LAUSR

Russia, formally the Russian Federation, has emerged as the main successor—a rump state —of the former Soviet Union. In the bipolar world order of the Cold War era, the Soviet Union had attracted critical, and at times even largely negative, attention from the Western policymakers and analysts, and those of other parts of the World. Arguably, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia still suffers from such an image. Moreover, as an heir to the Tsarist Russian Empire, it is also perceived as an imperialist power and a colonizer by some other Post-Soviet countries. In particular, the Russian intervention in Georgia (2008), Ukraine (2014) and Syria (since 2011 and more intensely from 2015) has attracted critical attention due to its support for separatism and authoritarian regimes in its near abroad.