Curated playlist
Post-Soviet states
- MoldovaMoldova is barely larger than Belgium but has the world's largest wine cellar. Mileștii Mici holds the record.
- Satellite stateMongolia's Soviet-backed republic collapsed less than two months after the Soviet Union dissolved.
- AbkhaziaAbkhazia has two governments claiming the same ground. Only five UN member states call it independent.
- South OssetiaOnly five United Nations members recognize South Ossetia as a country. Every other country calls it Georgian land.
- Republics of the Soviet UnionThe 15 Soviet republics could legally leave the union, yet Moscow's Politburo decided almost everything.
- Shock therapy (economics)Bolivia wrote its shock therapy decree in three weeks in 1985. Decree 21060 ended price controls and let the peso float.
- TransnistriaIn Transnistria, saying the word Transnistria in public can bring a fine of 360 rubles or up to 15 days in jail. The region's Supreme Council passed that law on the 4th of September 2024. Local authorities prefer another name for their…
- Post-Soviet statesFifteen countries emerged on December 26, 1991, when the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist.
- Commonwealth of Independent StatesUkraine helped found the Commonwealth of Independent States but never became a member. It never ratified the Charter.
- Eurasian Economic UnionRussia met the first call for a Eurasian union with sarcasm. Kazakhstan's president proposed it in Moscow in 1994.
- UkraineUkraine once gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. It sent all the weapons to Russia by 1996.