Short answers, pulled from the story.
There are 15 post-Soviet states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. All emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, each succeeding its corresponding Soviet Union Republic.
GDP across the post-Soviet states fell by more than 40% overall between 1990 and 1995. This decline exceeded the 27% GDP drop the United States experienced during the Great Depression between 1930 and 1934. Economist Steven Rosefielde attributed 3.4 million premature Russian deaths between 1990 and 1998 partly to the shock therapy policies that followed.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004. Georgia and Ukraine have both sought NATO membership, with Ukraine declaring it a geopolitical goal in 2017. The remaining post-Soviet states participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace or Individual Partnership Action Plan programs.
"Near abroad" (ближнее зарубежье) is a term used in Russia's political language to refer to the independent republics that emerged after the Soviet Union's dissolution, excluding Russia itself. Increasing use of the term in English is linked to assertions of Russia's right to maintain significant influence over those states. The concept has been compared to the Monroe Doctrine in American foreign policy.
Several disputed states exist: Transnistria in eastern Moldova, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and formerly the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in Ukraine, which Russia annexed in October 2022. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. The United Nations treats the Russian-backed entities as occupied territories rather than legitimate states.
Polling by Russia's Levada Center in 2016, 2017, and 2018 found that majorities of Russian citizens viewed the USSR's collapse negatively, rising from 56% in 2016 to 66% in 2018. A 2019 poll found that 59% of Russians felt the Soviet government took care of ordinary people. The sentiment is strongest among those approximately 55 to 80 years old.