In case you were wondering, Wikipedia provides a map of NATO’s reach:
(The black background should be white, and is an artifact of converting from PNG to JPG format. The blue is actual NATO members; the balance of the key is at the link.)
Russia is the orange. Keeping in mind that the United States lies across the Bering Strait from Russia, it’s clear why Russia feels threatened by NATO, but then NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which included Russia as the dominant member way back when, and was also the dominant member of the Eastern Bloc.
Now it’s just Russia and whatever it can acquire. And it turns out that an autocracy doesn’t lead to a dominant military, for what are becoming obvious reasons.
