For much of the 1990s, Moscow let the former Soviet republics manage their own internal affairs with little overt Russian interference. The Russian Federation (RF) was initially preoccupied with its relations with the West and with internal efforts to reform its stagnating economy, and President Boris Yeltsin was still consolidating and enlarging his own power. The newly independent states (NIS) did not appear to be important to Moscow, either economically or politically.

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