[Paul R.]

I've not seen a cogent explanation by any of the Putinistas on here of WHY Putin would, rationally in 2022, be so fearful of NATO. NATO can put up a good defensive fight and IMO eventually win a defensive war against Russia, if Europe has a very mild winter. (If it's a harsh winter, I'm not sure what we do with all the frozen Euro's.) But, NATO is not configured well at all for an offensive war, and I see no practical reason why NATO would be interested in such. This leaves us with irrationality (seems unlikely) or cold, calculated aggression, including pretty much complete control of bordering countries.

[Renfrew]

“I’ve not seen a cogent explanation by any of the Putinistas on here of WHY Putin would, rationally in 2022, be so fearful of NATO.”

Very good points.

The core reason is it has everything to do with internal Russian politics and nothing with NATO.

Russia’s economy and society is in the gutter. Putin’s one trick to staying popular is to promise to be restoring Russia to glory.

* Chechnya 1999
* Georgia 2008
* Ukraine 2014

Each time he grabs a bit of former Soviet territory and the Russian people are delighted, but it has been 8 years since Crimea. Russians are beginning to look around at the corruption and decay and wonder if Putin really is their savior.