Karabakh challenges Russian authority

"Fueled by the pandemic, uprisings in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan and a war in the Caucasus region are undermining the influence of the Russian leader."

Putin's efforts to weaken the West has turned into a mirror of lost public confidence  All in the area  reason the Corona Virus is one of the causes of the destabilization  It is increasingly more difficult for autocrats to rule by division without becoming the target of lost popular confidence - the one man show of national dominance remains difficult to maintain with today's complex survival choices 

Source  nytimes.com   By Anton Troianovski  Published Oct. 7, 2020 Updated Oct. 9, 2020