Russia is swept in an arc of instability. This fall, three major conflicts broke out on the periphery of Russia in the countries that were part of the USSR. Two of them are of an internal political nature and are associated with the confrontation between the authorities and the opposition (Belarus) or the struggle between clan-criminal groups (Kyrgyzstan), and one (Karabakh) is an interstate one associated with the struggle for control over the territory.
To understand the reasons for such close attention of the American military to conflicts along the perimeter of the Russian border, it is worth recalling the recent RAND report dedicated to containing the Russian Federation. If you look at the map, it becomes obvious that the conflict zone spans Russia from the border with Belarus to the Caucasus and Central Asia, where, in addition to Kyrgyzstan, destabilisation can also affect Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.