Ukrainian Crisis in 2004

I rather suspect that in 2004 Putin hadn't yet reached the position where he considered himself strong and in-control enough that he could decide to kick off an invasion of a neighbouring state willy-nilly. Remember that the Second Chechen War was still continuing as an insurgency, there was the Kadyrov assassination, and the Beslan siege during that year. The position of Putin and his allies was in no way as established in 2004 as it would be 10 years later. And of course the Russian military was in a worse shape and more of a "blunt object" at that time than it would be after the reforms of the following years. It had suffered significant losses in the Chechen wars, too, needing some rebuilding.
 
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I rather suspect that in 2004 Putin hadn't yet reached the position where he considered himself strong and in-control enough that he could decide to kick off an invasion of a neighbouring state willy-nilly. Remember that the Second Chechen War was still continuing as an insurgency, there was the Kadyrov assassination, and the Beslan siege during that year. The position of Putin and his allies was in no way as established in 2004 as it would be 10 years later. And of course the Russian military was in a worse shape and more of a "blunt object" at that time than it would be after the reforms of the following years. It had suffered significant losses in the Chechen wars, too, needing some rebuilding.
But we are talking about a limited operation, largely based on the support of local rebels. Russia carried out such operations before Putin, supporting the secession of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
 
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