But they were never alone. Every other ex-empire or wannabe-empire has played the same game. Just look at irans agents popping up wherever there is war in the m

But they were never alone. Every other ex-empire or wannabe-empire has played the same game. Just look at irans agents popping up wherever there is war in the middle east, so just because its the biggest figure on the board, does not mean its the only one to be called out. And regarding south american democracies.. well, they almost all inherited a racist, pyramid scheme of society from there colonial times. Which almost always even when democracy prevailed failed to reform, just exchange figure heads and the gravy train runs ever onward, with a different conductor. A different group of families takes over and rules the distrought masses. True democracies are in the hearts and minds of the people and are really tough to extuinguish, which putin just currently finds out the hard way. Its more then voting, the state becomes the property of every citizen, in there mind and stays that way even when temporary toppled. Ever wondered, why some countries are such a rodeo ride for dictators and others aint? Its this. The "we ought to be in control of our destiny, we were once and we will be again, cause the big men will die one day". Everything before that is democracy waiting to become real, some of them were the democracy was glued on from above even reverted with "broad public support" back to dictatorships (Turkey).