ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with the factors that have enabled the emergence of de facto states in the post-Soviet space. The key factors identified and analysed in this chapter are: the legal and social chaos created by the disintegration of the USSR; the political and economic weakness of the newly formed independent states; the ethno-national ambitions of nations in current or former autonomous entities, bolstered by memories of historical enmity; and the patron state’s direct or indirect support for separatists.
