Did Russia Occupy Conquered Lands and Control Their Governments? Historical Pattern: Yes

Historically, yes. From the Tsarist Empire through the Soviet Union to the modern Russian Federation, a consistent pattern emerges:

Tsarist Era (18th–1917)

• Poland (partitions), Finland, Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia
• Installed governors-general; suppressed local institutions; Russification policies (language, church, law)

Soviet Era (1917–1991)

• Baltic states, Eastern Poland, Western Ukraine/Belarus, Bessarabia (1939–40)
• Post-WWII: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria → satellite communist regimes
• Mongolia, Tannu Tuva → Soviet-aligned
• Afghanistan (1979–89) — installed PDPA government

Post-Soviet / Modern Russia

• Transnistria (Moldova, 1992–present) — Russian "peacekeepers" prop up separatist regime
• Abkhazia & South Ossetia (Georgia, 2008) — recognized as independent; Russian bases
• Crimea (2014) — annexed; integrated as federal subjects
• Donetsk/Luhansk (2014–2022) — "people's republics" → annexed 2022
• Kherson/Zaporizhzhia (2022) — occupied, sham referenda, annexed

Mechanism

Military occupation → puppet administration → rigged referenda/legislation → formal annexation or frozen conflict. Local collaborators installed; dissent suppressed.

This pattern is documented by UN, OSCE, NATO, and countless historians.