Winter, red flags, vodka.

Moscow.

This important city, which has served as the capital of the country from the time of the Grand Duke of Moscow to Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation, may be destined to spend this long winter in silence and hesitation.

According to the custom of the Russian Orthodox Church, although Christmas in the Soviets was two weeks later than in Europe and the United States, it stands to reason that the city had already begun to decorate the festive atmosphere at this time - as one of the two most important traditional holidays in Russia, this is quite rare nowadays.

The sky over the whole city seems to be shrouded in an invisible cloud, and there is a touch of melancholy that is difficult to dissolve between everyone's eyebrows, newspapers, radio, television, bulletin boards...... All media through which people receive information have fallen silent for a moment, and with the exception of the most basic cold newsletters, the post-December Soviet Union seems to have fallen silent for a moment.

In the gray concrete complex, there is hardly any variegated color except for the bright red sickle-hammer flag.

The vast majority of people go home after commuting instead of gathering at the bar for a few drinks and chatting for a while, and in a kind of breathless depression, people lose the mood for small talk and discussion – everyone knows that the choice of what to do is no longer in their hands.

Ever since Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union and became an independent free country, the situation has become even worse.

Bad news is pouring out from inside the Kremlin, and almost every few days there is a declaration of independence in a region, or a referendum on a region's secession from the Soviet Union, whose vast red territory is rapidly shrinking with visible speed.

Ordinary people don't know much about advanced political games, and most of them can only see the most superficial news.

Compared with the panic caused by witnessing the collapse of a huge alliance, what occupies the most in people's hearts now is a kind of confusion - the situation in the past six months has changed really incomprehensibly.

A referendum on whether to retain the Union had just been held at the end of March, and the Soviet people, with more than 70 percent of the vote, chose to keep the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

But in less than half a year, the whole situation suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse.

One union republic after another declared independence, and high-level political events in the country occurred almost every month.

Not long ago, the leaders of the three founding republics, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Kravchuk, and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus Shushkevich, held a signing ceremony in the Belovezh Forest to dissolve the Soviet Union, including the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States," announcing the formation of the "Commonwealth of Independent States."

It pushed this oppressive and stagnant atmosphere in the air to the very top, and everyone understood that it was really only a matter of time before the once unbreakable alliance was completely shattered.

Everyone in Moscow is full of trepidation, waiting for news from the Kremlin – no one knows if they will wake up one day and the pillar that people once believed and relied on will suddenly disappear.

In this winter without war, the entire Soviet Union seems to have returned to that time a few decades ago.

Under the panic, countless undercurrents quietly surged.

Late at night, in the presidential meeting room of the newly formed government of "Free Ukraine".

Guards still dressed in Soviet uniforms stood blankly outside the door, dutifully guarding the strangely and comical business negotiations taking place in the meeting room, where the newly appointed President of Ukraine, Kravchuk, on one side, and an unknown shipping company from Norway on the other.

As is customary, an ordinary company should not be qualified to negotiate directly with the leaders of a country, especially if it is recognized as one of the top three comprehensive powers in Europe today, but ......

For Kravchuk, this is too tempting compared to the amount of money to be sold.

As a country that had just declared independence from the Soviet Union, almost the day after Ukraine left the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union's domestic economic delivery to Ukraine was completely halted in an instant - the huge supply of troops and the welfare of the whole people in order to get closer to the good capitalist world brought Ukraine's treasury to the brink of collapse almost in a week.

Due to various reasons, the "freedom loan" promised by the Americans has not yet been in place, and in order to maintain the national economy of Ukraine on the edge of the cliff, Kravchuk, who has just taken office as president of Ukraine, has lost a lot of his hair these days, and he is almost not ready to announce disarmament and postpone the payment of government salaries.

And at this time, the Norwegian father who suddenly appeared in the field of vision of the Ukrainian government is simply the loveliest friend in the world.

“...... We have learned about your company's order. There is no doubt that the choice of the Black Sea shipyard was a very wise choice, and there is no other shipyard in Europe that can be better than ours. The Soviet Union has a powerful navy that can compete with the Americans, and the backbone of this batch of ships is all from the Black Sea!"

“...... The whole world understands the advanced shipbuilding technology that Ukraine possesses, and there is no need for Mr. President to continue to emphasize this, since we are willing to pay such a high cost, we naturally have great confidence in the capabilities of the Black Sea shipyard. Merely...... Mr. Kravchuk, shopping malls are like battlefields, and time is an extremely important indicator. If the Ukrainian side is slow to complete the delivery of ships, then this order will not make much sense......"

“...... Mr. Rakhi, don't be in a hurry. The Ukrainian government attaches great importance to the order for the construction of six large ships proposed by your company, which is an export trade that we must obtain. However, slipway 0 is currently temporarily occupied, and there is now a military vessel that Ukraine helped build during the Soviet era. In this regard, we still need to wait for the response from the Russian side before we can give an accurate answer. ”

"Soviet, Mr. Kravchuk, you joked, the whole world knows what the situation in the Soviet Union is now, and I don't think Moscow will care about the grand naval program far away in the Black Sea shipyard - as far as I know, the slipway 0 in your mouth has been suspended for almost half a month, right? Perhaps, Ukraine needs to get rid of the shadow of the past and get back on its own path. ”

"There is no doubt that Ukraine has long since shaken off the shadow of the Soviet Union! However, this matter still needs to be discussed with Moscow after all, so please understand and wait a little longer...... After all, dismantling about half of the Ulyanovsk, which was built for nothing, into scrap steel is also a very unacceptable loss for the Ukrainian government. ”

"Well, then we'll wait a little longer, and I'll hope to get a definite answer by January next year at the latest. As you know, we can't wait forever...... Although there is only one shipyard in the Black Sea, if it really can't be done, the slightly worse shipyard is not out of ......"

“...... Don't worry, Mr. Rakhi, the results will soon be met! And I assure you that as long as this order is signed, your company will always be the most loyal and friendly friend of the Ukrainian people!"

With the ticking of the clock, the negotiations in the conference room gradually came to an end.

Kravchuk stood up, shook the right hand of the Norwegian company representative with both hands, and said firmly.

If he remembers correctly, earlier this morning, the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefly mentioned that a steel company from the United States wants to buy steel for the construction of aircraft carriers at a high price.

As long as he negotiates with the American steel company tomorrow and settles the opinions and disputes from the Russian side, through these two large foreign exchange transactions, the newborn free Ukraine will soon reap the joy of double share, and the empty treasury will turn around in an instant.

"That's the beauty of global capitalization...... Praise the free economy! Ukraine has become rich since then!"

Kravchuk stood in the living room, looked at the economic staff officers around him, and said with a sigh.

And at the same time......

A similar scene also appeared in other corners of the Soviet Union, where the fangs of the capitalists, who had already entered the final time of death, finally couldn't help but stab forward fiercely.

The feast has quietly begun.

Merely...... At this banquet, there was an extra guest without an invitation.

Hogwarts.

Located on the top floor of the castle tower, on the rooftop outside the school's owl shed.

Elena stretched out her hand and took a snowflake that fell from the sky, and quietly watched the snowflake melt in her palm, recalling the gossip about the Black Sea shipyard that she had just learned from the letter of the old saint.

The corners of the girl's mouth lifted slightly, and she clenched her palms with her backhand, as if she had grasped the steel giant in the distant dockyard.

It's almost time, and it's time for Hogwarts to begin to show its fangs.

Otherwise...... But I can't eat anything!

"Reserve grain, fly, let the will of destiny soar over Ukraine!"

————

————

Damn, the hotel actually has an Internet!