That could involve irregular troops, cyber attacks and inflaming tensions with ethnic Russian minorities in nations seen as part of the country's "near abroad" by Moscow.
In recent years, the gap between rich and poor in Kazakhstan has widened, heightening social tensions.
In an indication of what simmering tensions could bring if unleashed, a mob of Christian youths in Jos's Tina neighbourhood set up a roadblock yesterday where they attacked at least three Muslim residents, beating one into a coma.
The reality is, however, that the French prison system is under great strain and faces totally new challenges related to geo-political tensions in north Africa and the Middle East.
The remarks illustrated the rising tensions as the talks approach a deadline next Monday.
Rising temperatures leading to greater water scarcity, sea level rises and extreme weather events may exacerbate tensions over natural resources and cause large numbers of people to become "climate refugees" as they migrate across borders.
They rose blissfully above the backstage tensions and excoriating reviews, producing an acting masterclass that surpassed anything they actually achieved in the film.
In the year since the resignation of Progressive Unionist party leader Dawn Purvis, it has become depressingly clear among acute observers of Belfast's loyalist communities that the loyalist paramilitary UVF has been purposefully ratcheting up tensions among its youthful foot soldiers to show some muscle.
Some are bound up with the tensions and ambivalences of the IT age.
Tensions have been mounting in Crimea, where pro-Russian protesters raised a Russian flag on a city hall in one town and scuffled with police.
For many others, it was only ever a matter of time before tensions boiled over in a country that spent the post-Soviet era zigzagging between east and west.
