So my understanding is Putin is wanting to bring back the USSR. He has militarily invaded Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.
But aside from military invasion, I get the impression that Putin seems good at getting Russia friendly leaders in ex soviet states to work with him. Lukashenko seems to be working with Russia in Belarus for the invasion. Ukraine used to have a pro-russia president until he was toppled.
So my question is what ex soviet states have leaders who are considered pro-russia, and were they elected democratically? Is Russia engaged in election fraud in ex soviet states to get pro-Putin people elected president? I know they engage in propaganda, but I don’t know if they engage in actual election fraud in other nations.
The list in Europe is pretty short: Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Of those, only Belarus has openly supported Putin’s moves against Ukraine.
Aliyev in Azerbaijan and Tokayev in Kazakhstan can hardly be called anything but dictators under the thin veneer of rigged elections. Armenia is the most democratic of the lot, but they keep close ties with Russia as a safeguard against their enemy, Azerbaijan. Russia also has several military bases in that country.
I’m not up to date on the former Soviet republics in Asia, but my understanding is that they are not very democrat and in the unenviable position of choosing either Russia or China as their patron and have generally stuck with the devil they know.
The other pro-Russian state in Europe is Serbia, but they want to be part of the EU, so they will be treading the slippery path of neutrality during this crisis. Russia is trying to garner their support by claiming foreign fighters made up of Serbia’s traditional enemies (Albanians, Kosovars, etc) are fighting the Russians in Ukraine.
Within the EU, we have Viktor Orban of Hungary who has a famously close relationship with Putin. Though this does not seem to have merited a small table around which to discuss gas prices.
There are some governments in EU countries that sail very close to the wind with respect to democratic standards and press freedom. Orban is a Hungarian nationalist and has been copying Putins policies intended to restrict the activities of foreign non government organisations. His arch enemy is Soros and Orban spends a lot of time shutting down anyone peddling anything other than his own patriotic version of democracy.
He is up for re-election and thought it might be a good idea to visit Putin, since they were on speaking terms. I am not sure recent events will do much for his voter appeal. He may have to modify his strong anti-immigration stance given the refugees starting to pour across the border fleeing the fighting in Ukraine.