Patron-Client Relations in De Facto States: Russian Linkages with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria

De Facto states are inherently unstable and precarious entities. They rely on external patron states for security guarantees, financial assistance and socio-economic development. But just how exactly does that external patronage manifest itself? By using patron-client relations as a conceptual framework and applying Levitsky and Way's theory of linkage and leverage, this thesis seeks to determine how Russian patronage manifests itself across all three of Russia's client de facto states: Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. This thesis uses the 118 bilateral treaties and agreements signed between Russian and Abkhazia and South Ossetia since 2008 as the backbone of its analysis. The researcher supplements this analysis with data drawn from official government publications, documents, and reports; previous academic literature, studies and analyses; and NGO reports across all six types of linkage. The study finds that Russian patronage not only manifests itself in fundamentally different ways across the three states, but that this also reflects Russia's different foreign policy strategies towards its client de facto states. This thesis makes a significant contribution to the existing literature and serves as a springboard for future research into how Russian patronage via linkages translates itself into leverage over the three states and how Russia applies that leverage to affect the internal, domestic processes of those states.