Conflits de souveraineté et frontières contestées: Les États de facto de l’espace post-soviétique

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, four entities (Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabagh, South Ossetia and Transnistria) declared themselves independent, though their claim to sovereignty never earned international recognition. Their inhabitants have, therefore, been forced to live within de facto borders, ones that, in the eyes of the international community, do not exist, unlike the borders of the neighbouring Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, which are recognised. This sovereignty conflict involving four post-soviet territories (six with the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk) has led to the creation of new border-like frontiers, ones that, though unrecognised, function like traditional borders in practice.