Constantinople
Alexander Menshikov, the Russian representative who had lost face at the negotiating table, soon won it back—though his methods were somewhat unsightly.
On April 2, 1851, Menshikov visited the Sultan and, in an extremely domineering tone, ordered the Sultan's Government to dismiss Fuad, the pro-British and pro-French foreign minister, and replace him with Rifat of the pro-Russian faction.
Facts proved that crude methods were often the most direct and effective. Under Russian pressure, the Sultan's Government compromised.
Menshikov showed the world through his actions who was truly the boss in the Near East. Politicians from every country fell collectively silent. Anyone would find it troublesome to deal with a player who refused to follow the rules.
Britain and France, having been slapped across the face, naturally refused to accept defeat. Yet in the Near East, neither of them possessed anything close to Russia's influence—indeed, they had even less influence than Austria.
Before they could take action, Menshikov delivered another diplomatic note to the Sultan's Government. He accused it of treating the Orthodox Church unfairly and demanded that the two nations sign an agreement allowing the Russian Government to administer Orthodox believers, with the Ottoman Government forbidden from interfering in Orthodox Church affairs.
Such unfair treatment was unavoidable. In fact, the Sultan's Government had already relaxed its religious policies in this era, hoping to use that to eliminate the country's religious conflicts.
Unfortunately, these conflicts had persisted ever since the founding of the Ottoman Empire. They could not be resolved by a single government decree, and Russian intervention only made the situation even more chaotic.
(The specific religious issues have been omitted—ten thousand words' worth.)
Russia's demands had already touched the Ottoman Empire's bottom line. Agreeing to those terms would mean handing more than one-third of its population over