title: RUSSIA’S INTERVENTIONS IN POST-SOVIET STATES ON BEHALF OF RUSSIAN MINORITIES
abstract: States closely monitor their surrounding territories. When a military block expands its membership to include countries next to a rival state's borders, those rivals feel threatened and tend to respond. One of the ways states respond to losing influence over their border-states, which are not only their direct spheres of influence but serve as a protective buffer zone, is by declaring that their national or ethnic minorities who live in these territories are in danger. The likely result is that 
journal: CUNY Academic Works (City University of New York)