The fires of ideology had reached the western hemisphere.
While Mikhail's Doctrine spread through Eurasia, whispers of a new power rising in South America began reaching the Winter Palace.
A rogue general—Sebastián Ortega—had seized control of a fractured Argentina, backed by remnants of old-world elites and private Consortium capital.
But it was not Ortega's dictatorship that caught Mikhail's attention. It was his mimicry.
[Intelligence Alert: Doctrine-Inspired State Detected – Alignment: Hostile Imitation]
They called it the Nueva Columna—"The New Column."
It had its own doctrine, its own technocrats, even its own pseudo-Institute. But where Mikhail built on education and merit, Ortega's empire built on surveillance, militarized ideology, and enforced nationalism.
A twisted reflection.
A mirror, dark and ashen.
"They want to wear our skin but keep the bones of tyranny intact," said Dmitri, Head of Strategic Theory.
The threat wasn't just mimicry—it was credibility.
Foreign observers could not distinguish between the Iron Doctrine and Ortega's warped clone.
[System Warning: Narrative Ambiguity Detected | External Perception Efficiency: -22%]
Mikhail initiated Project Horizon Flame.
A covert mission to infiltrate Nueva Columna, extract ideological prisoners, and plant "doctrinal contrast" media pieces globally.
One success: a rescued professor from Buenos Aires, once a student of the Doctrine Institute in Persia, now became a living symbol of difference.
[Cultural Victory: +9% in South American Neutral Zones]
But Ortega was not the only specter.
In Washington, the American Continental Authority—a political bloc of isolationists, tech-industrialists, and military hardliners—began branding Mikhail's rise as "the Second Red Tide."
[Narrative Threat Detected: U.S. Policy Shift Toward Hostility | Proxy Conflict Imminent]
They launched Operation Cinder Protocol: a coordinated economic embargo, cyber-attacks on Iron Ruble exchanges, and political sabotage through UN proxies.
Mikhail retaliated not with soldiers, but symbols.
He addressed the world in a broadcast not as a Tsar, but as a thinker.
"You fear our future not because it is violent—but because it is inevitable. Fear does not justify lies. Nor does it halt time."
The broadcast went viral. Latin America split down the middle—half seeing Ortega as a strongman, half now questioning his regime. Protests broke out in Panama. In Mexico, Doctrine literature hit bestseller lists. In Brazil, a populist senator called for diplomatic ties with St. Petersburg.
[Global Doctrine Sympathy: +18% Americas | Nueva Columna Legitimacy: -25%]
But as Mikhail's vision grew, so too did the shadows.
The Consortium was no longer the only adversary.
Across the sea, in jungles and boardrooms, a darker vision of his empire now breathed.
He stared into the ashen mirror—and prepared to shatter it.