Putin is bluffing because his military would be quickly destroyed when confronting us on the battlefield, and Putin would be left defenseless as his country breaks apart in factions and secession, and the buzzards like China, would pick at the remains, and of course Putin would be put to death.
Putin doesn’t have a military capable of sustained, large invasions anymore.
Now the slave nations and occupied geography that kept the evil empire threatening NATO, are part of NATO.
Hitler made the same misjudgement with Stalin.
Exactly,,, all NATO would need to do is kick in the door and the whole rotten structure would collapse.
“Putin doesn’t have a military capable of sustained, large invasions anymore.”
Putin doesn’t need a military capable of sustained large invasions. He just needs a military capable of walking in and announcing “you’re ours” and quietly shooting anyone who disagrees, a la Ukraine.
Frequently redrawn borders are the historical norm in Europe. Leadership - current US CiC especially - shows no interest in enforcing current borders by force.