“ I never thought I'd see U.S. troops fighting in Red Square on behalf of the Russian people. This is the final showdown, gentlemen. The ultranationalists hold the Kremlin and not much else. We're going to finish this thing right here. - White Razor mission briefing”
The 2008 Russian War was a major armed conflict and one of the largest to break out since World War 2. Arising from a protracted conflict in the South Ossetian autonomous region of Georgia, the war escalated into open conflict between Georgia and Russia in May of 2008 after the deployment of American and British forces to the region whose duties far exceeded peacekeeping and were in fact the cover for clandestine, offensive operations against Separatist forces which triggered a collapse of Russian-American relations and an invasion of the country.
By June of 2008, Russia had launched a full scale invasion of the Baltic states and elsewhere through subjugated Belarus and Ukraine. The Russians were bogged down and forced to retreat by the end of September. With unrest at an all-time high, civil war broke out with the Army overthrowing the elected government. An invasion of Russia was followed with the military collapsing by the end of the year.
Background
In 2005, after years of economic stagnation and a significant, irreversible decline in Russia's position on the world stage, the Russian people became radicalized and kicked Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin, installing an Ultranationalist despot, Dmitri arbatov in his place.
He immediately froze liberal reforms within Russia, launched an aggressive policy of repression against organized crime, big business and ethnic minorities, redirecting a drastic amount of Russia's budget toward the military and placed his friends and allies in positions of power throughout the officer corps. General Viktor Karpin was appointed as General of the Army and Deputy Defense Minister, with him and Arbatov publicly stated their revanchist intentions to reclaim the old Soviet Empire.
Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, one by one the independent republics slipped back into the Russian orbit as satellite regimes were established in their place. Russian tanks were stationed in the Caucasus mountains and the Baltic forests, poised to strike to the south and the east as the war in South Ossetia and Abkhazia escalated to the verge of all out warfare between the Georgian government and the separatist rebels.
Provocation
Believing the flashpoint to be of Russian design, the United States and a number of other countries deployed peacekeepers to the Caucasus and began launching airstrikes and surgical strikes against South Ossetian positions. After three weeks of escalating tensions and Russian build up on the Georgian border, the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement condemning "foreign meddling in regional affairs" as three Russian armored divisions crossed the border into the country on May 2.
Despite the involvement of a prestigious Green Beret unit, the Georgian forces were quickly overwhelmed as Russian forces flooded into the country. The peacekeepers began their withdrawal as the Georgian president and his cabinet fled the country to establish a government in exile. The American embassy in Tbilisi was evacuated only twelve days after the initial attack on May 14.
Escalation
With Georgia fully secured by Russian forces by June 6, Dmitri Arbatov welcomed the new state into the Russian Democratic Union while he began plotting another intervention, this time in the Baltics. Border skirmishes began to occur across the Baltic, escalating until all-out war occurs. Russia launched an all-out offensive into the Baltics on June 10, beginning two main thrusts, one along the coast to Tallinn and the other straight past Izborsk to Riga.
Although the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius fell within the first week of the invasion, the Russian advance in Latvia was slowed significantly after the Ghosts blow one of the major bridges crossing the Lubana River. The 1st Armored Division managed to halt the Russian advance just barely, with a very fluid situation developing on the front. The Ghosts are deployed to eliminate self-propelled artillery stationed in a small village near Venta, Lithuania, June 24.
The Russians are stalled just south of Riga and began preparations for an urban assault on the city. The Ghosts are deployed to disrupt communications before the attack on July 3. With growing losses, the Russians began to fall back on all fronts, the humiliation was not taken to lightly by the military brass and a coup was brewing. An American armored column moves into Vilnius to liberate the ruined city on September 1st, with the Russians employing tactics used by their former enemies in Chechnya, but are ultimately unsuccessful.
Resolution
As Russia was falling apart. Dmitri Arbatov was executed by the military as a scapegoat for the fiasco in the Baltic. Much of the country was put under martial law, curfews in place across many of the major cities and army squads patrolling the streets. There were widespread reports of Russian soldiers refusing to fire on civilians or even leave their own barracks. To whittle down Ultranationalist support in the military even further, the Ghosts were deployed to hit a major submarine base on September 22, only causing further disruption.
A violent civil war broke out in Russia between the Centrists in the government and the Ultranationalist hardliners, Russian on Russian fighting occurring from Smolensk to Vladivostok. On October 3, the Ghosts were deployed to hit a Russian airbase in Arkhangelsk harboring a number of next generation aircraft. Despite Ultranationalist support and legitimacy withering away to next to nothing, the Centrists were stalled in their fight due to their still sizable control over the military.
Acting Prime Minister Viktor Karpin privately requested NATO intervention to assist the Loyal Russian troops in crushing the military coup. American Armor crossed the Latvian border and began moving toward Moscow. On October 23, the main Ultranationalist force situated near Toropec came under assault from the 1st Armored Division supported by the Ghosts. The Ultranationalists were obliterated after they were encircled in the center of Moscow by November 10.
Trivia
- In August 2008, the Russo-Georgian war began, only three months off from the date provided by Ghost Recon.
- In real-life, the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) joined NATO in 2004. However, in the first Ghost Recon game, they weren't part of NATO by 2008.
Appearances
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (First appearance)