It’s what Lebed was trying to do as the Soviet Union broke apart: the Nagorno-Karabakh war was instigated to “require” Soviet/Russian mediation, the shootings in Latvia in 1991, etc.
Thanks. Never heard of that stuff before. But it does seem very plausible: Russia itself creating or adding to the instability of some nation or region in order to “justify” their aggressively moving in and taking it over. Even in their own country there are credible claims that they themselves were behind the terror attacks, at least the earlier ones: apartment building explosions, theater and the school.