Yeah, look at the map. Very little of Russia is bordered by NATO. Hardly none of it in fact. Russia is the biggest country in the world and yet it can’t handle all these little countries? Nonsense. Lithuania, who cut off Russian gas today, doesn’t even have any fighter aircraft.
Look at Russian history. Russia was behaving like it has in Ukraine long before NATO was on the scene.
You’re looking at this from an American perspective. You’ve got realize Russians have a different mentality here. They have a very paternalistic and colonist attitude toward their neighbors. Again, that has zero to do with NATO.
Interestingly, domestic Putinist propaganda rarely mentions NATO. It’s all “we’re fighting nazis in Ukraine.” The NATO stuff is pushed for a western audience that in general has little knowledge of Russian history. It’s an ugly history of robbery, rape and murder of its smaller neighbors. Unsurprisingly, they are resisting Putin’s attacks.
Again, that has zero to do with NATO.
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Look at polls of what Ukrainians think about NATO membership. They show increasingly popular support for joining NATO between 2014-2021. You think Putin doesn’t see this?
I’m glad you noted that very little of Russia is bordered by NATO because that in itself explains some of Russia’s concerns about Ukraine. They are the two largest countries in Europe and share a land border stretching about 1,300 miles. This is twice the length of Russia’s land borders with NATO countries.
You cannot look at these facts and say that Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership is not recognized as a significant threat to Russia. It just makes no sense to ignore obvious geopolitical realities.