Admiral Hasanmangavar, who had personally witnessed the nuclear submarine's power, was full of praise for the Type 971 attack submarine. "Mr. Mavi, Captain Andrei, your country's nuclear submarine is truly impressive! When I get back, I'll definitely recommend it strongly to the President!"
Witnessing the collapse and disintegration of a 600-meter-diameter iceberg right before his eyes, India's Defense Minister, Hasanmangavar, was already dreaming of the magnificent scene it would be to have this attack submarine sailing the Arabian Sea.
However, the price tag of nearly 4.1 billion US dollars for the 3.5-generation fighter jets plus the Type 971 nuclear submarine was simply too steep. It looked like the Indian government was going to have to go into debt again.
Two weeks later, the Indian government officially sent orders for the fighter jets and nuclear submarine to the Russian military. The total price came to 4.09 billion US dollars.
The nuclear submarine could be delivered immediately. As for the MiG-33 fighter jets, there were about 10 in stock. The remaining 20 would be delivered within two years.
"Mr. Mavi, we really can't thank you enough!" After the order was finalized, Admiral Paviser, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet, personally called Mavi. He sincerely thanked him for all the help he had provided to the Navy.
After all, selling the attack nuclear submarine was equivalent to helping the Northern Fleet ease their financial pressure. At the same time, they could use this huge sum of 2.8 billion dollars to acquire new warships and renovate the old ships that had fallen into disrepair over the years.
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Mavi," Admiral Paviser added on the call, "our Northern Fleet wants to pre-order 6 of the latest Guardian-class frigates and 1 modified Guardian-class destroyer from your shipyard. The order will be sent to the North Sea Shipyard shortly."
This meant that Mavi helped the Northern Fleet sell a nuclear submarine, and in the end, the money flowed back to him. And on top of that, the Russian Navy owed him a favor and was expressing their gratitude.
"Okay, Admiral Paviser, 6 of the Guardian-class frigates currently under development, and 1 modified Guardian-class destroyer, right? Got it," Mavi confirmed calmly.
The Guardian-class frigate in the order was a new type of frigate he had invested in researching and developing with the Russian Naval Research Bureau two years prior. It was an upgraded version of the Grisha-class frigate. According to the development progress, the frigate was expected to be basically finalized by mid-2003. Then it would go into production to replace the aging frigates in the Russian Navy that were nearing retirement.
It was estimated that the number over the next 10 years would be at least around two hundred. This would significantly boost Mavi's influence within the military.
The conflict between India and Pakistan resulted in Russia being arguably the sole winner. This is because after all the fighting, both countries ended up buying weapons from Russia. Whether Pakistan temporarily held the upper hand or the Indian military was stronger, the money ultimately ended up in Russia's pocket.
Speaking of the Middle East, the Russian military had been fighting against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan for nearly five months now.
Thanks to the complete tactics provided by Mavi, this time around, Russia was much stronger than the Taliban, both in terms of equipment and fighting style. The combat readiness of every soldier was also far superior to the Taliban's irregular forces.
This meant that currently, the Russian military had helped the Northern Alliance reclaim over 90% of Afghanistan's territory, driving the Taliban into remote mountainous areas. They were also strictly investigating locals providing the Taliban guerrillas with supplies like food, water, and medicine.
Using drones and missiles, they continuously bombed the Taliban's hiding places in the mountains, leaving the Taliban leader and Bin Laden in constant fear.
Fortunately, in this timeline, the Soviet Union never invaded Afghanistan, which didn't provide the environment to train war talent (during the 10-year invasion, the US gave Afghanistan a lot of equipment, which eventually all flowed to the black market and was used by Al-Qaeda). Otherwise, even with a complete strategy, Afghanistan would likely have been a tough nut to crack, impossible to conquer.
The Americans fought for 18 years and eventually had to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Taliban. After the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban overthrew the interim government and regained power in less than four months. They were truly incredibly resilient.
Just after the Northern Fleet sold an attack nuclear submarine at a high price, not long after, the Black Sea Fleet and the Pacific Fleet also approached Mavi, hoping he could find a way to help them trade one of their submarines as well, to buy new ships and strengthen their surface capabilities.
"Mr. Mavi, can you find a buyer to help purchase a Type 971 nuclear submarine from our base?" During the former Soviet era, they simply built a bit too many nuclear submarines. It was a source of unspoken trouble for the four fleets. Only they knew how many ships under construction the Russian Navy had canceled and how many warships had been retired early just to maintain these nuclear submarines.
But later, they realized that light frigates and destroyers were much more practical.
"I will contact suitable buyers for the Akula-class attack nuclear submarines and the Oscar-class cruise missile nuclear submarines." In his mind, Mavi already had the perfect candidate: Russia's neighboring country, China (Z国).
In the previous timeline, Russia was extremely wary of China, preferring to lease nuclear submarines to India rather than selling them to China. That was because India's shipbuilding industry, even years later, wouldn't be able to learn the technology to build nuclear submarines. China, however, was completely different; they were fully capable of grasping the relevant technology of Russian nuclear submarines.
In this timeline, due to Mavi's involvement and matchmaking, the friendship between the allied nations had gradually deepened. Therefore, selling aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines to China, plus secretly sending scientists and engineers to help, was all part of the plan to help the allied nations develop quickly.
...
For the nuclear submarine transactions, Mavi sent people to contact China. The price wouldn't be as prohibitively expensive as it was for India.
As for Sochi, he strategically invested the 1.6 billion US dollars earned from the Indians (the profit remaining after deducting the cost of the fighter jets, the cost of the warships the Navy planned to buy, and taxes) into the city's infrastructure and urban planning.
"Young Master, these are the design proposals for the Olympic venues. We contacted 16 companies in total, and they provided 24 sets of designs," Butler Ivan said, handing Mavi the proposals collected over the past two months for a closer look.
Since the 2012 Summer Olympics were going to be held in Russia, Mavi could only use Russian architectural companies and design firms for the designs. Using companies from other countries was out of the question; people would laugh their heads off...
(End of Chapter)