The present research project aims at making a comparative analysis between the ‘old’ (Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and ‘new’ (Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk) separatist conflicts in the former Soviet space from the perspective of Russia’s approach towards them. Starting from the main hypothesis that Moscow’s foreign policy strategy for the unrecognized “statelets” has changed not with the current Ukrainian crisis but already in 2008, we will endeavor to answer the following research questions: How have Russia’s actions and narratives towards the “frozen” conflicts changed after 2008 and what are the main factors that have determined such changes?

In order to answer the research questions, we will deploy the criteria of foreign policy analysis theory and will resort on the following qualitative research methods: narrative research and content and document analysis.

A full-length study is available here.