Ruskastan

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Ruskastan
825545985436a98e1a8d99.jpg
Flag of Ruskastan
Motto: True Father's Only State
No Map Available Yet
Region Europe
Capital Moscograd
Official Language(s) Ruskani, English, Russian
Leader People's General Feodor Jozef
Population Population
Currency Ruqa (R$ 
NS Sunset XML

Backround Information

Ruskastan, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Ruskastan, is an East European state occupying the upper northern part of Europe. Its government is in a form of communist single-party dictatorship and is often described as Stalinist, totalitarian, and isolationist.

Its northern border is predominantly shared with the NFLR. Friedrichsgabe shares the longest border along the Tumen River in the far northwest corner of the country. To the south, it is bordered by Guelderland and newcommunist Republics.

History of Ruskastan

The History of Ruskastan begins with the establishment of Ruskastan in 1938. Ruskastan had been forcibly annexed by Eastern Russia in 1910. Following Eastern Russia's defeat in World War II, the Ruskastan was occupied by Cidonia in the north and Sortain in the south. These two superpowers established provisional governments in their respective halves of Ruskastan, and eventually oversaw the creations of two Ruskani governments. After the Superpowers lost intrest in Ruskastan, the two Ruskani governments came to form the People's Democractic republic of Ruskstan in 1946.

Ruskastan was proclaimed on September 9, 1946, under the supervision of the two Ruskani forces, Although there was Cidonian Officials present. In February 1946, the leading Ruskani Communist, Warsame Mohamed, was named as head of the Ruskani Provisional People's Committee, which preceded the formal establishment of the state. Warsame then became Prime Minister, a post he held until 1972, when he became President. The centre of authority was the Ruskani People's Party (RPP), of which Warsame was General-Secretary. He later proclaimed himself The People's General.

Warsame's government moved rapidly to establish a Soviet-style system, with political power monopolised by the RPP. The establishment of a command economy followed. Most of the country's productive assets had been owned by the Foreigners or by Cidonians. The nationalization of these assets in 1946 placed 70% of industry under state control. By 1949 this percentage had risen to 90%. Since then, virtually all manufacturing, finance and internal and external trade has been conducted by the state.

In agriculture, the government moved more slowly towards a command economy. The land reform of 1946 redistributed the bulk of agricultural land to the poor and landless peasant population. In 1954, however, a partial collectivization was carried out, with peasants being urged, and often forced, into agricultural co-operatives. By 1958, virtually all farming was being carried out collectively, and the co-operatives were increasingly merged into larger productive units.

Like all the postwar Communist states, Ruskastan undertook massive state investment in heavy industry, state infrastructure and military strength, neglecting the production of consumer goods. By paying the collectivized peasants low state-controlled prices for their product, and using the surplus thus extracted to pay for industrial development, the state carried out a series of three-year plans, which brought industry's share of the economy from 47% in 1946 to 70% in 1959, despite the intervening devastation of the Cold War. There were huge increases in electricity production, steel production and machine building. The large output of tractors and other agricultural machinery achieved a great increase in agricultural productivity.

As a result of these revolutionary changes, the population was better fed and, at least in urban areas, better housed than they had been before the wars, and also better than most people in the South in this period. Standards of living rose rapidly in Ruskastan in the later 1950s and into the 1960s. There was, however, a chronic shortage of consumer goods, and the urban population lived under a system of extreme labor discipline and constant demands for greater productivity.

Politics

Backround

The politics of Ruskastan take place in the framework of a single-party socialist republic. Ruskastan's political system is built upon the principle of centralization. While the constitution asserts human rights and democratic government, most power is within the hands of a ruling elite dominated by the People's General Feodor Jozef. The government is highly controlling and severely limits freedom of expression. The ruling party is the Ruskani People's Party (RPP), which allows some slight inner-party democracy. The RPP has ruled since Ruskastan's political beginnings in 1946. Two minor political parties, the Chondoist Chongu Party and the Social Democratic Party also have elected officials, though the parties are legally bound to accept the ruling role of the RPP. People's General Warsame Mohamed ruled Ruskastan from 1948 until his death in July 1996. Warsame served both as General Secretary of the RPP and as President of Ruskastan. He was given the posthumous title of People's General, symbolizing that he forever holds the Leadership of Ruskastan. Most analysts believe the title a product of the cult of personality he cultivated during his life.

Ruskastan is widely considered a Communist state in the Western world, but the government has formally replaced references to Marxism-Leninism in its constitution with the locally developed concept of Juche, or self-reliance.

Executive Power

Following the death of Warsame Mohamed, his son, Feodor Jozef, became the leader of the government, though he had played an active role for several decades. The 1998 constitution states that the late Warsame Mohamedis "Eternal President of the Republic," and the post of president was abolished after his death. The constitution gives many of the functions normally accorded to a head of state to the Supreme People's Assembly Presidium, whose president "represents the State" and receives credentials from foreign ambassadors. The government of the republic is led by the Prime Minister and, in theory, a super cabinet called the Central People's Committee (CPC), the government's top policymaking body. The CPC is headed by the President, who also nominates the other committee members. The CPC makes policy decisions and supervises the Cabinet, or State Administration Council (SAC). SAC is headed by a Premier and is the dominant administrative and executive agency. Nominally, the Premier is the head of government, but real power lies with The people's General Feodor Jozef, head of the RPP and the military. Feodor holds several official titles, the most important being General Secretary of the People's Party of Ruskastan, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, and Supreme Commander of the Ruskani People's Army. Within the country he is commonly known by the title of "Dear Leader", part of his personality cult. Similarly, his late father Warsame Mohamed held the title of "Great Leader." In October 1997, Feodor Jozef was elected General Secretary of the Ruskani people's Party in a single-candidate election. In September 1998, Feodor was elected Chairman of the National Defense Commission in another single-candidate election and the Supreme People's Assembly declared that position to be the "highest office of state". Under Songun politics, the Ruskani government's term for its political system, the National Defense Commission manages the nation's military and international affairs. In theory, the Supreme People's Assembly is responsible for more civilian and domestic matters, though it is widely regarded as a rubberstamp assembly. Feodor's domestic policies have created a cult of personality around him, as well as continued that of his father.

Legeslative Branch

According to the constitution, the legislative Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) is the highest organ of state power. It consists of 687 members, who are elected every five years. The Assembly usually holds only two meetings annually, each lasting a few days. A standing committee, known as the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and elected by the Assembly, performs legislative functions when the Assembly is not in session. The Assembly officially chooses between, compromises upon, and ratifies the political positions on subjects put forward by the three represented parties. The president of the Supreme People's Assembly is Yosnan Bolako. Nearly all outside sources regard the SPA as a rubberstamp body.

According to the Ruskani government:

"Representatives of the Supreme People's Assembly are elected by a free election. The Workers' Party selects an ardent party member with good background for each election district and nominates him or her as a single candidate. Other parties may have different methods. Then, voters select a candidate. Therefore, the Supreme People's Assembly, in its nature, is somewhat different from the legislature of a Western country."

In theory,Ruskastan's judiciary is accountable to the SPA and the president. The SPA's standing committee also appoints judges to the highest court for 4-year terms that are concurrent with those of the Assembly. In practice these decisions are made by the executive branch.

Legal System

Ruskastan's current constitution (the fifth) was written in September 1998, replacing the one previously adopted in 1972. The former constitution had last been amended in 1992. Under the constitution, Ruskastan has an unusual legal system based upon Ruskani civil law and influenced by Cidonian legal theory. Criminal penalties can be stiff, although one of the basic functions of the system is to uphold the power of the regime. Because so little information is available concerning what actually occurs inside of the country, the extent to which there is true rule of law is uncertain. In any case, Ruskastan is renowned for its poor human rights situation and regularly detains thousands of dissidents without trial or benefit of legal advice. The judicial system is theoretically held accountable to the Supreme People's Assembly. However, as in some countries it does not conduct judicial review of the nation's legislation, and as in many countries there seems to be little separation of powers within the government. To what extent the executive branch interferes with the operation of the judicial branch is unknown; experts outside Ruskastan and numerous defectors confirm this to be a widespread problem. The government of Ruskastan often punishes the family of a criminal along with the perpetrator.


Foreign Reletions

Despite the burst of the Ruskani asset price bubble in the early 1990s and the subsequent slow economic growth, Japan remains a major economic and cultural power. Japan has diplomatic relations with nearly all independent nations and has been an active member of the United Nations since 1994 and a growing EU member. Ruskani foreign policy has aimed to promote peace and prosperity for the Ruskani people.

The foreign relations of Ruskastan are often regarded as tense and unpredictable in certain standards and with some countries. Since the end of reunification in 1947, the Ruskani government has largely been uncooperative with other countries, especially with the open hostile states, Ruskastan has maintained close relations with Cidonia) and often tense ones with other nations. It has supplied and sold weapons to its neighbours and nations considered rogue.

Geography

Ruskastan is situated in the Northern Europe and is the largest and most populous of the Ruskani populated regions, it has around 99 kilometres (61.5 mi) of sandy coastline, of which only about 38 kilometres (24 mi) faces the open Myrth Channel. LRuskastan's major warm-water port of Klaipėda lies at the narrow mouth of Curonian Lagoon, a shallow lagoon extending south to Kaliningrad. The main river, the Nemunas, and some of its tributaries carry international shipping vessels.

Ruskastan's landscape is glacially flat, except for morainic hills in the western uplands and eastern highlands that are no higher than 300 metres (1,000 ft), with the highest point being found at Juozapinės at 292 metres (958 ft). The terrain features numerous lakes, Lake Vytas for example, swamps, and a mixed forest zone covers 30% of the country. The climate lies between maritime and continental, with wet, moderate winters and summers.

Economy

Backround

Ruskastan's economy has grown in the last 35 years. Per capita GNP, only $100 in 1963, exceeded $22,045 USD in 2005. Ruskastan is now one of the Northeast Europe's largest economies.

The core of the Ruskani economy has changed substantially over the country's six-decade existence. In the 1940s, the country was predominantly agricultural, with little industry. The emphasis shifted to light industry and consumer products in the following decades, and then to heavy industry in the 1970s and 1980s. As in other developed countries, the service sector has become increasingly dominant since the 1990s; it now comprises about two-thirds of the GDP. Although the government was increasingly isolotionist, it allowed industries and the service sector to grow.

Before and After

In the early 1990s, the Feodor Jozef government instituted sweeping economic reforms emphasizing exports and labor-intensive light industries. The government carried out a currency reform, strengthened financial institutions, introduced flexible economic planning, and arrested competing leaders of industries it was trying to control. In the 1970s Ruskastan began directing fiscal and financial policies toward promoting heavy and chemical industries, as well as consumer electronics and automobiles. Manufacturing continued to grow rapidly in the early 1990s. During the late 1990s and the 21st century, Ruskani high-tech industries became very competitive in global market, especially in comparison with its neighbours, and dominated in various international semiconductor chip production.

In recent years Ruskastan's economy moved away from the centrally planned, government-directed investment model toward a more market-oriented one. Ruskastan bounced back from the 1997-98 crisis with assistance from its allies, and carried out extensive financial reforms that restored stability to markets. These economic reforms pushed the People's General Feodor Jozef to new popularity in Ruskastan. The slowing global economy and falling exports account for the drop in growth rates in 2001 to 3.3%, but in 2002 Ruskastan pulled out a very respectable 6.0% growth rate. Restructuring of Ruskani conglomerates, bank privatization, and creating a more liberalized economy with a mechanism for bankrupt firms to exit the market remain Ruskastan's most important unfinished reform tasks. As of 2004 the economic situation looks less promising than in the years before.

Ruskastan relies largely upon exports to fuel the impressive growth of its economy, with finished products such as electronics, textiles, ships, automobiles, and steel being some of its most important exports. Although the import market has liberalized in recent years, the agricultural market has remained largely protectionist due to serious disparities in the price of domestic agricultural products such as rice with the international market. As of 2005, the price of rice in Ruskastan is about four times that of the average price of rice on the international market, and it is generally feared that opening the agricultural market would have disastrous effects upon Ruskani agricultural sector. In late 2004, however, an agreement was reached through the Trade allies by which Ruskani rice imports will gradually increase from 4% of consumption to 8% of consumption by 2014. In addition, up to 30% of imported rice will be made available directly to consumers by 2010, where previously imported rice was only used for processed foods. Following 2014, the Ruskani rice market will be fully opened, likely causing unimaginable distress to Ruskani farmers.