Declaring independent regions to destabilize neighboring governments was a Soviet tactic. Soviet agents emphasized that people didn’t really need to do anything beyond a declaration (the Cheka/NKVD/KGB/FSB would do the rest). This continues to be a Russian tactic.

http://maidantranslations.com/2015/05/17/dmitry-tymchuk-regarding-the-national-cultural-autonomy-of-bessarabia-freesavchenko/