Examples of the democratic Russia of the 1990s direct military involvement outside of its borders and against armies of sovereign neighboring countries:

- July 3rd, 1992: the Russian army launches a massive artillery strike against the Moldovan army, aiding the Transnistrian separatists. Moscow claims it wants peace and to protect civilian life.

- Spring/summer 1993: Russia launches a bombing campaign against the Georgian army in Abkhazia and engages in direct conflict, utilizing its artillery, special forces and airborne troops, aiding the Abkhazian separatists. Moscow claims it wants peace and to protect civilian life.

Both of these examples of Russian direct foreign military interventions, which lead to the establishment of self-proclaimed separatist republics, happened:

1) years prior to the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia (which supposedly scared the nuclear power, which had itself committed war crimes in Chechnya, that it would also become a target of a humanitarian military intervention).

2) during the early years of the supposed golden age of democracy in Russia. I understand that the citizens of Moscow and St. Petersburg didn't much care about these events, they had other worries, but let's not forget that Russia was at no time a peaceful country.

At no point in its recent history did Russia make significant steps toward demilitarization or respected the sovereignty of its neighbors. The communist security apparatus, which was in jeopardy immediately after the dissolution of the USSR, soon started to regain its influence.

The reason for these siloviki to start regaining power was simple - the Russian democratic government engaged in a war against the Chechens, who are a nation that was conquered and colonized by the Russian Empire and harshly repressed during the USSR.

The Russian democratic government turned to wars, both foreign and domestic, in order to assert its power in the country and convince the people that Russia was still mighty. Wars also provided an excellent distraction from economic troubles Russia was going through.

Putin himself rose through the ranks of the democratic Russia. He was not a revolutionary or a usurper, he came to power through the backing of the Yeltsin dynasty and the most influential oligarchs. When democracy was trendy, Putin was a liberal, afterwards he changed his skin.

Once again, Russia started to "gather Russian lands", which is a purely imperialist phrase meaning that the largest country in the world was somehow unjustly deprived of the territories it had conquered in previous eras and had the right to annex them back.

We observe the fruits of this labor today, when European security is once again threatened by Russia. Russia's wars also tear down the global security architecture and will be used by other dictators in a not so distant future. Not WWIII, not a new cold war, but a string of wars.

If the past 30 years have thought us anything, it's that leaving Russia to perform minor military invasions, would ultimately lead to major invasions. Every Russian political system has legitimized itself through wars - Putin's, Yeltsin's, Lenin's & Stalin's and the tzarist one.

When a country is militaristic, jingoistic, autocratic, obsessed with its civilizational superiority and place in history, while armed to the teeth, it will, of course, put its military power to use. To paraphrase Chekhov - that loaded pistol on the wall will eventually be fired.