According to an assessment by University of Michigan political scientist Yuri Zhukov, Russia has responded to insurgent movements and large-scale insurrections since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 with a counterinsurgency model diametrically opposed to the “hearts and minds” approach. Zhukov concluded that “Despite serious setbacks in Afghanistan and the first Chechen War, Russia has one of the most successful track records of any modern counterinsurgent.”[14]
I suppose we’ll get to find out how well it works here. From OP’s article, doesn’t sound so great:
Since then, report journalists at iStories, the city has become a center of partisan resistance