[John Farson]

The timeline follows OTL up until the Duma's (parliament) mutiny against Yeltsin in October 1993, after which events diverge. I start from after the failed mutiny.

1993
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President Yeltsin arranges for new Duma elections to be held in December, having first railroaded a new constitution and an expansion in presidential powers in November. The elections turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for Yeltsin. Although Yeltsin stays in power and gets a Duma that is more or less favourable toward his policies, he is forced to compromise with the Russian military in exchange for their support and admit several military personnel into high-ranking positions.

At the end of the year there is open talk in China for the first time about the possibility of disintegration and civil war once Deng Xiaoping, the de facto leader of China, has passed on. As the central government weakens the wide economic autonomy granted to the provinces may get out of hand. Because of this, political and economic experts suggest increasing the power of the National People's Congress and moving to a US-type federal system. A senile Deng promptly strikes these reform proposals down.

As UN peacekeeping forces prove powerless to prevent the senseless slaughter in the former Yugoslavia, the UN expands its mandate to include "peace enforcement". Finland refuses to send actual combat troops, but the "traditional" UN battalion is readied for transfer to the former Yugoslavia. Regardless of official Finnish policy, in the future these men and women will be forced to fight for their very lives...