The correct answer is: "satellite states".
A satellite state is an independent country with its own political structures but positioned under strong economic, political, social and cultural influence of a larger super power. This was the case of the Central and Eastern European countries that became soviet republics under the influence of the URSS and which, by the signing of the Warsaw Pact, became the components of the Eastern bloc of communist countries leaded by the URSS during the Cold War.