His uncle, Yuri of Zvenigorod (the prince of Galich-Mersky), and his two sons, Vasily Kosoy ("the Cross-Eyed") and Dmitry Shemyaka, seized on the opportunity to advance their own claims to the throne.

When Yuri assembled an army and attacked Moscow, Vasily II, betrayed by Vsevolzhsky, was defeated and captured by his enemies in 1433.

That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily II immediately started to plot against his uncle and gather all sort of malcontents.

In 1439, Vasily II had to flee the capital, when it was besieged by Ulugh Muhammad, ruler of the nascent Kazan Khanate.

As Vasily II still had a number of supporters in Moscow, Dmitry recalled him from exile and gave him Vologda as an appanage.

[citation needed] Vasily II's final victory against his cousin came in the 1450s, when he captured Galich-Mersky and poisoned Dmitry.

[3] Now that the war was over, Vasily II eliminated almost all of the small appanages in Moscow principality, so as to strengthen his sovereign authority.

His military campaigns of 1441–1460 increased Moscow's hold over Suzdal, the Vyatka lands, and the republican governments of Novgorod and Pskov.

[6] The Muscovites began developing an identity of the grand prince as the sovereign and the ruler of all the Russian lands, and Vasily positioned himself as the defender of Orthodoxy.

[7] In his later years, the blind prince was greatly helped by Metropolitan Jonah, boyars, and then by his older son Ivan III who was styled as co-ruler since the late 1450s.