Russias.

Now opened to the world, at least to a limited degree, the domain of President Tchokareff is very slowly giving up its secrets.

A major move this week has seen Samarqand admit facts likely long forgotten: the Depkazi Soviet Socialist Republic, land possessed of significant uranium reserves, was, in its later life, home to no less than three nuclear reactor sites. These, it is today admitted -one at Tashkent and another near by, the third in the east at Argus- are still operational facilities, and Depkazia has three working research reactors.

On top of this, and perhaps more impressive, the Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combine is intact, and will be increasing activity, according to a press release from the government. This is a substantial thing, for those who may not know, because Navoi, if it survives operationally, is the world's largest uranium production centre.

In addition(!), Kara-Balta milling complex maintains its uranium-processing works, as does the Leninabad Mining and Chemical Combine at Chkalovsk, which is famous -or infamous- as the facility that produced the uranium for the first Soviet nuclear bomb.

Samarqand now intends to use these resources in co-operation with Iranian researchers to develop nuclear power as part of a two-pillar system opposite hydro-electrical generation.

Premier for Life President Elect High Marshal Admiral of the Fleet Aeronaut Doctor Edmund Wolfgang Tchokareff, Popular Conduit First Class, Gate Emissary from God's Holy Nature to Man spoke of his hope that such progress may enable Depkazia to export levels of power to developing western China that will be of major economic significance on a national scale, that it will give landlocked Depkazia a place in the world, and that it will free up more of the nation's precious gas and oil reserves for export rather than domestic use, pleasing foreign consumers and bringing more wealth to Depkazia.

In similar news...

Samarqand has been busy, apparently in touch with not just Tehran but Belgrade as well, discussing, in the second case, rocketry. In the north, Depkazia maintains partial ability to produce components for Soviet-origin ballistic missiles, though the full facilities have never been in place in this part of Central Asia. It is hoped that partial abilities and experience with the nation's Scud-B missiles will be significant in co-operation with Iran and possibly Yugoslavia in developing battlefield and intermediate-range ballistic missiles for the future, and possibly even for space-based projects.

Little is yet revealed, perhaps because deals remain elusive, but a related development may be the reported sale to Yugoslavia of technology related to the Shkval supercavitating torpedo, for which late-Soviet-era production facilities exist at Bishkek. Some suspect that the claim is as much to advertise Depkazia's 'modernity' and trade value as to declare any real association with the Balkan power.

*Knocks on glass*

Hello! Anyone here?! Could you by chance direct me towards Samarqand's more active threads please?

Peace in Afghanistan - China holds a conference to broker a deal between the Combine and Depkazia

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=492170

Regime Change - Beijing gets Chingis into power

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=485214