What is Post-Soviet states?
{{complex|date=September 2024}} {{update|date=September 2024}} [[File:USSR_Republics_numbered_by_alphabet.svg|link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USSR_Republics_numbered_by_alphabet.svg|thumb|Post-Soviet states in [[alphabetical order]]: {{small|{{nowrap|1. {{Flag|Armenia|size=18px}}}} • {{nowrap|2. {{Flag|Azerbaijan|size=18px}}}} • {{nowrap|3. {{Flag|Belarus|size=18px}} •}} {{nowrap| 4. {{Flag|Estonia|size=18px}} • 5. {{Flag|Georgia|size=18px}} • 6. {{Flag|Kazakhstan|size=18px}} •}} {{nowrap|7. {{Flag|Kyrgyzstan|size=18px}} • 8. {{Flag|Latvia|size=18px}} • 9. {{Flag|Lithuania|size=18px}} •}} {{nowrap|10. {{Flag|Moldova|size=18px}} • 11. {{Flag|Russia|size=18px}} • 12. {{Flag|Tajikistan|size=18px}} •}} {{nowrap|13. {{Flag|Turkmenistan|size=18px}} • 14. {{Flag|Ukraine|size=18px}} • 15. {{Flag|Uzbekistan|size=18px}}}}}}]] The '''post-Soviet states''' are the 15 [[sovereign states]] that were [[Republics of the Soviet Union|union republics]] of the [[Soviet Union]]. They emerged from the Soviet Union after the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolution]] in 1991. They are also known as the '''former Soviet Union''' ('''FSU'''), the '''former Soviet Republics''' and in Russia as the '''near abroad'''.<ref>{{cite web|date=30 October 1997|title=Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union: Russian and American Perspectives|url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1805/managing_conflict_in_the_former_soviet_union.html|access-date=2 December 2015|work=harvard.edu|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230614/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1805/managing_conflict_in_the_former_soviet_union.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Russia is the main ''[[de facto]]'' internationally recognized [[Sucession of states|successor state]] to the Soviet Union after the [[Cold War]]. [[Ukraine]] has, by law, claimed that it is a state-successor of both the [[Ukrainian SSR]] and the Soviet Union which stayed under dispute over formerly Soviet-owned areas.<ref>On Legal Succe