NATO is about defense and trade, not offense.

Not if you are Moscow. I don't want to defend Putin and his actions in Ukraine, but a military alliance whose sole purpose is anti-Russia, all the way up to Moscow's front door, is seen as a threat by him and has been for a long time.

We think of all our NATO partners as good guys and can't imagine that they would attack Russia. But not that long ago Germany did, and Russia lost 20 million people in that war.

They may see countries doing military exercises on Russia's border as maybe harmless but don't see a reason to count on that. If it were us, if a military allian…  Read morece to defend against the US was doing military exercises on the other side of Canada's border and on the other side of Mexico's border, we wouldn't take it for granted either.