Don’t doubt it one bit. Information has come out that when Israel took the fight to Syria and got within 40 miles of damascus, Russia flew a bunch of bombers and fighters to Armenia, and stared painting Syrian and Egyptian military markings on the planes. They were going to attack Israel and make it look like it was Epypt and Syria pilots and planes. Russia also had a naval presence in the med and were readying to attack Haifa with an amphibous landing. Anything to get Israel to stop kicking Syrian and Egyptian ass.
They might have had a little problem, though, convincing people that the Egyptian and Syrian pilots had suddenly become as skilled as Russian pilots. It's been reported that Russian military advisers used to (figuratively) pull their hair out training their Arab pilots, because the Arabs would hit the eject button so often and easily. And of course, that's why they were going to have to use Russian pilots to get the job done.