The correct answer is - The effects of Soviet rule can still be seen in Central Asia; the Caucasus region has developed its own identity since the fall of the USSR.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, some countries, even though gained independence, continued to work in the same manner as the Soviets did, while others had developed their own identities.
The Central Asian countries are like a Soviet Union in smaller territories. All of the five countries in this region continued to practice the same politics as the Soviets. In all of the countries there's an leader with absolute power, since the formation of the countries until the present. There's no multiparty systems, and the socialism still goes strong. Some of them are almost totally cut off from the world, like Turkmenistan, which is pretty much the Central Asian North Korea.
The three countries of the Caucasus though, went in another direction. Georgia and Armenia have been developing market economies and trying to westernize and modernize the countries, while Azerbaijan transformed into a mixed economy, bringing in lot of investors and embracing both the East and West in order to develop and be more open to the world.
