Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, ethnic and territorial conflicts were managed internally within the USSR.
Since 1991, a number of these separatist disputes remain unresolved, and have given rise to conflict and war. These include
- Chechnya (two wars, and expansion of the conflict into neighboring Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia-Alania);
- Georgia (a civil war, and separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, now de facto independent, but unrecognized, states);
- Azerbaijan (the Nagorno-Karabakh War; Nagorno-Karabakh is also a de facto independent, but unrecognized, state);
- and Moldova (where Transnistria has declared independence, and is a de facto independent, but unrecognized, state).
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