President Kolschonski's speech at the UN left no room for doubt that if the REJOIN referendum did not produce a favorable result for Russia then they would invade and take Ukraine by force. He gave a speech filled with triumphal language about Russia's nuclear capabilities, the fearlessness of Russian soldiers, the Russian empire's glorious victories against the Ottomans and the Swedes, and the Russian army's defeat of the Nazi's which saved the world from the greatest evil it had ever seen. After listing this litany of Russia's strengths and successes, the president took aim at his enemies and, in highly bellicose language, castigated the West for trying to take credit away from the Russia for defeating the Nazis and for their hypocrisy in condemning the foreign policies of other nations despite their histories of slavery, colonization and sponsored coups. He went on to warn Russia's enemies that any interference in Russia's affairs would be met with an immediate response of overwhelming power. His speech was poorly received within the General Assembly hall and set off a flurry of speculation about the seriousness of the president's threats. Sonya watched the president's speech as part of the Russian delegation and thought that the day when she succeeded him couldn't come soon enough.

To boost his foreign policy bona fides, Jim Balmer had traveled to New York and held highly publicized meetings with a number of world leaders on the sidelines of the assembly. His meeting with Vladimir Kolschonski attracted the most attention. The two met privately for over two hours, much longer than his other meetings with world leaders. After the meeting the two men held a press conference during which Jim Balmer was asked a series of questions that he was loathe to answer.

"Congressman Balmer, do you believe that Russia is going to invade Ukraine?"

"I think it's dangerous to casually speculate about things as serious as invasions."

"Did you ask president Kolschonski about whether he plans to invade Ukraine?"

"We talked about a wide range of issues during our meeting."

"Was Russia invading Ukraine one of those issues?"

"We discussed security during our meeting."

"Did you discuss the security of Ukraine?"

"I'm really not at liberty to discuss with you what we discussed during our meeting, we talked about matters that are very sensitive and it would be irresponsible of me to share the details of our discussion with you."

"What are your thoughts about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine?"

"I am not going to irresponsibly speculate on hypotheticals, how many times do I have to tell you the same thing?"

"If you win the election and Russia invades Ukraine while you are president, would you use your powers as Commander-In-Chief to assist the Ukrainians?"

"What you're describing is well, well off in the future, though I did like what you said about me being president," Jim answered, trying to be charming.

"But seriously, Congressman Balmer, can the Ukrainians expect us to be on their side if Russia invades them?"

"I don't see why they would; we don't have a security treaty with them."

"Are you saying that you wouldn't help Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion?"

"I said we don't have a treaty with them, I didn't say I wouldn't help."

"So you would help?"

"Look, the only promise that I can make is to promise the American people that as Commander-In-Chief I will be responsible with our military and won't send our fighting men and women into conflicts that they have no business being in," Jim answered, switching to campaign mode.

"When you say conflicts that they have no business being in, does that include a conflict between Russia and Ukraine?"

"There's not going to be a war between Russia and Ukraine, okay! So stop asking me about this!"

"Did President Kolschonski tell you that there would be no war?"

"Yes he did, I asked him about all of the rumors that we've been hearing about a Russian invasion of Ukraine and he assured me that he has no such plans and he was very powerful in his denial and I believe him."

After Jim Balmer gave this answer his communications director abruptly brought the press conference to an end. For President Kolschonski, the press conference had given him everything that he had hoped for and then some. For Jim Balmer, the press conference was a complete disaster. Immediately following the press conference, every talking head on television was dissecting Jim Balmer's performance at the press conference and offering all sorts of theories for why Jim Balmer had been so evasive before losing his cool. Some speculated that Jim Balmer was intimidated by President Kolschonski, other's speculated that something fishy had taken place during the meeting, pointing to the fact that David Huntsman, who had business interests in Russia and had recently attended the Growth and Opportunities Conference in Moscow, was Jim Balmer's biggest campaign contributor. The theory that emerged out of all of this speculation that everybody embraced was that David Huntsman was a conduit between Jim Balmer's campaign and the Kremlin, and that the money that David Huntsman had been giving to Jim Balmer's campaign was actually coming from Russia, meaning that Jim Balmer was beholden to the Russians, making him the equivalent of a Russian agent.

The accusation that Jim Balmer was a Russian agent was dismissed by his campaign and his allies as utter nonsense that had been conjured up by the liberal media to harm his campaign, but they were all at a loss for explaining what had happened during the congressman's meeting with the Russian president and whether President Kolschonski had said something to Jim Balmer that had caused him to be so deferential to President Kolschonski. Telling the truth was not an answer. No way could Jim Balmer tell anybody that Vladimir Kolschonski had told him during their meeting that they had mutual friends in Chris Dixon and Fyodor Milichenko, the latter of whom had told him all about the designs of the Raven which, if they were to come to fruition, required the two of them to work together. As a proud cold warrior, Jim couldn't stand the position that he had been placed in of having to side with the Russians, and it wasn't doing his campaign any good. Needing to constantly defend against assertions that he was a Russian agent had taken him off message, and his poll numbers in direct match-ups against the top three Democratic candidates were slipping. Chris Dixon did his bit to try and help Jim, but only made things worse.

"Why the hell is everybody criticizing Jim Balmer for not saying that he would defend Ukraine against Russia?! Can't you idiots see that Jim Balmer is absolutely right not to commit to helping Ukraine?! Who's the energy powerhouse? Russia. Who has the second largest military in the world? Russia. It would be insane of us to back Ukraine over Russia in a conflict between the two when it's in our best interest to have a constructive relationship with Russia. And as for all of these people who are saying that we absolutely have to stand with Ukraine, I'm sorry, do you not know the world works? The strong take from the weak, anybody that doesn't understand that needs to grow up and realize that the strong are winners and the weak are losers, and we want to be on the side of the winners!"

Chris's rant was seen by all as an endorsement of Russia invading Ukraine and was widely criticized. Rather than helping Jim Balmer he had put him in the uncomfortable position of once again having to be evasive with the press about what he thought about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Jim couldn't criticize Chris, his audience was too important; all he could do was continue to be evasive and hope that the story would blow over before it had done too much damage to his electoral ambitions.