Prior to all this, NATO was no offensive military threat to Russia, with or without Ukraine. It (NATO, and especially Euro-NATO) had weakened itself far too much to even think about attacking Russia. What threat there was, was cultural and societal, should Ukraine with the help of the Euros be able to throw off its old Russian style pervasive corruption, and utilize its considerable natural resources to efficiently develop the country. Putin also argued his SMO was to rid Ukraine of Nazis, when in reality there were very few real Nazis in Ukraine, and they had no real power.
There still are not all that many Nazis in Ukraine, but, now Putin has created utter hatred of Russia in most of Ukraine’s remaining population. Some gain that is.
Putin has also caused the Euro-NATO nations to at least “commit” to 5% of GDP for defense, a number that if sustained would be quite enough to turn just Euro-NATO alone into a quite credible threat to Russia - with or without Ukraine, but a bit more so “with” Ukraine as an ally, even if not a NATO member.
And now, President Trump appears to be truly hacked at the Russians, too. Threatening the US (again) and threatening nukes (again) is just about the dumbest thing the Russians could do.
Putin and his advisers no doubt thought they could reproduce their success in grabbing Crimea. Their miscalculation was stupendous.
Even Tsar Nicolas II looks like a genius compared to this.
“President Trump appears to be truly hacked at the Russians”
About 80% of US senators despise Trump. About 90% of the federal civilian workforce despises Trump.
I know of no foreign leaders except that of two Latin American countries that don’t despise Trump. Foreign governments and businesses are fed up with his tariff arrogance.
Half his own adult citizens despise Trump.
Many of his supporters think Trump is in above his head. They only tolerate Trump because the alternatives are intolerable.
Putin is going to call Trump’s new tariff bluff because Putin thinks the Chinese will teach Trump and the US stock market an expensive lesson.