ABSTRACT
In the first section, we provide an overview of EU and US democracy promotion policies and their (limited) effects in Georgia and Ukraine. We then proceed to scrutinize when and how Russia has responded to – what it perceived as – EU and US interference in domestic affairs. Finally, we examine the paradoxical outcomes of Russia’s countervailing actions and specify the conditions under which they influence democratization processes in Georgia and Ukraine. In the concluding section, we offer broader generalizations emerging from the two case studies.
