Iran, Gulf crisis, oil prices skyrocket Russia however is fairly self-sufficient; the Bering Strait territory of skira

in the years preceding is discovered to be home to a very large reserve of oil, allowing it to ride out things oil processes. Skira however has a rough past with various superpowers claiming it throughout out its history. Given its locality to many countries particularly China, Japan and Russia this is hardly surprising as all three have been super powers at some stage in history. The first claimants of the island are china though having discovered it and laid claim to it. That said they were left behind by Russia and Japan laying successive claims. With the last change of the ownership occurring after Japans loss in the 2nd world war the Japanese having claim since they conquered the whole island in the Russian Japanese war. In a similar situation to the Falkland Islands but with a third player With the discovery of oil underneath skira and its territorial waters, what was once desirable property becomes very hot indeed. This adds to Russian already vast fossil fuel reserves that are doing wonders for their economy, and adds to the jealousy of surrounding nations, particularly the thirsty PRC. With the GFC slowing the Chinese economy as well as the rising oil prices as a result of continued tensions in the Middle East and the continuing Arab spring efforts has resulted in much more uncertainty, in the economy something that the government could not sell to its people. Along with the increased oil prices the PRC was in a tight spot. Chinas considerable and growing thirst is becoming a major problem for the government, as more people complain due to the higher prices. It is not unforeseeable that this will affect industry and the GDP significantly. The Chinese government comes to the conclusion that this is untenable situation to be in strategically and economically. China having initially colonialized it in the 1400s has as far as records go first claim. Making any movement towards reclamation - certainly to some extent - in their eyes entirely valid. Using the North Korean rocket launch and the general heightened alertness surrounding it, china itself raises its alert levels and moves into position elements of its airborne and marine infantry above the north of Korea, seemingly to cover its neighbor. No one is any the wiser indeed Russia had no clue. On the 23rd of March as the sun began to set the first Chinese soldier set foot ashore. Having landed on the SW corner of the island the Chinese made the most of the surprise and tiny occupying force and pushed with all haste north to link up with the airborne divisions that had landed in the North West and center east. By 2103 hours the capital and largest population center had been secured and by 0500 the next day the entire island had been. The Russian reaction was justifiably delayed, for the most part they had not anticipated this form of aggression from china particularly against them. No element of the GRU had any idea that such an event was on the horizon (heads did roll as a result of this failing in the intelligence community). Russian public reaction was one of shock firstly that they had been invaded and secondly that they had this island. Indeed when looking back at prior to the invasion, there were only a few mentions of the

island. The most notable a page 7 (closest it ever got to the front) article about possible oil, from several years ago. One editorial three days later, summed up very effectively the feelings of the nation. The title was 'I have never been so shocked by an act against a place I never knew existed'. Whilst long for a head line it did effectively summarize the feeling of the nation. That said while the public, and government was reeling the military was taking action. As soon as the invasion of skira was realized the entire Russian armed forces were put on alert, in fact soldiers and their machinery were deployed into defensive position along the border with china in anticipation of further offensive actions from the south. In conjunction with this general evacuation was issued for town within 50 km of the boarder. In case a shooting war did break out. Plans were put into action the night of the invasion initiating the movement of a vast majority of the Russian armed forces and reserves to the east. For the most part nationwide rail services were put on hold were put on hold as hundreds of tons of machinery moved east. In perhaps the most impressive logistical occurrence in military history the Russians were able to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers west in the space of a week, something that unlike Reforger was never practiced (they had generally always planned on going west). In the eastern regions particularly regions abutting to china reserves were called up and put on the highest readiness. The Russian navy of the east was out of port within 7 hours of the invasion, having been preceded by the Russian strategic submarine fleet by almost 6 full hours. This was most worrying for the Chinese, seeing as in addition all of Russias (land based) mobile strategic forces had been dispersed. It caused much heat under the collar of Chinese officials. As all of this was occurring in regards to the mainland footage continued to exit skira filmed by skiran locals and a community station film crew and the uploaded to YouTube. YouTube was continually flooded with new updates about the situation. This provided the Russian intelligence with by proxy on the ground intelligence, in a similar manner to the videos escaping Syria via YouTube. In addition to this much of the available Russian space borne intelligence gathering assets as well as, much of the American where now positioned over skira providing almost constant surveillance in most spectrumsi. The PLAN had setup a corridor for oil tankers from the south-western oil refinery. To allow the safe transit of tankers to and from the island, in particular to their own refineries. The evening of the invasion (Moscow time) president Vladimir Putin addressed the nation. He stressed diplomatic actions were being undertaken but this would not halt the planned repositioning forces west.
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Will be discussed later