EXPERT COMMENT
Creating reasons to legitimize' a military intervention has long been part of the Kremlin playbook, and the Ukraine crisis has proved no different.
Many false flag' operations recently deflected attention and concealed Russia's plans for military action against Ukraine, such as the reported explosion of a gas pipeline in Luhansk, the use of a non-existent threat' that Ukraine might try to retake Donbas by force because of a reported genocide', or the general mobilization of separatist troops in occupied Donbas.
Such proven tactics have already been used in a similar way to justify Russia's intervention in Chechnya in 1999 as well as against Georgia in 2008 among others, so it is no surprise Moscow is using them again. And the organization of a nuclear-readiness check exercise acts as a deterrent against international decision-makers.
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