The guy was friends with Stalin. His metric for "good intentions" are much different than mine or yours.
Obviously, his vision of "a future that was peaceful, happy, and free" is as follows: peaceful, because all now obey him alone; happy, because all of life's needs are met and all wants now simply revolve around him; and free, because they are now free from such silly concepts like 'self-determination', and can now serve him without question.
You might have a point there. Anyways, if Yuri turned out to be the "good guy" at the end, it would ruin the story as much as Kane's redemption ruined C&C 4.
But it wouldn't hurt if MO gave Yuri's intentions some reasoning other than "Imma mindkontrol da world cus I kan do it herpa derp".
Every grandiose tinpot dictator has claims that they are serving "the greater good" or the "will of the people" or some bullshit like that; in the end, though, the real reason is usually just their own lust for power. Whether or not Yuri actually has some sort of ideologically-centered goal in mind is irrelevant when one considers that the means he uses to achieve said goal pretty much violate every single moral, ethical, and philosophical principle ever concieved.
"Utopia" rarely - if ever - justifies the means to get there. Same goes for both the Allies and the Soviets as well.
...Did we just get into a discussion about the motivations of a video game villain and whether or not they are well-intentioned?
Anyways, back to the actual discussion about Act II Predictions:
1) Things look bleak for the Allies right now: America has been conquered by the Russians and Confederation, the American populace is now willingly defecting to the Soviet cause out of feelings of betrayal by the EA/PF salvage attempt, the Pacific Front's ill-concieved alliance with China fell through and are now at war with them, and Europe's been steamrolled by the Red Army with only Great Britain left standing. The worst part, though, is the destruction of the SteinsTech Lab in Black Forest, along with their one ace-in-the-hole, the Chronosphere.
Priority one for the Allies is to restore morale by rebuilding the Chronosphere, their only hope against the Soviet Union. If we go by the original RA2, the best place to use the Chronosphere would be in the Florida Keys... which is a problem, as it is now under Soviet control, and is in range of Confederation-aligned Cuba.
2) On the Soviet end, they've pretty much won: the United States has been wiped off the map, Europe minus the UK is under their control, and the upstart Chinese have been put into their place. One problem, though - the traitor Yuri. The Soviets now realise that Yuri's been manipulating and sabotaging them since the beginning, and with the recent tech thefts (such as the Stalin's Fist fiasco, and the Lasher Tank heist), along with the Baikonur-Leninsk Cosmodrome complex having been ransacked, the Soviets are now going to be in deep trouble if they don't do something to find out what the hell the maniac's up to. If they do that though, they risk losing their momentum against the remaining Allies, which could lead to them making a comeback, forcing a war on two fronts (well, technically, more than that...).
Priority one for the Soviets is to crush the remaining Allied resistance as fast as possible, then once that's done is to track down Yuri and find out what he's hiding. They also need to keep a better eye on China to make sure they don't pull another stunt like the Kanagawa Industries mess. Oh, they also need to do another round of purges, Yuri's mind-control tricks probably left dozens of sleeper agents up-and-down the chain of command.
3) Yuri's plans, in the meantime, have unfolded pretty well: the Allies have mostly been swept out of the way, the Soviets and the Chinese are now at each other's throats, and he now has enough tech and recruits to begin his next phase. Of course, things have hit a few snags along the way - the Allies managed to do better than expected at curtailing the Psychic Beacon network in the US, and the Soviets have figured out his betrayal and will now be hunting him down like the dog he is. Yuri still hasn't built up his newfound army enough to counter either of them militarily, so he is screwed unless he does something about it.
Priority one for Yuri and his new Epsilon Empire is to delay his enemies as much as possible until they are ready to compete out in the open. This means three things: prevent the Allies from figuring out any more of his Psychic Technology; extend the war between the remaining Allies and the Soviets as long as possible to occupy each other's attention; and widen the rift between the Russians and the Chinese even further. In the meantime, Yuri's other projects - such as the work being done on Alcatraz Island - need to proceed faster; his Psychic Dominator network is his ace-in-the-hole, and if it's revealed too pre-maturely, his whole plan would be wrecked in an instant.
After all, the Soviets know about the PsiCorps project being carried out on Alcatraz Island, and so would be the first target for them to investigate...
