Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his 2005 State of the Nation Address, described the fall of the USSR as “The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. Given the chronic instability that many post-soviet states have experienced since, combined with the multitude of conflicts that arose within the borders of the former USSR,  Putin’s statement does not deviate much from the reality of facts. Indeed, the fall of the Soviet Union marked the end of an undoubtedly authoritarian