Where Does Russia Matter?

This chapter surveys how and in what policy areas Russia under Vladimir Putin exercises influence over the politics, economies, and societies of other post-Soviet states. It explicitly compares Russian power resources in each of the fourteen other former Soviet republics, and surveys the ways in which his autocratic regime has employed its varied power resources to change policies in the near abroad. It concludes that Russian influence has been used differently in the more Western-leaning, liberalized former republics, like Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Moldova, as opposed to the autocracies of Central Asia, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus.