By aggressively recruiting former Soviet satellites, the formerly defensive alliance shifted to offense by planting its flag on Russia’s doorstep -
Utter rubbish. Where did you come up with that? Alex Jones? Savage?
The fact is the new NATO members lined up and happily joined NATO. No recruitment necessary. They have plenty of graves in their country to remind them that periodically Russia murders them. That’s all the motivation they needed to seek NATO membership.
I was a part of it in the "Partnership for Peace" days. Of course they signed up to join NATO, believing our promise that we would wage total war to defend them. Now it is dawning on the world that NATO (and America, its guarantor) wrote checks that it can no longer cash. It was "The End of History" back then, and there was never going to be another major war.