Positives for Russia & Byzantium?

[Kraxis]

Yes i remember that too. But if i remember rightly didn't comnenus ask pope urban to call the crusade to retrieve lands he lost in anatolia and the levant? surely then, if the empire is on good terms with the pope, it should be able to aply for a crusade.

Nope... He asked for help. There is a whole world of difference.

While crusades per se weren't unknown (William was on a crusade to England when he took, mind you crusades before 1095 are often just wars backed by the Pope rather than named crusades), it wasn't until the 1st crusade that it bacame what we think of it.
Also the Popes weren't the power we think of them until after the fights with the HRE Emperors. Before then a lot of bishops, kings etc didn't really care much for some fool in Rome. However the Pope was more than a simple bishop as well, meaning rather important... but just not as powerful and almighty as he is sometimes considered. That was to come in the next couple hundred years.

What the Byzantime emp did was ask the Pope to ask the kings nad princes to help the Byzantines (and fellow christians) to recover the lands. Later such actions by a Pope was considered a crusade. At that time the concept just weren't made up yet, but the Byzantines knew the Pope held a good deal of sway in catholic lands. Hence it was much easier to ask him once, than than all the princes, kings, dukes ect a couple times each. For what did they care about some far-away lands they had never heard of? Brilliant political and military consideration by the Byzantines in my book.

So the orthodox and the catholics should never be combined in a game. They were simply too radically different.