On Monday, Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the separatist republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, before making it a pretext to invade Ukraine on Thursday.
Among the various republics of the former USSR, three territories also claim to be autonomous states but are not recognized by the international community.
Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, how do these separate territories work?
20 Minutes
asked the question to two experts in the region.
We are not going to redo the drawing for you: the war raging in Ukraine has its origins in the east of the country, with two small separatist and pro-Russian republics, recognized by Vladimir Putin on Monday.
But since the fall and dismantling of the Soviet Union, Lugansk and Donestk are not the only territories to have felt placed on the wrong side of the border, or to challenge the authority of their capital.
Diving in Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The owner's turn
These three territories have very different demographic, topological and economic characteristics.
Transnistria, a strip of land half the size of Alsace wedged between Moldova, to which it theoretically belongs, and Ukraine, is an industrial region once pampered by Moscow.
The main group in the region, and which controls even its police, is Sheriff: a chain of stores, service stations, telephones and even a football club, it is difficult to miss the five-pointed star in Tiraspol.
But for Jean de Gliniasty, former French ambassador to Russia, its economy, which gives pride of place to the black market, is “little by little integrated into the European Union”, in particular because its exports pass through Ukraine.
Conversely, Abkhasia, a coastal republic located east of the Black Sea, and South Ossetia, a mountainous region with 13 inhabitants per square kilometer, are almost totally dependent on Russia.
"It's Moscow that provides the budget," says Jean Radvanyi, CNRS researcher specializing in the post-Soviet space, about the two territories disputed by Georgia.
Taking advantage of the coast, the Abkhazian economy is mainly based on tourism, "but most tourists are Russians", emphasizes Jean de Gliniasty.
As for South Ossetia, "there are three sheep", he quips.
Jean Radvanyi sums it all up by mentioning three regions “under perfusion”, victims of blockade and the non-recognition of a large part of the international community.
A diplomatic vacuum
Indeed, the list of countries recognizing the existence of these countries is very short.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia are recognized by Russia of course, but also by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria.
“Even within the Commonwealth of Independent States”, which remains of the Eastern bloc, “nobody wants to recognize them because that would create a precedent”, explains Jean Radvanyi.
Worse, Transnistria is only recognized by… Abkhazia and South Ossetia themselves, as well as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Another region with disputed sovereignty, but which is a “specific case”, agree the two experts interviewed by 20 Minutes.
Other nationalist movements are indeed at work among the cosmopolitan fragments of the USSR, which do not want to risk disappearing themselves.
Attempts by Russia to give them a place on the international scene thus meet with little response, and these territories seem condemned to exchange with other peoples with independence aims.
One of the highlights remains the CONIFA World Cup, a football competition between federations not recognized by FIFA, such as the county of Nice, Quebec, Kabylie, Kurdistan or Tibet.
Crumbs from Russia?
Abkhazia and South Ossetia form “micro-civilizations, which have their language, their alphabet, their religious specificities”, thus forming Russian “crumbs of the empire”, details Jean de Gliniasty.
Their inhabitants are of a "different ethnic group from the Georgians", confirms Jean Radvanyi, even if most are trilingual (their local language plus Russian and Georgian).
Retracing the history of these territories, the geographer notes that Stalin, himself a Georgian by origin, voluntarily incorporated them into the Autonomous Republic of Georgia in order to "divide and conquer".
The national question resurfaced in the 1980s, and “a series of wars broke out in 1992-1993”.
Abkhazia has thus been de facto independent since the fall of the USSR, and forms an "autonomous republic" for Georgia.
But the CNRS researcher refuses to speak of "crumbs of Russia", despite the economic ties and the Russophilia of the inhabitants.
These territories "have not been annexed, let's say rather that they are satellites" of Moscow, he specifies.
But what can be the fate of these territories, given the actions of Vladimir Putin in Donbass and more broadly in Ukraine?
"A priori, there is no reason for it to change," judge Jean Radvanyi.
If the situation is "frozen" for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Jean de Gliniasty still believes that "Russia can integrate them or leave them independent status if it wants", given the international reaction.
But "there is a real question about the future of Transnistria", notes the former diplomat, author of the
Little history of Franco-Russian relations
(L'Inventaire), who sees the region as a "laboratory of what 'would have given the continuation of communism in an isolated country'.
The small republic still has a single party and a Supreme Soviet, despite the liberalization of the economy.
"The 14th Russian army is stationed there", the region borders a Ukraine which could be annexed by Moscow, and "the question is whether Russia will want to continue towards Moldova, which is not a member of NATO “, he recalls.
Even if it means reforming an empire, Vladimir Putin can start with his crumbs.
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Independence
War in Ukraine
Moldova
Georgia
World
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Vladimir Poutine
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