And the United States will be on hand with its cruise missiles and B-2 bombers. As everyone knows even though they may pretend not to, powers do not meddle in the internal affairs of other powers out of altruism. When the United States supports the irredentist or independence aspirations of a minority it does so for a reason. It wants to weaken the state from which the minority wishes to secede and to strengthen its neighbors. Just about every state in the world, including the United States, possesses minorities that wish to secede or, at least, owe their allegiance elsewhere.
National disintegration is every state's nightmare.
The doctrine of humanitarian intervention is merely today's form of imperialism. The new entities that emerge serve American interests very nicely. An independent Chechnya will accept US investment and financial control through American creatures like the IMF far more readily than a powerful Russia. As will East Timor, Aceh, and every other piece of Indonesia as one by one they all break away. A Moslem Bosnia that acts as a center of Islamic terror in Europe serves to weaken Europe and increase its dependency on the United States.