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The Conversation
The Conversation
Politics
Nicole Jackson, Associate Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University

Russia's actions in post-Soviet wars provide clues to its brutal Ukraine invasion

Russia Ukraine Soviet Union Vladimir Putin
In this August 2012 photo, Russian soldiers ride atop an armoured vehicle through a street in Tskhinvali, capital of the Georgian breakaway enclave of South Ossetia, with a destroyed tank in the foreground. The Russian military quickly routed the Georgian army during the war. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

In the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s worth examining the evolution of Russia’s official rhetoric and military actions in former Soviet states since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In the 1990s, soon after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russia’s military became involved in the first generation of separatist wars in Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and Moldova (Transdniestria) in former Soviet territory.

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