He adds that,unfortunately, post-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine, have also preserved the Soviet system in which historians are funded by the state, rather than private foundations.

VOA: standard.2009.12.25

(Speaking in Russian) Stelmakh says a look at school text books being published in Ukraine,the Baltics, and in other post-Soviet republics shows them to be attempts to distance those countries from Russia -- especially with regard to courses in national history.

VOA: standard.2009.12.25

Migrants from the republics of the north Caucasus and the post-Soviet countries of Central Asia have also spread more conservative interpretations of Islam.

ECONOMIST: Russia and Islam

Scott Gehlbach and Konstantin Sonin, of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow, argue that three factors have influenced businessmen to go into politics in post-Soviet countries.

ECONOMIST: Why do professional paths to the top vary so much?

But few of these post-Soviet countries have been as valuable, pound-for-pound, to the United States in the last 20 years as Azerbaijan, a country that we all should seek to understand due to the resilience of its economy, richness of its culture and the relevance of its policies.

FORBES: America, Meet Azerbaijan