I posted a review for ForexEnvy about a year ago on their website, and I checked it day by day. They never posted the review. I gave ForexEnvy a 1-star review because they are scammers, and it's impossible to earn money from them.
I based my buying decisions on ForexPeaceArmy, until I realized that they don't publish all your reviews. They're biased as hell. When I contacted them about it, they never replied.
submitted by Alexandr Kasparov did not sleep well. For the past week his ship had cruised just a few hours from its target destination. Kessler 215 B was a promising resource rich planet in a previously unoccupied sector of space. It should have been a complete routine mission. Touch down, let the geologists take some samples of the mostly metal comprised dead planet which interestingly had an atmosphere while the rest of the crew bored itself to death and be gone two days later on their way to the next promising neighbour.
But it had not come like this. One of their scouting drones had lost its signal in the dense asteroid belt that surrounded Kessler. Nothing out of the ordinary, drones were regularly lost to unmapped space debris that simply ripped through anything in its path. But the second and third drones they sent after it all suffered the same fates. The fourth one finally gave them what they needed. Moments before its demise it sent them a picture of the cause of its destruction. It was not debris.
The engineers had gone over the still for hours because the only possible conclusion seemed so unlikely. Their drones had all been shot down almost the exact moment that they had entered the orbit of the planet. From what they could make out on the pictures it was probably an unmanned drone. Heavily armored with no visible means of propulsion or any viewports the massive titanium hunk blended in almost perfectly with the surrounding asteroid belt. The only thing that made it stand out was the clear energy signature of a charging plasma cannon. Their previous scans had shown nothing remarkable in the asteroid belt, a chunk of nondescript metal was easy to miss among millions of other chunks of nondescript metal.
It simply should not be here, they had double and triple checked their scans for life and come up with nothing. There was no known civilization even close to this sector of space and none had made a claim on it. Still someone had clearly gone through the trouble of installing a sophisticated planetary defense system.
Still as he twisted and turned in bed he did not dream about any of that. Instead he revisited his past battles. He had served as a frontline officer in the Great War against the Sphenodontians doing anything in his power to turn the tides. After five years and thousands of soldiers that had made their final sacrifice under his command he simply could not take it any longer.
At first he had tried to make things right. His leadership style had always been hands on. He was never far from the front, but as the years went on he began to lead more and more frontline charges. His hope was to finally be struck down, to join his brothers and be free of the guilt of surviving them. His soldiers adored him for it, anywhere he went they fought with religious fanaticism, but time and time again it was him who was left standing alone while his brothers fell around him, only adding to his guilt.
He reached his breaking point at the battle of Hill 317. As his division pushed through the enemies lines and wreaked havoc in the rear the Sphenodontians began a counteroffensive around them. The decision for a hasty retreat was made but Kasparov was already too far behind the enemy to rejoin the rest of the army. When the dust settled he was trapped fifty kilometers behind enemy lines with twenty thousand men under his command.
The following two weeks entered the history books as the massacre of Hill 317. It marked a turning point in the campaign, as the Empire finally gained a major victory against the Sphenodontians, despite heavy losses. A victory won on the back of Major Alexandr Kasparov, who recognised his predicament and gave the order to dig in while he notified central command of his situation. His primary goal was to buy time for his men and hope for the rest of their forces to push through to them.
As the Sphenodontians closed the front and encircled Kasparov the Ninth Army of the empire struggled to regroup and prepare a counterattack, saved by the fact that the enemy did not dare to push their attack further with a significant hostile element in their rear.
The numerically superior Sphenodontians began probing Kasparovs freshly dug positions. The desperate general launched some counteroffensives using his remaining armored vehicles conscious of the fact that he did not have any airsupport and that they would soon be bombed to pieces anyways. The first two attempts surprised an enemy that believed it was on the offensive, but by the third they had grown wise to their adversaries strategy, which was akin to a cornered animal lashing out. They simply waited for the human armor to make their next attempt and met them with precise airstrikes and well prepared ambushes.
From that moment onward Kasparovs division had lost any remaining initiative and was relegated to the defense. He made the decision to abandon any remaining vehicles as they were easy targets for the enemies artillery and air power and ordered his men to retreat into the trenches. The spot he had chosen was on a small hill that overlooked the battlefield. The ground was soft enough to dig trenches, but Hill 317 lacked any features that offered protection from airstrikes just as the rest of the barren wasteland that surrounded it.
The tanks were abandoned by day two of the siege, the struggle for the trenches began by day four, by day seven Kasparovs division was down to a mere ten thousand men. At this point they had conceeded considerable ground to the enemy. His remaining men were perched up in an ever smaller set of trenches, running low on food, water and ammunition.
The Sphenodontians began hammering their positions with artillery and air strikes, the humans responded by digging decoy trenches and tunnels. They did their best to delay the enemy as much as possible. Every trench was held to the last moment before the necessary retreat was ordered. Their circumstances required them to be creative. They improvised anti tank mines and trip wire bombs from the tank munitions they had salvaged earlier to deny the enemies heavy units free reign over the battlefield. In the trenches they relied on similar tactics, using tripwires and spike pits to inflict casualties even after they had to abandon their positions.
In the meantime the Ninth Army had begun a slow pushback against their adversaries lines. The history books usually conclude the story at this point by stating that this took considerable pressure of Kasparovs division, which is not untrue. They state that the distraction that Kasparov caused tied up much needed enemy forces and allowed for a regrouping of friendly forces and eventual victory. But what is always omitted is what happened between the beginning of the Ninth Army pushback and the rescue of Kasparovs division a week later.
The enemy did not simply leave the remaining ten thousand men to wait out the offensive and clean up their mess later. While they had to withdraw all artillery, air power and armor to meet the more urgent threat, they left behind three infantry divisions . The result was a change in strategy. The Sphenodontian command was aware that they could not tolerate a still significant enemy contingent in their rear lines, so they changed their approach. Where they had previously favored combined arms warfare to soften up the trenches and force retreats before they sent in infantry to secure ground in order to minimise casualties they now ordered their infantry to simply storm the trenches and engage the enemy directly, in the hopes that they were sufficiently weakened to allow for tolerable losses among their own rows.
Where Kasparov and his companions had previously hoped to be rescued by the rest of the army that they would eventually be rescued they now knew that they had run out of time. They knew that the coldblooded reptilians only ever took prisoners for later consumption or public displays so they prepared their last stand. Over the next five days of brutal close quarter fighting Kasparovs remaining ten thousand were reduced to just over one thousand men. They made their peace with their fate and led by a defiant Kasparov fought to the last man. Their supplies had run out days ago so they had resorted to eating what they found on the battlefield.
By the time the Ninth Army reached them they were closer to animals than men. They had ground down the three Sphenodontian Divisions to a point where they could no longer mount any meaningful attacks and had adopted some of their worst traits in the process.
Central command wasted no time covering up the situation, fearing upheaval at home over the position they had put their own men in. They handed out medals to the survivors, cleaned up any evidence they had left behind on the battlefield and buried the story as quickly as possible. Those that lived were either sent directly to the psych ward, or if they were of higher stature and seemed sane enough were reassigned to other units.
Kasparov received the highest aknowledgement that could be bestowed upon a soldier. He was raised into the Order of the Knights of the Emperor, an honour only afforded to the most distinguished soldiers that had dedicated their lifes to the Empire and had performed feats that were considered to be more than human.
When asked where he wanted to be assigned Kasparov responded with the Exploratory Corps. The decision baffled his superiors as they had expected and hoped for another combat assignment, but they could not question his decision given his new status. Secretly they felt some relief as he was unlikely to share his experiences with the general public in the lonely depths of space.
Now as he struggled against the pull of invisible claws in his bedsheets and revisited the horrors of Hill 317 he woke weighed down by the knowledge that he would soon have to make another decision that endangered the lifes of everyone that trusted him to lead them into the unknown.
With the information of what the planetary defense system looked like they had rescanned the asteroid belt and discovered a destroyed unit. The engineers pulled it out of the belt and spent the past three days examining it. It was fully autonomous and they were confident that they had found a frequency that would identify them as friendlies to the rest of the system. Still they had no idea if that was the only necessary verification system to be allowed passage to the mysterious planet that was clearly a lot more interesting than they had previously believed.
The engineers seemed more than impressed with the build of the drone and with some help from their geologist and the Imperial database estimated it to be around 1300 years old. If its still functioning brothers were any indication and their going theory that they had encountered an extinct civilisation was correct, then what they could find down on that planet would possibly change the course of the war.
If that was the case then he owed it to all of those he had left behind to take the risk. As he labored himself out of his sweaty sheets and slowly lifted himself off the bed to look in the mirror, he made the only choice that his conscience would allow him.
submitted by Faction:
Royal Navy
Class:
N3-class Dreadnought Battleship
Background:
In an alternate timeline…
It is often said that the acts of the few often change the world more than the acts of the many, and for the United Kingdom, who to this day through its leadership as the leading state of the Britannic Imperial Commonwealth (or as informally known, the British Empire), two events would shape the development of Britain for better or worse, and would also shape the development of the Imperial Navy.
The first event was the Fashoda Crisis of 1898. A French force of 120 tirailleurs set out from the capital of the French Congo, Brazzaville
\1]) in a borrowed Belgian steamer under Maj. Jean-Baptiste Marchand to secure the town of Fashoda in Sudan, a part of a joint colony between the United Kingdom and their protectorate and de facto Ottoman province, the Khedivate of Egypt
\2]). The hope was to make this area a French protectorate, to serve as a major railway hub that would run across North Africa, from the major port city of Dakar
\3]) to Djibouti, the capital of French Somaliland
\4]). This however ran counter to the British who wanted to follow the dream of diamond magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes, who sought to directly control African lands to allow a direct railway from Cape Town in the Cape Colony, to Egypt’s capital of Cairo.
After a fourteen-month journey, which also saw an encounter by forces of the Ethiopian Empire and accidents in the Baro Gorge, the force would arrive concurrently with British gunboats under the command of Sudan’s governor-general and the hero of the recently ended Anglo-Sudanese War
\5]), Herbert Kitchener. Although both sides were initially polite in the matter, things would begin to deteriorate as the imperial pride of Britain and France was inflamed and popular outrage followed. To this day, nobody truly knows who fired the first shot, though the common consensus was that either a soldier from one of the sides with a nervous trigger finger accidentally fired, or a rifle misfired. Whatever the case, it would lead to a shootout where the superior British forces drove the French expedition back with the loss of 20 soldiers. The incident saw both nations mobilize their forces, before the French backed down in the face of the realization that the Royal Navy could blockade France from her colonies and with it Fashoda. The incident, despite preventing a European War breaking out for the first time since 1871, effectively reaffirmed Britain’s continued isolationism and continued policy of avoiding entanglements on the European continent.
\6])
The second major event would see us jump ahead to 1910, with the death of King Edward VII, and accession of his second, and eldest surviving
\7]), son Prince George as King George V. He would come to the throne at the head of a constitutional crisis between then Prime Minister, the Liberal Party’s H.H. Asquith, and the House of Lords dominated by the Conservative and Unionist Party.
\8]) Asquith and the leader of the House of Lords, the Marquess of Crewe, asked the King to grant a dissolution of the government, and push through policies through Liberal peers to reduce the powers of the House of Lords. Failure to do so would’ve meant that Asquith and his ministry would resign, a sign of the king choosing the peers over the people in his words. George’s sought advice from his private secretaries, the Liberal Lord Knollys and the Conservative Lord Stamfordham, and both gave conflicting advice. Ultimately, and reluctantly, George sided with Stamfordham, and chose to refuse Asquith’s request, ultimately accepting the PM’s resignation
\9]). This sparked conflict among the people, those who supported the King and the peers, and those who supported the Liberals, among whom included those who despised British isolationism in Europe and Socialists.
This ultimately culminated in the bloody two month revolt known as the London Commune Revolt. On 1 May 1911, or International Workers’ Day for supporters of Marxism, Marxists and Anarchists, some affiliated with the British Socialist Party
\10]) agitated a revolt against the House of Lords and the Royal Family, with similar revolts breaking out in most of Ireland and in Wales
\11]). At the height of the revolt, these would-be revolutionaries stormed Buckingham Palace, and summarily saw in a show trial, the executions of King George V, his wife Queen Mary and their six children.
\12]) Ultimately, the revolt would be suppressed by the British Army and the War Office led by Herbert, Viscount Kitchener and War Secretary Richard, Viscount Haldane by 10 July, though sporadic incidents would persist until 20 September. But with the death of the King-Emperor and of the Royal Family as a whole, who was to succeed George V?
To this end, Kitchener, who served as de facto regent, turned to distant relatives of the King. It would be through correspondence between Kitchener, Haldane and Kaiser Wilhelm II that a suitable candidate would be chosen through Karl Eduard, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha.
\13]) The Duke was the late King’s first cousin and was the son of the king’s uncle, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, a title Karl Eduard inherited upon his birth after Leopold died before his birth. The accession of Karl Eduard to the British throne and that of the Dominions (as Charles Edward) also meant a significant shift in British politics going forward. Although on paper the United Kingdom remained a constitutional monarchy, the actions and consequences of George V and the London Commune effectively helped to transform Britain into a stratocratic regime reformed into Prussian constitutionalist lines, and the chaotic nature of the London Commune and the atrocities unleashed upon the Royal Family not only drew sympathy to the institution but also drew closer relations with the German Empire in opposition to socialist groups, among them the Republican regime in France.
\14])
This would culminate in the Great War (1912-1914), in which the Franco-Russian Entente (alongside erstwhile allies in Romania, Serbia and Italy) waged a war with the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. Although Britain would not enter the war until May 1913, the King’s German sympathies, and the public’s general positive perception towards the Germans (a fact further precipitated by the French invasion of Belgium, traditionally a nation whose independence was guaranteed by the British since its independence in 1830) in accordance with the ultimately failed Plan XVII
\15]) effectively put the French in a dire situation, and despite the fighting capability of the French Navy against the High Seas Fleet, Britain’s entry effectively saw the French defeated by the ever growing Royal Navy. The subsequent Treaty of Charlottenberg was a disaster for the Entente, with Russia being forced to cede the Baltic Governorates and Poland, being spun into the United Baltic Duchy, Kingdom of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland
\16]), clients of the German Empire, while Kars, Batumi and Ardhan and their environs would be annexed by the Ottomans. Italy would cede the Veneto to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Serbia would lose significant territories to Albania and Bulgaria. France, blamed as the instigator of the war, would lose the bulk of its colonial holdings in Africa, with Ubangi-Shari, Ivory Coast, French Guinea, Dahomey, Middle Congo and Gabon, while confirming Morocco (the root of the Great War) as a German protectorate. (alongside the exchange of Belgian Congo to Germany in exchange for a substantial financial payment, largely at French expense) For Britain, they would acquire some territory of its own, acquiring French Senegal and Italian Somaliland and establishing a protectorate over Chad, going as far as reinstating the Wadai Emirate
\17]), as well as securing French Polynesia.
Although peace was signed, and tensions greatly reduced, the close cooperation between Britain and Germany did not mean that a friendly shipbuilding rivalry didn’t persist between the two, as they, alongside the United States (who was watching the Anglo-German alliance with suspicion) and Japan (who had their own foreign policy goals that could run counter with all three nations) would begin large scale shipbuilding plans, with Germany developing the post-war Bayern, Preußen and Siegfried-class Battleships
\18]) and the Mackensen and Prinz Heinrich-class Battlecruisers
\19]). The United States, which at the time were working on bringing in the Pennsylvania-class, would develop the New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado-class. Japan would also in this time after completing the Fusō-class, would go on to construct the Ise and Nagato-class.
The British were not idle in this new dreadnought race, having completed the Iron Duke-class Battleships before war’s end and was in the process of completing the Queen Elizabeth-class. The Revenge-class Battleships and the new Renown and Admiral-class Battlecruisers were also being developed. However, the major game changer for all involved was the development of the large (for its time) South Dakota-class Battleship of the United States Navy and the Japanese Tosa-class. While Germany couldn’t develop an answer to such ships (and would not be able to do so until the introduction of the Kaiser Wilhelm-class Battleship in 1930), the British needed to find an answer to these behemoths and fast.
For Fiscal Year 1921-1922, it was decided that four new battlecruisers, initially designated by her design number “G3” would be laid down, those ships would become the Fisher-class Battlecruisers, Fisher, Dundonald
\20]), Cornwallis and Rowley. For Fiscal Year 1922-1923 however, four new battleships, designed to counter the Tosa and South Dakota-class Battleships, would be laid down. A series of designs, given the alphabet letters “L” “M” and “N” were made, with the commonality being those with “2” would be developed with four twin 18” (457mm) guns, while those with “3” would be developed with three triple 18” guns. The final design “N3” would be approved for development in November 1921. Displacing 48,500 long tons (49,300 tons), it would be the largest warship developed for the Royal Navy, with three triple 18” guns, all placed on the bow with one superfiring, eight twin 6” (152mm) guns as secondaries and an AA suite of six single 120mm (4.7”) and four octuple 40mm (1.6”) QF 2-pounder “pom-pom” guns
\21]). The ship would also be the final battleship in the Royal Navy to carry submerged torpedo tubes
\22]), capable of launching the 24.5” (622mm) Mark I torpedo. However, what makes this ship unique was that she sported the “all or nothing” protection scheme, the first British battleship developed in this style, as the preceding G3 battlecruisers also featured this scheme.
Because these ships were some of the largest ever constructed at the time, dockyards across Britain had to be enlarged and upgraded in order to construct these warships. This meant the first ship of the bunch would not be laid down until 3 September 1925 after their completion and modifications made to the original design.
\23]) The ship, later given the name St. George (after Saint Georgios of Lydda, patron saint of England) would be launched on 11 December 1928 and formally commissioned on 15 August 1930. She would be joined by her three sister ships, also named after patron Saints of the British Isles, St. Andrew (patron saint of Scotland), St. Patrick (patron saint of Ireland) and St. David (patron saint of Wales).
St. George would enter her career as flagship of the British Atlantic Fleet, famously hosting as guests Sultan Abdülmecid II of the Ottoman Empire, Shah Fereydoun Mirza of Iran and King Amanrullah of Afghanistan during exercises off of Portland, as well as being present for Charles Edward’s Silver Jubilee in 1936. After a refit in 1937, she would join with sister ship St. Andrew for a tour into the Mediterranean in 1938.
However tensions would flare up both across the Channel and in Russia. After their defeat in the Great War, France would suffer from internal instability, as forces from the far-left and far-right tore apart the Third Republic. Ultimately it would be the far-left that would triumph, establishing the French National Worker’s State. Russia would similarly collapse into a state of civil war, with the Soviets largely achieving control over most of the country, only the Russian Far East, propped up by Japan was able to endure enough to see the war end in a truce. But the focus on the newly established Russian Socialist Republic was primarily for vengeance against Germany and Great Britain, the two Central Powers who dealt the Entente their defeat in the Great War. Joining them in this crusade is the Italian Independent Soviet Socialist Republic after the monarchy was abolished and its king was executed (though his son Umberto would successfully flee to Germany, residing with his sister and brother-in-law in Rumpenheim Castle in Hesse) and the Iberian Federation after French and Italian support helped the Communists defeat the monarchist and republican forces
\24]), together of which make up the alliance known as the “Paris Accord.”
When war was declared between Britain and France on 3 September 1940, (two days after Germany and France went to war, becoming the Great European War (1940-1944)) St. George and the Home Fleet were patrolling the waters of the English Channel while faster destroyers and fast battleships (such as the Monarch-class
\25])) were out in the Atlantic, with the purpose of tracking down French blockade runners. In one instance St. George would strike a magnetic mine dropped from the French submarine Émeraude on 5 December 1940, forcing her to be repaired until August 1941. It was there that she would be deployed to support coastal bombardment operations in Andalusia in a joint Anglo-German attempt to lift the Franco-Spanish siege on Gibraltar alongside sister ship St. Patrick. Their powerful guns were very effective in the role of shore bombardment of strategic coastal targets, shelling coastal batteries hastily constructed to bombard Gibraltar, as well as strategic targets in Spain’s port city of Cádiz and bases near Huelva. A sortie by the Spanish Navy (with limited support from France) would prove disastrous as the Battle of Cape St. Vincent effectively saw the sinking of both España-class battleships, España (formerly Alfonso XIII) and Virginia González Polo (formerly Jaime I), both by the guns of St. George. The tactics used in the battle, utilizing aircraft carriers in a subsidiary role for both quick strikes and luring the enemy towards the guns of the slower dreadnought battleships formed the cornerstone of what naval historians called the “Floating Fortress” doctrine, which proved effective in operations in the Atlantic. The decisive defeat and destruction of the Spanish Navy as an able fighting force would prove consequential in the North African campaign, securing Algeria and paving the way for the Anglo-German invasion of Spain and the Austro-Ottoman invasion of Italy (the latter of which came about after a decisive defeat inflicted on the Italians at Malta, which saw the sinking of St. David after stubborn bombing and torpedo runs by the Italian Soviet Air Force
\26]).
After further bombardment duties in support of Allied Forces along Spain’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, St. George would return to the Home Fleet and would provide further bombardment support for the Normandy and Brittany Landings in April 1944 once Germany began turning the tide and drove the French out of the Rhineland and Saarland. She would be badly damaged by two mines but was able to successfully complete her mission before returning to Portsmouth for repairs, which would be completed after the war’s end and the deposition of the French Communist (re: Sorelian) leadership after Paris was captured in September that year. The war with Russia would persist into 1945 before victory was achieved after the fall of Moscow to the Germans and Sverdlovsk to the White Russian forces. The subsequent peace would see France stripped of its remaining holdings and clients in Africa, including French Algeria (Mauritania, the Rif, Spanish Sahara and various parts of Western Algeria were allocated to Morocco, while French West Africa became the West African Federation), and a German-backed monarchy imposed upon the country
\27]). Similar moves were made to Italy (reviving the Kingdom of Italy under the Grand Duke of Tuscany), Spain (installing Teresa Christina of Saxe-Coburg-and Gotha-Koháry at Charles Edward’s behest) and the parts of Russia they controlled (after splitting off more territories to become independent states). However it was the French matter that would begin to split the Anglo-German friendship, with the British seeking to install the Orleanist candidate Henri, Count of Paris, while the Germans sought to, and successfully install Georg Wilhelm, the second son of the Duke of Brunswick (and grandson of Wilhelm II) as François III.
\28]) While this wouldn’t be an immediate break in relations between the U.K. and Germany, it would be the first in many that would lead to a more intense rivalry and ultimately Cold War between the two (and with the United States and Empire of Japan) in the 1950s upon the accession of Charles Edward’s successor, Prince John Leopold as King William V.
For HMS St. George, who had seen hard use during the war without any significant refits and repairs would linger on as a training ship until her decommissioning in 1951, and subsequent scrapping in 1952.
\1]: The modern day capital of the Republic of the Congo, otherwise known as Congo-Brazzaville, to differentiate it from Congo-Kinshasa, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Belgian Congo/Congo Free State.)
\2]: The town in question now goes by the name of Kodok, and is currently a part of the Upper Nile State in the Republic of South Sudan.)
\3]: Interestingly enough Dakar wasn’t initially the capital of French Senegal or French West Africa, at least until 1902. Prior to this, the capital of French West Africa was Saint-Louis, roughly 179 km or 111 miles to the north.)
\4]: And the modern day capital of the country of the same name.)
\5]: Better known as the Mahdist War)
\6]: The first major PoD, and I would argue the absolute PoD here. IOTL, the British and French were far more amicable and friendly to one another, though the governments did freak out over the matter.)
\7]: In IOTL, and here ITTL, the eldest son, Prince Albert Victor of Wales, styled Duke of Clarence & Avondale, died from an influenza pandemic in 1892.)
\8]: This in spite of the Upper House being led by Liberal Party member Robert Crewe-Milnes, Earl of, and later Marquess of Crewe.)
\9]: In OTL, George V accepted Knolly’s advice and accepted dissolution and the creation of peers. It was this act that would culminate in the 1911 Parliament Act, one of the legislative acts that would, in our timeline, assure the supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords in the modern day.)
\10]: Established in 1911 as the successor to the Social Democratic Federation, it was a Socialist party with Communist leanings, and would be the predecessor to the Communist Party of Great Britain that was formed in 1920 and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.)
\11]: This part is based on a focus from the Hearts of Iron IV game-mod “The Great War Redux.” The focus in question is titled “The Red Banner in London.”)
\12]: If this scenario seems like I’m transplanting the executions of the Romanov family members in 1918 here. Then good, because that is what I’m going for here.)
\13]: The final reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, reigning from 1900 until the dissolution of its monarchy following the German Revolution of 1918. It was his deposition and desire to regain his throne that saw him fall in with the far-right, and ultimately the Nazi Party IOTL, and though he would be head of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until 1954, died in abject poverty.)
\14]: Complete with a return of an older flag design, in this, and interestingly enough the flag of the)
English Commonwealth from 1658-1660..svg)
This one again, draws inspiration from “The Great War Redux” mod for Hearts of Iron IV. \15]: Basically France’s analogue to Germany’s Schlieffen Plan. This was an actual plan that existed, and implemented from 7 August 1914. It called for the rapid mobilization of forces to make possible an invasion of Germany, Belgium or both timed with Russia’s invasion of East Prussia and Posen. The plan effectively failed IOTL with Germany’s decisive victory in the Battle of the Frontiers, though the Schlieffen Plan equally failed at the First Battle of the Marne IOTL as well.)
\16]: The UBD would be placed under personal union with Kaiser Wilhelm II, and would later be incorporated into the German Empire in its own right, though after the Kaiser’s death, the throne would briefly pass into the hands of his nephew Prince Waldemar, and shortly after, the latter’s younger brother Prince Sigismund whose descendents rule the UBD here. Lithuania is ruled by Prince Wilhelm Karl of Urach as Mindaugas II, and Poland under Karl Stephen.)
\17]: An Islamic Emirate that ruled over Chad prior to France’s takeover of the region in 1911.)
\18]: Concepts of)
SMS Preußen and SMS Siegfried are linked with their names. \19]: Prinz Heinrich being the name of the Tier VII Tech Tree German Battlecruiser, Wargaming’s take on the Ersatz Yorck-class.)
\20]: Concept of HMS Dundonald can be found)
here. Although it is the same G3 class in that concept, this is not the same timeline. \21]: When originally design IOTL, the AA guns were planned to be placed on a dectuple mount, but was revised into the better known octuple mount before going into production.)
\22]: Since the N3 exists, there’s no reason for the Nelsons to exist, and I’m sorry.)
\23]: Mainly minor changes, I didn’t want to diverge on the N3 design too much outside of developments that likely would’ve historically happened.)
\24]: The civil war being inspired by Kaiserreich’s planned rework of Spain.)
\25]: One day, I will do a concept around an alt-historical version of the PR1 ship Monarch. She was my first PR ship I ever unlocked and oathed and I owe it to her for that one.)
\26]: St. David took several torpedo and bomb hits, driven against a cliff in Malta and evacuated, though the hulk would be bombed by Italian bombers one final time. The wreck would be scrapped in situ after war’s end.)
\27]: I guess after three times that France went to war with Germany and lost, Germany would probably want to put a permanent end to it.)
\28]: A reference to prior versions of Kaiserreich. I’m not sure if Germany can still place George William on the throne or not, I’m tempted to say no but I haven’t played KR in a while.)
—
HMS St. George represents the
N3-class Battleship design developed by the United Kingdom in the aftermath of World War I. Similar in design to the G3-class Battlecruiser, the N3 sported larger 18” (457mm) guns and thicker armor. However with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, the N3 programme was abandoned. (And even had the treaty not been signed, it would be financial issue wrought from World War I that might've prohibited the steps required to build the ships) However, many aspects of the N3 design would go into the much smaller O3 Battleship, themselves becoming the two Nelson-class Battleships, HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney.
Namesake:
HMS St. George was one of the names speculated to have been considered for use for the N3 Battleships. Her namesake was that of England’s patron saint, Saint George, otherwise known as
Georgios of Lydda. According to tradition, he was a Cappadocian Greek soldier of the Imperial Roman Army, and a member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman Emperor Diocletian (or Diocletianus), who was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. He would become one of the most venerated saints and megalomartyrs in Christianity, and recognized as a military saint since the Crusades. He is also a respected in some Muslim faiths and among the Druze as a martyr for monotheistic faith. Georgios would be a patron saint not only of England within the United Kingdom, but also of Georgia and Ethiopia, of Catalonia and Aragon within Spain, and the city of Moscow in Russia (as well as patron saint of the former Grand Duchy of Moscow). His feast day is 23 April (known as Saint George’s Day) in the Catholic and various Protestant Churches, 6 May in the Eastern Orthodox Church, 1 May in the Coptic Church and on the Saturday prior to the Third Sunday of the Exaltation of the Cross in the Armenian Church).
Historically, eight ships of the Royal Navy carried the name HMS St. George, and are as follows.
- The first ship, also known as HMS George), was a 42-gun great ship of the English Royal Navy. She served the Commonwealth of England (and by extension, the Protectorate) during the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654), the Third Anglo-Spanish War, (1654-1660), and after the Restoration of the Stuart Monarchy, the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars (1665-1667 & 1672-1674). She would be sunk as a blockship in Sheerness in 1697.
- The second ship was one captured in 1626, and was listed as such until 1632.
- The third ship was a 96-gun First-Rate ship of the line originally known as HMS Charles) (or HMS Charles II) until 1687, later reconstructed as a 90-gun second-rate in 1701 and reconstructed again in 1740 under the 1733 proposal line (personally called the 1733 Duke-class). She would take part in the Siege of Toulon (1707) during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) and was present in the naval disaster off the isles of Scilly, which saw three ships-of-the-line and a fireship wrecked and lost, one of the worst disasters in British naval history. She would be broken up in 1774.
- The fourth ship) was a hulk built acquired from M. Stevens in 1701. She was sunk in 1716 to lay the foundation for what would become Chatham Dockyard.
- The fifth ship) was a Duke-class Second-rate ship of the line Launched in 1785. Her claim to fame was the capture of the French frigate Modeste, considered to be one of the richest prizes ever seized. She would also take part in the Naval Battle of the Hyéres Islands and the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). She would be wrecked in 1811.
- The sixth ship, originally named HMS Britannia) (and later HMS Princess Royal in 1810), was a 1745 Establishment 100-gun First-Rate Ship of the Line (personally known as the Royal George-class), and was the ship known as “Old Ironsides” before it became the popular nickname of USS Constitution. Although she never participated in any battles under the name St. George, as HMS Britannia, she would take part in the Battle of Cape Spartel during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the Battle of Genoa during the French Revolutionary War, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent during the Seventh Anglo-Spanish War (1796-1808) and the famous Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). She would be renamed as HMS Barfleur in 1819 before being broken up in 1825.
- The seventh ship) was a modified Caledonia-class 120-gun First Rate ship of the line launched in 1840, famously nearly being destroyed before launch as a result of a large-scale fire. She was known for being fitted with screw-propulsion in 1859 and was sold out of service in 1883.
- The eighth and final ship) to bear the name was an Edgar-class protected cruiser launched in 1892. Her claim to fame would be her role in the 40-minute Anglo-Zanzibar War (1896), the shortest war in recorded history, sinking the Zanzibari Royal Yacht HHS Glasgow. She would also serve as flagship of the Cape & West Africa Station during World War I.
- In addition, the G3 Battlecruisers, much like the N3 Battleships, were also considered being given the names of the “Patron Saints” of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, a shore establishment), located in Douglas, Isle of Man that was in use from 1939 to 1945 was known as HMS St. George.
Rarity:
UR
Stat Spread:
As the penultimate conventional dreadnought battleship design developed for the Royal Navy, St. George boasts a firepower stat that could be considered as second-to-none, (S). Her HP is also nothing to scoff at, being a fairly bulky ship with good defenses if nothing too spectacular. (A). The tradeoff however, comes in the form of her average Anti-Air capabilities (B) and her speed, which isn’t set to win any speed records anytime soon (C).
Abilities:
- The Blessed Sword, Ascalon: When this ship fires her main guns and the Guardian Knight skill does not activate, launch a unique, defense-ignoring barrage (damage is based on skill level) and put up shields around your vanguard ships, reducing damage done to those ships by 20% (40%) for the next ten seconds.
- Martyr’s Soul: When this ship’s HP falls below 15% (45%), heal up to 15% (30%) of this ship’s maximum HP and for the next 15 seconds, become immune to any enemy debuffs.
- Guardian Knight: When this ship fires her main guns, For the next eight seconds, there is a 40% (70%) chance to evade all attacks directed at this ship, and a 70% (100%) chance for sixteen seconds (including the eight seconds that would be counted as evaded if proc’d) absorb up to 20% (40%) of all damage dealt to the other ships in the fleet.
Personality:
St. George is an upright woman who tasks herself with defending the weak and meager, and is indiscriminate in her kindness. She upholds a degree of saintly virtues and under her watch, pursues to ensure none are ever come to harm.
Outside of battle, she is a lover of travel and an avid photographer.
Quotes:
- Acquisition: Commander, I am St. George, the Grand Battleship of the Royal Navy. I have come at your behest. Now let us do our best.
- Secretary (Idle) 1: I’m personally not fond of conflict, but if you wish it, I will do what I must, Commander.
- Secretary (Idle) 2: So many smiling faces. I am glad that many of them could live their lives.
- Secretary (Idle) 3: I am simply your secretary, Commander. Therefore, I can only give you my honest opinion.
- Secretary (Touch): What is wrong?
- Secretary (Special Touch): Negh!, P-Please, expect nothing from my reaction.
- Skill Activation: Allow me to show you what I can do.
- Affinity (Disappointed): Commander, I implore you get your act together. Come, let me assist you.
- Affinity (Stranger): Would you like for me to give you some assistance, Commander? I only wish to provide my services to you and your cause.
- Affinity (Friendly): This camera was given to me by a young destroyer girl. She says she uses it to take pictures of Saratoga. Curious, hm?
- Affinity (Like): Traveling broadens the mind, it helps to shape your view on the world by looking at the many people you tend to meet. Although many such people populate your base, there is no substitute for looking into those worlds for yourself.
- Affinity (Love): Would you like me to take some pictures of you, Commander? It might not mean much to some. But it would make me smile if I could cherish the memories of our time together.
- Oath: The end of a journey is never truly the end, but a beginning. And it would be my honor to start a new journey with you by my side.
- Sortie (Nelson or Rodney): I hope you are doing well with yourself.
- Sortie (Gridley): Can you give me some pointers on being a better camerawoman, Gridley?
- Sortie (Revenge): Keep at it, you will become as good as others believe yourself to be someday.
- Sortie (Renown or Repulse): As my elders, I shall follow your lead.
- Sortie (Hood): In my honor and for the sake of all, I shall defend you from harm.
- Sortie (South Dakota): Our shields shall be our strength.
Design:
St. George is depicted as a woman in her late-twenties with waist-length milk chocolate brown hair and matching colored eyes. Her attire is a modified version of the attire worn by Rodney (one of the Nelson-class battleships of which many of the N3 Design’s aspects would go towards). In this case a white blouse that cuts off at the upper chest area, under a blue Napoleonic-era officers long coat. Blue stockings and white shoes round out the attire.
St. George’s rigging, much like the Nelsons and G3 (see Dundonald) share the same designs, a split bow rigging with the left side containing her three triple 18” (457mm) main guns and her right side containing her secondaries and anti-air armament.
A/N:
This ship design was requested by
u/nuttyjack. I appreciate the request but man...
...What is it with me and British warships that bring out my ability to try and write a chapter of "War and Peace?" To explain, usually I write these character concepts on Google Docs before I post it on the various subreddits that I do. The background alone, detailing the history of St. George, both the concept and the alt-history that spawned her was just over 6 pages, with at least 2¼ pages dedicated solely on the period from the Point of Divergence to the beginnings of the background on HMS St. George herself, and at least a page alone just to the footnotes.
That being said, St. George is indeed another attempt of me bringing a servant from Fate/Grand Order into Azur Lane character and appearance-wise, albeit trading the armor for an officer's uniform because the N3, like the G3 (and literally every design in the lead up to those two designs) lead up to the Nelson's and I want to reflect that. The N3 design personally...I see it as the British Yamato in terms of scale, even though the ship itself is slightly smaller and has a little less than 3/4 the displacement, but its slow speed would probably put it closer to USS Vermont (albeit again, at 3/4s the displacement). Would be curious to see how that would fare in Warships though, maybe as a British "Super Dreadnought Battleship" continuation rather than the fast battleships starting from the KGV's.
If you want to suggest a ship or retrofit in the future, please leave it in the comments below, you can also reach me via DM's to make your suggestions as well. Now next time, after a dose of sanity potion after all I've written up to this point, we're taking a look at Tier V French Battleship MNF Bretagne for Operation Iéna.
Link to the
list of ships 21 minutes, 5217 words
. Good Country Index
It uses several metrics relating to each country's global contribution towards science, culture, peace, climate, health, equality, etc.
(1) Sweden
(40) Moldova
(43) Armenia
(46) USA
(51) Georgia
(53) Turkey
(54) Russia
(82) Lebanon
(86) Zimbabwe
(98) Azerbaijan
(169) Syria
source, we are waiting for Azerbaijan's response to our offer to open 3 border checkpoints: Pashinyan
A few months ago the government proposed the opening of customs and passport checkpoints at 3 locations on the AM-AZ border, as part of the efforts to unblock communication links in the region.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are instead demanding a "corridor" without customs and passport checks by Armenia, similar to the Lachin corridor, an idea rejected by the Armenian government.
source, source, source, commentary by political analyst Chibukhchyan about Nagorno Karabakh negotiations & "Russian agents in Armenia"
Chibukhchyan: The West
[and Armenia] are attempting to separate the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict from Armenia's territorial integrity
[AM-AZ peace treaty]. They don't want to give Azerbaijan grounds to demand a "Zangezur corridor" from Armenia in exchange for the Lachin Corridor.
But more importantly, the West (Anthony Blinken) is doing something that's terrifying Aliyev today. They are pressuring him to join a direct dialogue with Nagorno Karabakh as part of an international platform.
But we have Russian servants at home who are attempting to derail this AM-AZ and NK-AZ separation process. For example, there are Nagorno Karabakh government officials who are pressuring the Armenian government to include an article about Nagorno Karabakh in the AM-AZ peace treaty. The West is intentionally keeping them separate, while the Kocharyan wing wants the two to be tied to each other. This is what will ensure Russia's continued influence on Armenia with the use of the Azerbaijani factor. This is also beneficial for Azerbaijan because they do not want Armenia to become a partner of the West. This is why Aliyev is likely to launch another aggression soon, and this is why the West was so quick with approving a border monitoring mission.
Another agent of the Russian state is the Azatutyun media outlet. They have become one. The outlet is flooded by Kocharyan loyalists and Levon Ter-Petrosyan administration's Russophile figures. They are the outlet's new regular "experts", twice a week.
Matter of fact, I have some advice for Azatutyun: just rename yourself as aZatutyun with capital "Z". To avoid any suspicions, they are covering the Ukraine topic "objectively". The funding is coming from the U.S. government. They even have a personal sponsor in the U.S. embassy, I've been told.
The ambassador has 3-4 assistants who "monitor" the media. I don't know if the ambassador doesn't give a damn or they aren't aware, but 2 of these observers definitely have Vladimir Putin's bust in their living room. They just scam the embassy. The other monitor is a 2nd generation Levon loyalist who tells the ambassador that "everything is fine".
Azatutyun is tasked with confusing the Armenian public. While the Western powers are pushing for peace, Azatutyun is intentionally attempting to tie the AM-AZ peace treaty to Nagorno Karabakh status. Simultaneously, instead of bolstering the spirit of protecting the country on the front lines, Azatutyun is intentionally sabotaging this process by discrediting and destabilizing the mobilization efforts, on the eve of major clashes, by running daily news pieces about the "terrible" mobilization process and how inconvenient it is.
At first, they whined about the 90-day reservist mobilization being too long and interfering with reservists' personal lives, and after the government made it 25 days, they now whine about it being too short,
"you can't train anyone in 25 days".
Who are you, really, and who are your "experts", Azatutyun? I will write a letter to your Washington office, and it will contain names. I even know that you have blacklisted real pro-Western experts from your air, and why. You have been mischievous. No more working at the U.S. embassy during the day, and kissing Vladimir Putin's bust at night. //
continue interview with VOMA military camp leader Vova Vardanov about the latest army reforms
Reporter: The government plans to replace the 90-day reservist retraining process with 25 days, citing complaints about work interference and the impact on the economy. Is this the right decision?
Vardanov: Yes. Retraining for 25 days every year is more efficient than for 90 days every 4 years. Based on VOMA's experience, it would have actually been better if they went a step further and summoned them multiple times a year, during each season of the year, for even a shorter period.
Former deputy CoGS Gasparyan and I once discussed the idea of two 2-week drafts every year. I personally wanted three 10-day drafts, or two 10-days and a few weekends.
During this week's government session they made it clear it's not just about the educational component, but also the need to address the soldier shortage in the front lines. The shortage arose partly because of bad policies when immediately after the 2020 war the army slashed salaries in certain locations. A private contractor earns ֏200k/mo, less than certain police departments.
Since we don't send conscripts to Nagorno Karabakh anymore, and the remaining soldiers left two months ago, we can use them to address the soldier deficit. The army knows this well. Still, one of the primary methods to increase the numbers is by raising salaries.
Reporter: The government plans to double the contractors' salaries by allowing them to go through a certification process. Contractors will preserve their benefits if they retake the certification every 3 years. It's voluntary, but the army will not extend the contract with those who do not take the certification upon the completion of their existing contract.
[so it's mandatory, not voluntary?] Vardanov: The certification exam should be required for everyone. Those who don't meet the standards can be lowered one step. It should be mandatory for everyone.
Reporter: Does it also have a moral-psychological component? When you send new people to the borders, it gives energy and new skills to existing soldiers.
Vardanov: There are no volunteers immediately on the border, and I doubt the volunteers would have time to teach anything new to the border guards. The army needs to pay more attention to the educational component.
There were a few professional military groups like VOMA that were deployed on the border. The army is also sending more reservists so they can gain hands-on experience on borders. //
source, Armenia deploys more artillery units along the border with Azerbaijan in response to information that Azerbaijan is planning another attack
Azerbaijan has been violating the ceasefire and spreading false information in recent days, accusing Armenia of "provocations", something they often do before launching aggression. Armenia has noticed a movement of Azeri artillery and troops in the direction of Gegharkunik (Vardenis) and has decided to deploy additional artillery units there.
Armenia will withdraw its artillery if Azerbaijan does the same, announced Armenia's Defense Ministry.
Pashinyan: Azerbaijan is continuously attributing its own ceasefire violations to Armenia. Obviously, this is a creation of a pretax for new military aggression. A permanent international mechanism is needed to maintain the ceasefire regime and provide border security.
We invite Azerbaijan to hold a meeting on the border delimitation and security topic on October 31 in Brussels. //
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, EU's border monitoring mission arrives in Armenia
FM Joseph Borrell: Our team is already in Armenia. The mission will be launched promptly.
Charles Michel: I welcome the arrival of the mission. Will help build confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and allow EU to better support AM-AZ border commissions, which will convene shortly in Brussels. //
40 observers will be deployed along the border. To ensure a swift deployment, it was decided that the experts will be temporarily deployed from the EU's mission in Georgia.
FM Mirzoyan and MOD Papikyan hosted the mission to discuss its 2-month deployment location, duties, etc.
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, Azeri opposition accuses Ilham Aliyev of lying about landmine maps and demining cost
Context in Pashinyan's
Friday speech. Armenia gave all the maps of landmines in Nagorno Karabakh, but Azerbaijani president Aliyev baselessly claims the maps are 75% inaccurate, and that he will need $25 billion and 30 years to clear those landmines, even with the maps.
Opposition forces in Azerbaijan, headed by Afghan Mukhtarli and Faud Ghahramanli, are accusing the Aliyev administration of intentionally inflating the time and cost so they can skim billions of dollars from the demining process.
Opposition figures: At first they needed 5 years, and now 30. This is how Aliyev's latest fraud will work. Who calculated that number? Is there a report on the number of landmines? If yes, why is it being kept secret? What areas outside of Aghdam were mined by Armenians?
Aliyev is lying. His goal is to use Karabakh to plunder the budget and not to allow the return of Azeri civilians to those lands, so he can keep the fertile soil for others. Ilham Aliyev's dream is to become the largest feudal lord in the world. They have already built a massive farming complex. Thousands of hectares of gardens and grains were planted. There are small hydros. Aliyev, with the help of Erdogan, another dictator of the Turkish world, is stealing the gold deposits.
It is once again clear that our army, after sustaining huge losses, liberated these lands not for our refugees and Azeri people, but for dictator Aliyev. Can you imagine? 30 years and $25 billion. This means he has no intention of returning refugees there. The lands will be used for corruption. We could have demined the area within a year.
The head of demining department recently announced that 41,500 landmines were removed within a year. That means the remaining 450,000 could be cleared in no more than 10 years, not 25.
Why does Aliyev need $50,000 to remove a single landmine? //
source, Aliyev promised 20 bcm of gas to Europe, but can he actually deliver it?
Benyamin Poghosyan: The plan is to double the gas delivery from 10 to 20 bcm by 2027. However, there are issues relating to technical feasibility and gas reserves.
Today, there is one pipeline that delivers the gas to Europe. Next year Azerbaijan plans to deliver 12 bcm: 10 to Italy, 1 to Greece, 1 to Bulgaria.
The maximum capacity of this pipe is 20 bcm, but to reach this volume, they must install new compressor stations to raise the pressure. This is an expensive and lengthy process. The investors will agree only if there are assurances that there will be an additional volume of gas.
There is a problem there. No significant investments have been made in Azerbaijan in recent years to exploit new gas reserves. The exception is Absheron reserve, due for 2023, which will deliver 1.5 bcm per year. But this will be consumed internally due to rising domestic consumption.
Azerbaijan also receives 2 bcm from Turkmenistan, via a swap deal with Iran
(Turkmenistan gives its gas to Iran, and Iran gives Iranian gas to Azerbaijan). But that's for internal consumption, too.
One solution is the development of renewable energy in Azerbaijan, to replace internal gas consumption with electricity. This is why Azerbaijan is attempting to attract European, British, and Israeli investments in the renewable sector. There are some agreements, but no major projects have begun, so the renewables won't be ready by 2027 to replace gas and free up reserves for Europe.
Another option is to use the Azerbaijani pipeline to export Turkmen gas to Europe. The idea is to build a 75-kilometer pipe through the Caspian Sea. This will supply an additional 5 bcm, and raise the exports from AZ to EU to 17 bcm. There is one problem with this: Russia and Iran, as members of the Caspian basin, are against building pipelines through the bottom of the Sea, citing environmental concerns. This is why Turkmenistan is not willing to launch the construction yet. //
source, Russia does not want to help us resolve the AM-AZ conflict: United States
Question: Russia criticizes the West's mediation efforts. Moscow recently accused the West of trying to "replace" Moscow or "steal" their mediation efforts. The CSTO and EU are "competing" for the border mission. Are you concerned that Russia will try to jeopardize your efforts?
U.S. State Department: If any country is eager to engage with us on Armenia and Azerbaijan and help us get to a peaceful resolution, we certainly would welcome that. But we have not seen any kind of effort from Russia as you might be referring to.
source, source, Russian official (Kocharyan's friend) accuses Pashinyan administration of anti-Russian policies, receives a response
Konstantin Zatulin, tasked with CIS relations, is a ranking official in the Russian parliament. Zatulin arrived in Armenia and went to the private residence of Robert Kocharyan, before criticizing Pashinyan and some of his administration members for "anti-Russian" policies and turning Armenia into an "unreliable" ally.
Pashinyan's deputy chief of staff Chakhoyan: Instead of making unnecessary accusations against Premier Pashinyan, Mr. Zatulin should look for a plastic surgeon for Robert Kocharyan. As dazzling as the gifts received from the Kocharyan family might be, do not forget about Kocharyan's brilliant idea of plastic surgery. And while conducting plastic surgery, do not forget the famous Russian saying: "Размер имеет значение". (size matters). //
The exchange took place after Zatulin's
interview, during which he spoke about a "few kilometers" of Azeri advancements in September, and that Russia would have responded if there was a "REAL" threat to Armenia.
Zatulin said that Moscow was kind enough not to ask Yerevan for military assistance in Ukraine.
Zatulin believes the negotiations in Brussels are similar to Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, brokered by the U.S. He opposes it.
Zatulin also said it's unfair for Armenia to shift the entire burden of protection of Nagorno Karabakh on Russia, with expectations that Russia should be the only one to fight. He believes it's not Armenia who should be offended.
He spoke about all the private cash that Russian citizens have transferred to Armenia after the invasion of Ukraine, and presented it as a huge favor to Armenia.
"That's more than [the West] has invested in Armenia," he said,
"so think about it before deciding to replace [Russia] with [West]." source, source, source, during CIS summit, the president of Tojikiston roasted Vladimir Putin for treating smaller ex-USSR republics as second-class citizens
Rahmon Emomali: Not enough attention is being paid to small republics today, just as during the collapse of the USSR. The business summits were being held in a select group of large countries only, while the smaller republics were told
"just deliver your cotton and milk". The development of infrastructure was neglected.
But why now, though? We were begging for the business forum in Tojikiston to be attended at least at a ministerial level, but no... they wanted a deputy minister. A strategic partner... What have we done wrong?
We have 2.5 million Tajiks studying the Russian language from kindergarten age, yet we still have a shortage of textbooks. We have [your] military bases and everything. What are we doing wrong to deserve this?
Yes, we are a small nation, we are not 100-200 million. But we have our history and culture. We want to be respected. We don't ask for much. We are not beggars. We have a rich country with mineral reserves larger than Mendeleev's table.
We have gathered here today, so let's create the right conditions. Perhaps we had violated some protocols somewhere, or didn't greet someone properly. But the truth is, we have always respected our main strategic partner's [Russia's] interests. But we want to be respected just as the African countries
[Context: Putin has been hanging out with African allies lately]. Are we really aliens?
We aren't asking for huge investments, but it's necessary to invest. After all, our work migrants visit Russia, they work. They don't just get paid - they work.
So let's agree not to treat Central Asian countries like they were treated during USSR. Each of us has our problems, questions, and traditions. It's necessary to find the golden ratio, and it's necessary to work with individual republics separately. We are here. We aren't going anywhere. //
Putin: (licks lips and looks down) source, Defense Ministry launches shooting exercises for those who have never served in army; women encouraged to join
Ministry: With popular demand, we are launching weekend training courses to teach about weapons and how to shoot them. The first phase will include applicants from Yerevan. Female applicants will be given priority. The training courses and food are free.
video, source, Armenian army has a new aviation chief
Hovhannes Vardanyan will replace Gagik Aslanyan.
source, Foreign Minister of Turkey expresses willingness to meet his Armenian counterpart
Cavusoglu expressed his support to Azerbaijan and said any meeting with Armenia will have a positive impact on relations, and that "if Armenia follows through its commitments", it will benefit everyone, "especially Armenia".
The cousin of Turkey's special envoy Kilic did not rule out that Kilic will visit Yerevan during the upcoming Euro-2024 soccer match between Armenia and Turkey, which is
scheduled for 25 March 2023. Kilic's cousin said the AM-TR process is on the right track, and that there is some progress in AM-AZ process as well.
Kilic's cousin is the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Turkish Parliament. source, source, source, Armenia sent condolences to the families of Turkish miners who died in mine explosion
41 people have died after the authorities "ignored" weeklong complaints about smelly methane gas by local residents. Erdogan received criticism after essentially suggesting these miners were destined to die, and that such accidents will always happen.
Turkish engineers accused authorities of sending the miners to die, by not conducting safety checks and sending them hundreds of meters underground without taking the necessary precautions.
FM Mirzoyan: Sincere condolenses.
FM Cavusoglu: Thank you.
Erdogan: On behalf of the Turkish people, I want to express my gratitude to friendly countries and peoples for their best wishes.
[shared a list of about a hundred countries, including Armenia] source, source, source, Grand Council of Geneva adopts resolution calling for recognizing Artsakh-Armenains’ right to self-determination
A Swiss parliament delegation
visited Armenia last week and expressed support for Armenia's territorial integrity and called for sanctions against Azerbaijan.
The Grand Council of the Swiss Canton and Republic of Geneva, led by Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, adopted a resolution calling on ︎the Federal Assembly (parliament) to:
▶︎ Condemn Azerbaijan’s aggression and ensure that the aggressor is not receiving revenues from the sale of raw materials in Switzerland.
▶︎ Recognize the right of the Nagorno Karabakh population to self-determination.
source, source, U.S. Congressional delegation visits Armenia
... headed by David Price, the Chairman of the House Democracy Partnership. The group travels through various countries to hold meetings about democratic reforms. The delegation will meet Pashinyan and Speaker Alen Simonyan soon.
source, source, source, source, source, platoon commander sold his country for $200: treason case
Authorities: An army contractor, serving as a platoon commander, had access to classified information. He met a foreign intel agent on the Odnoklassniki social network and was recruited by them.
Between the January and June of 2022, the commander transferred classified documents in exchange for cash. The information included terrain descriptions and names, communication channels, observation points, the distance between positions, and engineering details about trenches. //
The suspect confessed to spying in exchange for $200 in total.
source, source, the rent is too damn high, indeed
Good luck finding an apartment in Yerevan. It's as expensive as Moscow now, said a Russian woman who recently moved to Armenia. It's easier to find outside of Kentron district, but still, the prices have doubled or tripled.
Prices used to increase by 20% during the season. Now it's 200%.
A decent apartment in Kentron has gone from ֏400K to ֏800K ($1,980).
Woman from St. Petersburg: It was 3x cheaper there. The more people arrive here, the higher the prices get. You could rent an apartment for $400 last year. Starting this March, the same apartment was $800. Now it's $1,500. We love Armenia, everything else is cheap here, but even programmers like us are having difficulty adjusting to rent. //
Russian IT-shniks have found a solution: let's flood the provinces. Dilijan has great internet, cheaper rent, and better nature. What else do you need?
Many natives of provinces, who were renting in Yerevan, have since moved to Abovyan, Masis, Ejmiatsin, and Tsakhkadzor.
video, source, Yerevan will have a new residential district that looks like Paris | PHOTOS
They are building a residential district for 45,000 people near the Malatia-Sebastia district. The 118-hectare plot will house 63 large condos that resemble the looks of [presumably] La Défense district of Paris.
There will be parks, kindergartens, and 3 schools
(one of which will be a branch of a European school). Later, they will add a business complex with 15 buildings. And sometime later, another 30 condos and a hospital will be added. The hospital will come with French standards; they will cooperate with France.
Yerevan municipality will discuss the project tomorrow. The district will be named "Defance".
It will take 8 years to fully build the district, said the project manager. They received the construction permit last year. Some of the infrastructures will be ready next year.
To keep the air clean, the district will house 6-10 meter tall "chinar" trees imported from Italy. They will be planted along the bicycle and jogging lanes. There will be fountains.
The distance between condos will be 100 meters, separated by parks, but no streets for vehicle traffic. The hospital and mall will have parking. There will be roads where necessary, and they will be wide enough to accommodate traffic, said the manager.
The area is next to the North-South highway. They are negotiating with the government to build a highway to the airport.
The condos will be 15-25-story. The apartments will come with rooms dedicated to air conditioners, so the residents won't spoil the look by attaching them outside.
source, source, source, Jamila Afghani is awarded the 2022 Aurora Prize
She is a human rights defender who dedicated 25 years of her life to giving the women of Afghanistan access to education. Forced to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, Jamila is continuing to help others at distance.
source, COVID stats last week
6 deaths, 0.4k infected, 0.8k healed, 3.1k tested.
Fully vaccinated: 1,027,035
Half-vaccinated: 1,151,175
source, source, Pashinyan cabinet discussed the plans to introduce universal healthcare in Armenia
Context
here,
here,
here,
here.
On Monday the government discussed the 5-year plan to develop Armenia's healthcare, part of which is the introduction of universal care in multiple phases, by 2027.
It will include every service except plastic surgery and dental. It will have a mandatory and voluntary component. The goal is to reform medical institutions to the point that services will be accessible to the poor and the ունևոր.
They discussed details relating to the financial mechanisms, standards, restrictions, etc. Next time they will hold a larger meeting involving parliament MPs.
source, Constitutional reform council held another meeting to discuss possible reforms
The President is required to be an Armenian citizen only, and reside in the country for several years before assuming office. In 2021, feeling unhappy with President Sarkissian's "pro-Pashinyan" stance, the parliamentary opposition factions launched a campaign to oust Sarkissian, by highlighting alleged irregularities with his citizenship. Investigative journalists would later confirm some of these accusations, but it appeared that Sarkissian had fallen victim to bureaucratic formalities, rather than being part of a malicious process to hijack an office. He resigned, citing the campaign against him and the lack of meaningful powers envisaged for the President.
Justice Ministry held another meeting on Monday to discuss the proposed reforms to the Constitution. They want to review citizenship requirements for public officials.
source, bill: you will qualify for Armenian citizenship after investing $150,000-$250,000 in Armenia's science, IT, property, bonds, ...
The government has drafted a bill to encourage investments in science and education. Do one to qualify:
▶︎ Invest $150,000 in the charter capital of a commercial organization (acquisition of a share) for a period of at least 10 years.
▶︎ Acquire government bonds worth $150,000 for a period of at least 7 years.
▶︎ Purchase real estate worth $150,000 for a minimum period of 10 years.
▶︎ Invest $150,000 in any investment fund (approved by the government) for a period of at least 10 years.
▶︎ Found a high-tech firm with a capitalization equal to $1m or more, with a condition that the center of vital interests of the founder is in Armenia.
▶︎ Foreign nationals, who will establish a branch of a foreign IT company in Armenia with capitalization equal to 100 million dollars or more, which has 500 or more staffers in Armenia, will establish a venture foundation in the amount of 80 million dollars or more, will make a financial investment worth 100,000 USD or more in a high-tech company or a venture foundation, can also get an Armenian citizenship.
▶︎
full,,
more, drones are gaining popularity in Armenia's agriculture | VIDEO
Lori government and the EU have teamed up to acquire a drone for farmers, as part of a "green" project. It'll fight against pesticides and increase productivity. Multiple farmers are expected to share the new toy. They are undergoing a weeklong training process.
video, source, Caucasus Red Deer is re-introduced in Armenia | VIDEO
Several pairs were imported from Iran with the help of Germany. After being kept in Dilijan Park for a few years for better adaptation, they were released in the wilderness today. The pairs are expected to live in Dilijan and Tavush forests. This will be a continuous process.
video this is how the government is verifying the quality of newly installed asphalt before declaring the job done | VIDEO
The Road Department has equipment that drills a hole in the newly installed asphalt. They remove a cylinder-shaped patch and examine its density in a lab. This is done for every 7,000 m
2. "Numerous" instances of violation were recorded this year, said the chief. They withhold funds until the errors are fixed.
video, source, MONEY: from Russia to Armenia... then to Georgia?
Georgia has published its stats on private transactions for September vs September. Here are the top senders:
1) Russia $174m (+351%)
2) Italy $36m (+7%)
3) USA $29m (+17%)
...
9) Turkey $10m (-1%)
10) Armenia $9m (+677%)
source, source, top-1000 taxpayers paid a lot more in the first 9 months
1) Zangezur Copper ֏129b (3x the 2021)
2) Gasprom-Armenia ֏42b (+3b)
3) Grand Tobacco ֏32b (+7b)
4) Masis tobacco ֏16b (+1b)
5) MTS-Armenia ֏12b (+1b)
...
Total: ֏1.083 trillion (+261b)
source, source, 🔨 anti-corruption: Yerevan municipality official is charged with funeral fraud
Authorities: The official took bribes in exchange for falsifying documents so families could receive land at a cemetery, which had a restricted status.
The official also went on to falsify the records of existing burials so they could organize new funerals without raising suspicion. Some of the new burials were organized in lands located outside the cemetery, belonging to individuals.
The official has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies. //
source, 🔨 anti-corruption: authorities charge former and current officials at the property management department with large-scale theft
Authorities: Two ex-officials at Cadastre committee, with the help of their friend who works at the committee, stole 11 land plots in Yerevan worth $13.8 million. The official took millions of drams in bribes.
11 individuals have been charged. The investigation continues to uncover other participants of the scheme. //
source, 🔨 anti-corruption: authorities arrest 5 Yerevan municipality officials over alleged bribery
NSS & ACC: An official from Ketron District took a bribe in June-August in exchange for ignoring business violations by several residents.
$150 in bribes were transferred to the official's gambling account in multiple installments, as well as a $1,200 payment in-person.
The official and the bribe givers have been arrested. The investigation continues. //
source, 🔨 anti-corruption: authorities arrest a high-profile lawyer for alleged bribery, file charges against a judge
Lawyer Eric Alexanyan has been arrested by NSS. Prosecutors have also asked the Supreme Judicial Council to lift the immunity from judge Arusyak Alexanyan
(update: granted) so she can be charged as part of the same case. The lawyer is accused of helping the judge to abuse her powers.
Prosecutors won't release details in order not to discredit the judge's reputation ahead of the trial, a standard practice. That didn't stop the media from digging into the details.
It's allegedly about receiving a bribe from a criminal subculture figure who holds the highest gang title of "vor v zakone" (thief in law). It is yet to be officially confirmed.
This is the second judge who is being charged with crimes this month. Last week, charges were pressed against judge
Ani Harutyunyan, accused of forgery and financial crimes. She has denied wrongdoing.
This comes amid major changes in the justice sector. Armenia's Prosecutor General, a career prosecutor often accused of mishandling trials - especially against members of the former regime - was replaced by a justice ministry official from the Pashinyan administration. Observers believe she could be more daring.
Simultaneously, the government won the right to appoint two members to the Supreme Judicial Council, which could pave way for more charges against high-profile figures from the justice/judicial sector. Some government officials have long complained that the members of the Supreme Judicial Council had formed "cliques" with fellow judges to shield them at any cost during ethics investigations. With the appointment of two new members, this "collusion" could be more difficult.
source, source, source, source, source, 🔨 anti-corruption: authorities demand $21 million from ex-president Serj Sargsyan's bodyguard, as part of an asset forfeiture case
Vachagan Ghazaryan was Serj's bodugyard and a top official at Armenia's "Secret Service". Authorities demand the following from him and his associates:
▶︎ 15 real estate properties in Yerevan, 6 in Stepanakert, 1 in Armavir, 1 resort spa in Tsakhkadzor.
▶︎ 10 vehicles
▶︎ Company shares, including the YANS restaurant.
▶︎ Millions of dollars in cash, the legal origins of which cannot be explained by the suspects' income.
Vachagan Ghazaryan has legally earned only $730,000 starting 1993, while the properties are valued at $21 million, said a prosecutor.
source, 🔨 anti-corruption verdicts: multiple citizens are found guilty of attempting to bribe police officers
Authorities: One of the defendants offered a ֏16,000 bribe to an officer from the [newly established] Patrol Service in September. He was given a 3-year prison sentence, which was replaced with 3-year probation.
In the second case, the defendant attempted to bribe an officer with ֏15,000 on Vanadzor-Dilijan road. He was arrested and sent to the Anti-Corruption Court. The 2-year prison sentence was replaced with 2-year probation.
There have been 5 similar guilty verdicts lately. //
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