In the closing days of February, Russian President Vladimir Putin was busy ordering tanks to Kyiv and planning premature victory celebrations. He found time, though, to phone the leaders of the former Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the so-called “southern tier,” to seek their support. Putin wanted their recognition of the two breakaway regions of Ukraine he engineered, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. He also wanted their explicit endorsement for his plan to occupy one of their former Soviet neighbors.
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