Go back even further than the Q-ships: During the US Civil war several steam-powered frigates were outfitted to make rather formidable commerce raiders.
Fast-forward to 2010 and you could see a country like Iran secretly outfitting a container vessel as a quickie guided-missile platform that could act as either a surface raider of a fleet auxiliary warship.
What the Russians claim is along the line of a Q-Ship
but there would be little stopping a minor power from attempting to copy the success of CSS Alabama.