Wow, so cynical. You’re sounding a bit like the other end of the political spectrum there.
Ideally, actual concern for things like universal human rights would be considered. You could argue nobody really does that, but I’d argue it shows up a bit. The Soviet Union supported the crap out of any number of nations that were never going to pay them back (not least their own republics), and America actually tried building democracy in Afghanistan and basically lost the war because of it. It would have been pretty easy for them to just arm another brutal junta, or take the Chinese approach to central Asia and gradually eliminate or replace the local population entirely.