Does Russia intervene more on the world stage than its contemporaries?
Follow-up question to Fizz's comment in this question.
"their foreign policy tends to be non-interventionist". Except in neighboring countries Georgia (2008), Ukraine (2014+) and where they have bases they want to keep like in Syria. Never mind Wagner, which has broader reach and some deniability, albeit fewer capabilities than regular forces.
Is it actually the case that Russia has intervened in foreign countries more than other countries, in spite of saying their foreign policy is non-interventionist?
For the purposes of this question I'm most interested in other members of the UN Security Council. "Intervention" is also difficult to define; as a starting point I take it to mean "to deploy your personnel to that country to advance your country's policy goals, against the wishes of that country". So e.g.:
- The US does not intervene in Japan by having a military base in Okinawa.
- Russia does not intervene in the US by remotely hacking their servers.
- But Russia would be intervening in the US if they sent an operative to the US to physically destroy the servers.
Under this definition Russia's actions in Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014+) are interventions, but Syria is not.
The period I'm interested in is the period since Putin first became President of Russia, i.e. post-2000, including the period when Medvedev was president.