NATO is a polite fiction, dead lo these 20+ years.
If Putin wants the end of NATO to be explicit (he may), then he will invade Estonia and expose the lies that have grown up since 1991-1994.
OTOH, he may want to wait until a time when the public funeral of NATO would bring him more advantage.
Either way, watch Merkel. The Germans have a lot to lose here, but they have potentially quite a lot to gain, as well.
When NATO was expanded to cover Bulgaria, Romania, the Baltics...and there was talk of including Georgia and Ukraine...Putin KNEW it was complete bullsh!t.
There is no way the USA is going to war with Russia to protect Bulgaria.
It's a walking, talking bullsh!t story.
NATO is a polite fiction, dead lo these 20+ years.
*****************
Not true. In the NWO its mission has changed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
And why would he do that? Why not simply play the long game whereby Russia helps facilitate altering the internal political dynamic so that (a) Estonia leaves NATO; and (b) it formerly joins a Russian centric organization.
After all, that's exactly what the US/NATO did in Ukraine, except we were impatient and had to go the direct overthrow route.
And why would/should Russia limit itself to its direct sphere of influence in E Europe? Why not use its resource base to pursue change in the Americas as well?
The problem of going into a fight unprepared for how your opponent is going to react, is that you can get your butt kicked. Trying to pull a fast one first in Syria, and then Ukraine, with our current crop of losers was a mistake from the get go.