Russian Insurrection

The Russo-Israeli War was a conflict that grew out of increased nationalism within the Russian populous. It is often considered to have had its roots of the geopolitical toss-up after the Lukewarm War. It is often noted to be the key factor that solidified Israel's standing as a great power, as well as made it accepted as an ally rather than an enemy throughout the Arab world. From Russia's perspective, this war is seen as the first step towards civil war and the balkanization of Russia. The successor state of Russia, the Muscovian Republic, however, eventually became a true great power, eventually over the course of the next century regaining its breakaway nations through treaties, which would eventually form the Union of Sovereign States, a loose confederation of former Soviet states, originally proposed by Mikail Gorbechav as a refomed succesor state to the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Origins
The conflict, of course, had its roots scattered in many different periods, ranging from the geopolitical chaos caused by the Soviet Union's collapse, to the geopolitical analysis often used by the General Staff Academy of the Russian military as a textbook, Foundations of Geopolitics, by Alexander Dugin.

The Russian elite had been moving forward with the gepolitical blueprint expressed in this book for more than 30 years now. A confederated Union State, originally just consisting of Russia and Belarus, but expanding into Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, and Ukraine was often said to be the first step. As well, the careful manipulation of European politics through the use of oil and natural gas sales forced Europe into a position where their energy needs put them at the feet of Russia, despite the immense American influence on the region.

Also, the South Ossetian War of 2008, now known to have been fully planned out by Russia, loosened Georgia's grip on South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia. After the Treaty of Strassburg, which offically ended the Lukewarm War and began the US-China friendship seen today, as well as starting the European Union's reorganization process and path to the union of France and Germany, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Chechnya, and South Ossetia gained independence and swiftly joined the Union State in early 2032. As well, the already independent states of Taijikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan joined the Union State, all on 2034, except for Taijikistan, who joined the Union State. The Collective Security Treaty Organization then expanded its reach over all of these new member states, as well as Armenia, Lithuania and Latvia (membership into the CSTO wasn't given to those nations in the Union State but already in HATO, the successor alliance to NATO, until after 20xx, when Russia secretly threatened the Franco-German Commonwealth with a massive cut of its fossil fuel reserves, unless it pushed for the reduction of HATO).

In 2048 the escalation to war was said to have truly begun, through carefully planned maneuvers by Russia. In one of these covert actions, Persia, which was reformed from the Islamic Republic of Iran following the Lukewarm War, was unexpectedly attacked by Azerbaijan. Persia responded with a prompt invasion of the tiny nation. In reality, Russian spetznas posing as Persian forces fired on Azerbaijanis from across the Azerbaijani-Persian border. Persia knew of this plan, for over the past approxamately 40 years, the Persians were secretly planning alongside the Russians, as junior partners.

After this, the CSTO admitted Persia and occupied Azerbaijan. Next, renewed seccessionist efforts in the Uighur Republic in the Federal Republics of China, sponsored by Russian funding, created an unstable situation in the FRC. China responded with police action and even sent in the military.

In 2041, fairly early on in this whole story, Finland joined the Union State, but over the 20 years, it slowly was assimilated into the Russian Federation. In 2059, it was split between the Republic of Karelia and the Murnmansk Oblast and fully absorbed, an action that prompted a Finnish Nationalist militia to form, which was branded by Russia a terrorist organization and was brutally expunged by the Russian special forces. Mongolia joined the Union State in 2049, and underwent a similar process to Finland. A militia there too arose, but here, it was secretly funded by China and the US. When this was discovered in 2057, tensions rose to Cold War levels between Russia and the Hesperian Alliance Treaty Organization, believed to be the main reason HATO didn't intervene in the war, for fear of starting a nuclear world war.

Without warning, on December 12, 2061, Persia invaded Kurdistan with Russian assistance, with the intention of establishing an Islamic empire, or caliphate. The next day, Israel, in a bold move, declared war on Russia and Persia, for attacking a nation who shared a mutual defense agreement with Israel.