The scandal colloquially known as "Cloudgate" (named after character from Final Fantasy VII, a beloved video game in Diaboland) was a near-fatal incident that occured three years ago involving several Diablian presidents. The conflict began during a speech made by the president of foreign relations Qualdar Polan, where he talked about how peace and tolerance of other nations is essential, and how war ruins everything. Current president of defense, Xander Killings, booed the speech, climbed onstage, tackled Qualdar and grabbed the mic from him. Xander subsequently began viciously attacking Qualdar's character, and declaring him unfit to be a president. Queen Dysnomia organized an urgent meeting the next day, to take a vote on whether Xander should be forced to step down as a president. When Qualdar made his case about what happened to him and why it was wrong, Xander threw a massive, oversized sword at him. Fortunately the throw was not deadly, however Qualdar's arm was severed. Queen Dysnomia immediately fired Xander from his position, and Qualdar subsequently retired as president. The whole incident was broadcast live on television, with audience reactions ranging from "shocking" to "funniest thing I've ever seen".
Radiatia's biggest political scandal was the Impeachment of Gregori Fyoderov, in which the nation's 6th President was removed from office for abuse of power and sentenced to 10 years in prison for second degree murder after it emerged that he had used R-SOD (the intelligence agency at the time) to orchestrate the murder of his ex-wife (and former first lady).
The Impeachment of Gregori Fyoderov, 6th President of the Radiatian Federation occurred on January 28th, 4057NC. Two days later he was convicted by the Radiatian Federal Senate and removed from office, leading to Angela Pavlovic replacing him as President of the Radiatian Federation.
Fyoderov was charged with conspiracy and gross abuse of power after evidence emerged that he had unlawfully ordered R-SOD to assassinate his ex wife, First Lady Patricia Fyoderov. Subsequent to his removal from office, Fyoderov was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for second degree murder. He was released from prison in 4062 after receiving a pardon from President Jaagen Autenberg.
Background Gregori and Patricia Fyoderov publicly announced their divorce on October 9th, 4056 after 30 years of marriage. This had followed months of speculation in the media, given that Mrs Fyoderov was rarely seen in public, with the couple's daughter Zoe tending to act as First Lady at official functions.
It was agreed that Patricia Fyoderov would keep the formal title "First Lady" and continue to function in an official capacity, including keeping a residence and continuing the social programmes she had been advocating alongside the President.
Gregori Fyoderov then went on to win the 4056 election in the biggest landslide in Radiatian history. It is believed that following his re-inauguration, he objected to Patricia Fyoderov continuing to act as First Lady, having requested the title be given to his daughter Zoe for his second term. Despite the divorce and acrimony between the couple, Patricia Fyoderov was present at the re-inauguration.
On January 18th, 4057, it was reported that Patricia Fyoderov and her driver had been killed after being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle between rival gangs in Midgard City.
Although it was not reported until January 18th, on January 17th President Fyoderov wrote on CONFERO that he had nothing to do with a "tragic accident" despite the fact that he would have had no way of knowing about the incident by that point without being involved. This post was deleted, but screenshots were kept by the Federal Police Agency.
A subsequent investigation revealed that two of the ten people arrested for the shootings had connections to the President - one, Jarvis Kristov was known to have worked for the Liberal-Conservative Party as a security guard before the 4056 election. The second, Gojia Haraa, was revealed to have been an agent for R-SOD.
Haraa claimed that he had been ordered to carry out an assassination, which R-SOD officials eventually admitted came directly from the President's office.
Impeachment With evidence mounting that Fyoderov was linked to the assassination, including a federal judge acquitting Haraa and Kristov of murder due to their professional roles, the Radiatian Federal Assembly began to debate the possibility of the President's involvement.
On January 28th, the Federal Assembly voted by 298 votes to 111 to pass articles of impeachment for conspiracy and gross abuse of power.
Polls showed that by this point Fyoderov - who had previously enjoyed record high approval ratings - sunk to only 8% public support.
Trial The trial began in the Senate the next day, Presided over by Chief Justice Tobias Kneib.
Fyoderov was represented by a legal team of 12 people, led by Andrea Jund, and attempted to argue that Patricia Fyoderov was not the target of the assassination, but that her foreign born driver was believed to be a terrorist.
This defence fell apart under scrutiny, given that the Convert Operations Committee - who are legally entitled to be informed of any assassination order - were not informed, nor was there any evidence linking the driver to any known terrorist group.
On January 30th, 60 out of 74 Senators voted to convict Gregori Fyoderov and remove him from office, making him the first President of the Radiatian Federation ever to be impeached or removed in this way.
Aftermath Vice President Angela Pavlovic was immediately sworn in as the 7th Presdent of the Radiatian Federation, making her the country's first female President.
Gregori Fyoderov was then arrested and ordered to stand trial at a federal court on one count of second degree murder.
President Pavlovic announced that there would be no pardon for the former President should he be found guilty of murder.
Polls showed that the events had "shattered" Radiatians' trust in democracy, with many Radiatians seemingly traumatised after seeing the most popular President since Traiyan Silviu fall so rapidly from grace and be found to be a criminal.
Psychologists stated that they believed Gregori Fyoderov suffered from a form of borderline personality disorder, while those close to him testified that he suffered from paranoia and frequent bouts of rage.
In 4058, the National Intelligence Act passed as a result of scandal, which disbanded R-SOD and replaced it with several new intelligence agencies (RFID, RSS, MIS and NCSD). R-SOD's Chief Executive Yulian Bentley was also forced into early retirement by the Pavlovic Administration for his role in the scandal.
Gregori Fyoderov was pardoned by President Jaagen Autenberg on January 9th 4062 and released from prison. Since then he has made a handful of public appearances and publicly expressed his remorse for the scandal.
by Diaboland » Tue May 17, 2022 6:48 pm