AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES OF POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES AND THEIR POLITICAL STRATEGIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR IN MODERN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE: A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Abstract

Russia`s full-scale aggression against Ukraine in 2022 triggered a transformation in the political strategies of the post-Soviet autocracies of Belarus, the countries of the Caucasus region, and Central Asia, forcing them to reassess their foreign and domestic policies and adapt to new regional security realities in order to preserve the ruling elites in the face of the threat of dependence on the Russian Federation and the loss of sovereignty, as well as to minimize secondary sanctions and international isolation. The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical and conceptual analysis, as well as a historiographical review of global and domestic academic discourse on the study of authoritarian regimes in post-Soviet countries and their political strategies in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The methodological foundation of the study is based on the principles of objectivity and systematicity, as well as the method of comparative political analysis to compare the main concepts of democracy and authoritarianism and to contrast the characteristics of the political strategies of post-Soviet autocracies in the context of the war. As a result of this study, the evolution of Western political thought regarding the transformation of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes has been systematized within three conceptual stages: transition studies, hybrid regimes, and the paradigm of authoritarian consolidation; the main tenets of Western scholars` political science concepts within these conceptual stages have been identified and characterized. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that it is the first study in Ukrainian political science to conduct a historiographical review of the global and domestic scholarly discourse on the characteristics of political strategies in post-Soviet autocracies after 2022, since most existing works have focused on theoretical issues of authoritarianism, are descriptive and/or reactive in nature (written in the immediate aftermath of events), or are narrowly regional in scope (exclusively case studies of a single country or region). Keywords: autocracies, post-Soviet states, political strategies, the Russia-Ukraine war, contemporary academic discourse, historiographical review, conceptual stages, transitology, conceptualization of hybrid regimes, authoritarian consolidation.