Other forms: puppet states
A puppet state is a government that appears independent but is actually controlled by another country. Most historians consider Poland and Czechoslovakia to have been Cold War puppet states of the Soviet Union.
The political term puppet state is biased — in other words, no puppet state wants to be referred to this way, as it inherently criticizes their government. These states are legally recognized as fully independent, but in practice a powerful foreign government controls their every move, like a puppeteer manipulating a puppet. There are dozens of examples throughout history, from France's 19th-century puppet state of the Batavian Republic to China's Wa State in Myanmar today.