title: Post-Soviet Dependence with Benefits? Critical Geopolitics of Belarus’s and Tajikistan’s Strategic Alignment with Russia
abstract: The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a debate on Russia's relations with states which were part of the Soviet Union. Our article contributes to this discussion by focusing on Russia's two 'strategic partners', Belarus and Tajikistan, and exploring these countries' perspectives. We develop a critical geopolitics framework which accounts for time, multi-level power dynamics and culture. The article provides a new understanding of the dynamics of geopolitical knowledge beyond the West, analy
journal: Geopolitics