Let us refresh ourselves when Putin said "don't try and export ideology". If their mission is to simply solidify a few key strategic points to allow Iran to launch Shia sponsored groups against SA, then Russia won't waste time & resources on peripheral issues.
I didn’t say they didn’t conquer. I said they weren’t very good at maintaining an empire without communism. All the borders this map shows were really porous and unstable. It’s one of the reasons Lenin, with only 20,000 followers, could take over the nation so easily.