20 min lol. No Moderator nearby?

No way you can pause this game if players don't agree.
I think that this is against the rules - ask the mod to pause the game.

.. I have.

And you don't think it can be paused? When obviously there is someone missing/has been for 3 days/will miss a second phase? Particularly given the circumstances of the game and Russia already having submitted a pause request? Really.

Under help/rules;

5. The Pause/Unpause feature is not a diplomatic tool

The pause is there to stop players missing their orders, but is not part of the game. As such pausing or unpausing should not be used for diplomatic gain, such as refusing to unpause unless other players will draw the game. If it is being abused staff may step in to sort it out.

Sigh, oh well.

Your interpretation of rule 5 is off. While refusing to unpause is against the rules, refusing to pause is not. The mods will tell you that they won't force a pause unless they have the consensus of all but the absentee player, the game is a game that requires players to accept pauses (like the Leagues), or they are investigating possible cheating. It is nigh on impossible to prove that the reason a person won't pause is they are metagaming. Some people have a policy of never granting pauses and the mods won't force them.

And the pause is there to stop players missing orders by allowing *them* to request the pause. Not for another player to beg for the pause because they think one of the players will NMR/CD.

No one was refusing to pause; the issue was that Russia didn't ask for a pause (though in input a vote) and then didn't turn up.

More to the point, now that Russia has turned up, even Italy has agreed to reverse the moves to his detriment.

That's between the players and the mods.

Sure. But there is no reason why we can't at least request one (if there is a valid reason; and I think there def was in this case).

Asking a mod to pause is fine *if* everyone agrees except one player who has gone absent. But if even one person who is present doesn't want to pause, the mods should *not* intervene. Russia not asking for the pauseis Russia's problem *and* responsibility. He should convince everyone else to vote pause. Had Russia been absent for a while and *not* voted to pause and you thought he might CD, then the mods could intervene. But you said his pause vote was in, which means it was up to the rest of you to pause and clearly not everyone agreed or the game would have paused and not started this thread. No, this was not a situation where htere hsould have been any mod intervention and, honestly, this thread should never have occured. You should have written the mods directly and tried in game to convince the others to pause. Not here.