Curious

Why does Russia, the largest country, not simply join NATO?
- They don't have to. They just interfere in our politics
- It was considered at one point in the 90s.
  
  Before both sides walked away. Both sides had shit that the other side wanted nothing to do with.. and it mostly involved Russia insisting it be allowed to keep a sphere of influence (read puppet and slave states with no autonomy or say in their own affairs)
  Russia will never abandon its imperialist ideology without a Nuremberg style purge
  And NATO. in sight of that imperialist ambition. Wanted nothing to do with Russia. There was also the matter of Russia being a mobster state.
  
  Really was a consideration all the way up until mid 00's. After 9/11 Russia warmed to NATO when they expanded the "war on terror" and even became a part of a permanent joint council.
  Relations soured when Russia started dicking around in Ukraine and Georgia again in 04 and 08. Russia's version of soft power is basically empowering local oligarchs by giving them cushy oil/mineral deals and have them get involved in their respective countries politics. A big part of the orange revolution was kicking out the pro Kremlin oligarchs.
  Russia's transition from soft to hard power has always been funding and supporting "separatist groups" like they did in Georgia and Ukraine. It's always the same fucking playbook.
  
  Boris Yeltsin sure did drink a lot, eh?
- They've tried on more than occasion, but been rejected.

Russia feels "threatened" by NATO.
It's a defense pact. As long as you don't attack nothing happens - so why would you feel threatened by that if you don't plan on attacking those countries?
- Okay, so Russia has been aggressive, but what about the time NATO attacked... uh... yeah.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
  You were saying?

well, to be fair... remember the Cuban missile crisis?

Cue conspiracies about NATO strong-arming countries into joining to further the imperialist agenda of the United States (and their goal of making Russia a scapegoat for all the world's problems). Yes they exist.
- Oh yeah the US never strong-armed anyone, they just ask nicely.

To be fair, the Russians do have an answer to that: Western secret services like the CIA have been infiltrating those countries' governments and/or orchestrated anti-Russian, pro-Western coups.
To be fair yet again, that answer is a load of bullshit, those democratic governments have plenty of genuine popular support, the people in these countries are anti-Russian because of personal experiences with the Russian state, not just because of propaganda, and the USA, while influential to an outsized degree, is obviously not just "calling the shots" on the entire western world. Things would look very different if they were.
- Speaking of "calling the shots", the EU and/or UK narratives are even funnier. If some country in Europe takes action against Russian government:
  And the US agrees with that: "US made their puppet do that"
  And the US disagrees or obviously not involved: "Ha, US can't control their corrupt puppets!", or "The anglosaxon deepstate strikes again"
  
  I'm way more worried of the anglo-dane deep state. It's so deep some think it vanished an age ago, but I know they are still out there, just biding their time
- To continue to be fair, that whole claim is just DARVOing about what Russian spies are doing to the west.
  
  They spent two decades saying this and then installed a puppet dictator in america lmao
- And the thing is, many European countries don't even want to join NATO specifically, they want to join the EU-- a non-military, supranational organisation. However, the Russian government see the EU and NATO as one and the same, even though many EU members are not NATO members themselves and don't want to be.
- Western secret services like the CIA have been infiltrating those countries’
  Yeah, that's serious cultural appropriation against the russians.
- Western secret services like the CIA have been infiltrating those countries’ governments and/or orchestrated anti-Russian, pro-Western coups.
  Even if, unless you're planning offensive actions, you shouldn't be worried about countries joining a defensive military structure.

Be Putin
Invade Ukraine to prevent NATO expansion.
2 more countries join NATO.
MFW
- Ehhhh, it was always just an excuse, just like all the other reasons that they invented. Nazis, NATO, will of the people, whatever bullshit he came up with, the real reason was always because there's was money to be made by owning their land.
  
  I know, it's just so fun to engage on that level because the logic is truly incomprehensible. Like pretend the US or NATO actually wanted to invade Russia or whatever they're trying to imply by saying that shit. They're feeling a million times better about it now than 10 years ago since Russia has been revealed as a paper tiger, with soviet vehicle and ammo stocks depleted and nearly a million casualties for a chunk of land, not to mention the fact that they got counter-invaded and it took 7 MONTHS to recapture their own fucking land. I really want to hammer this home. They couldn't defend their own territory from an incursion of an estimated 10-12,000 Ukrainians for SEVEN. MONTHS. An actual superpower would bowl through to Moscow faster than the vatniks thought they would take Kiev.
  In our pretend land where someone actually wants to invade Russia for some reason, they're gong to identify the fact that they could break the entire Russian offensive (probably the entire military) with a single carrier group, and do that.
  
  I wonder if they did the math on the cost of this war vs the benefits of the money to be made? Is it still worth it as this point? Sunk cost fallacy at this point?
- Even historians in 1000 years will not comprehend this brilliant move by mr. president, in eyes of those uninitiated to the complex art of geopolitics it may seem like the dumbest blunder.
- the Finns decided to give it up with almost no debate.
  I wonder if there was any event that make them worried about being invaded.

The Russian state uses nationalism to distract their own people from the state's own corruption. It is a tried and tested obfuscation to maintain power and control over the masses.
- It's day 1167 of a 3 day SMO. Is putin bad at counting?

The community name checks out😉

How about this for a thought
Western countries just negotiate with Russia and everyone agrees that Ukraine doesn't join NATO because doing so destabilizes the entire region.
Instead everyone wants to shoehorn Ukraine into NATO even if it costs us all the risk of nuclear war.
Ukraine can still be protected and defended by western interests in other ways without involving NATO.
The big sticking point here is NATO ..... take it off the negotiating table, then you can see where the Russians are at.
Otherwise, there's a war being fought with a steady stream of people dying because someone wants to join an exclusive club?
- everyone agrees that Ukraine doesn’t join NATO because doing so destabilizes the entire region.
  Lmfao yes, the very stable region around Ukraine will be checks notes ...destabilized by joining a defense pact against the country that is actively invading and destabilizing the region.
  
  Tbf, if Ukraine joins NATO, that gives NATO a way around the mountains to attack RU, so I can see why that would upset them...
  ..but yeah if RU wasn't invading people all the goddamn time this would be a lot less of an issue lmao, RU is their own worst enemy.
- Putin could just not invade countries and nobody would want to join NATO.
- Ukraine wants to join NATO specifically to prevent Russia from invading again. What do you not get about that?
- Ukraine can be protected without NATO? Like that deal they made where they gave up the nuclear missiles in exchange for security guarantees? Yeah, nice try. Once again you're defending putin's imperialism with weak excuses, what a surprise.
- Western countries just negotiate with Russia and everyone agrees that Ukraine doesn’t join NATO because doing so destabilizes the entire region.
  Joining NATO would destabilize the entire region because... it would force Russia to invade Ukraine even harder?
  Have you considered why Ukraine wants to join NATO so fucking badly?
  The big sticking point here is NATO … take it off the negotiating table, then you can see where the Russians are at.
  Invading Ukraine, like they did in 2014, long before NATO membership was a consideration for Ukraine?
  The reason why Russia is so staunchly against Ukraine (or any other countries) joining NATO is because it makes it that much harder to start a landgrab war.
  Otherwise, there’s a war being fought with a steady stream of people dying because someone wants to join an exclusive club?
  There's a war being fought with a steady stream of people dying because Russia invaded with the intent to murder Ukrainians and exterminate Ukraine as an independent nation.
  Ukraine wanting to join the "Don't invade me" club is hardly fucking surprising in light of that.
- Ukraine wasn't going to join NATO before the war, even after losing the Crimean peninsula.
  Ukraine needs security guarantees because they have been invaded twice in a generation. What non-NATO guarantee is going to be acceptable to Ukraine?
  
  That's the biggest fuck up off it all. Just holding Crimea was enough for it to be impossible for Ukraine to join NATO, as there may be no disputed territories and they would have never given it up formally.
  Putin should've backed out and regrouped a lot better and more carefully after his full scale invasion failed miserably. It's been a nonsense keep going out of principle war for years now and the biggest loser is Russia (it's hard to even calculate the impact of a lost generation of young men + loss of influence world wide because of how crappy weapons systems turn out to be in real war instead of demonstrations.
  Meanwhile there's an enormous diaspora of Ukrainians growing in many western European countries now and they became de facto part of the club a lot stronger and faster than anyone could have ever imagined before 2022.
- Ukraine doesn’t join NATO because doing so destabilizes the entire region
  Damn I'm really excited for the mental gymnastics you'll need to explain this lmaoo.
- The real path for peace is to get Russia to demilitarize
  Please explain how you think this has any chance of happening short of literal wizards showing up

Would you not feel threatened if you were Russia? Map of US military bases:
Imagine if China or Russia did that, and then started bombing random countries.
On mobile, apologies if it's not the best image
- Not really OP's point but the map of countries with US military installations is still impressive, as can be seen here:
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_military_installations
  with at least 128 military bases located outside of its national territory as of July 2024
  OP is not as wrong as the replies suggest.
  
  OP is getting mocked for posting a map claiming that there are US military bases in Beijing and Moscow, not because anyone thinks there aren't a lot of US bases around the world
- Bro have you even taken a look at that fucking map ... there's one dot in moscow of all places, the other one in beijing. That's a map of embassies you fucking tankie moron.
- those sneaky american put a military base even in moscow and beijing without anyone noticing! but alas the operative costs led them to demolish all the bases in their own homeland!
- Imagine if China or Russia did that, and then started bombing random countries.
  Lol yeah can you imagine?
  What if Russia had military bases in other countries like Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mozambique or Sudan?
  Imagine if they had bombing campaigns in random countries like Syria, Georgia, Libya, Central African Republic or Mali.
  Also imagine what would happen if the US would bomb one of their own cities like Minneapolis or Tulsa Oklahoma so thoroughly that it would become known as one of the most destroyed cities in modern warfare
  Don't get me wrong, the US is an imperialistic power hungry repressive country which imposes its will on plenty of smaller countries, but let's not pretend that Russia is better in any way, shape or form, they're just not as successful in exacting power outside of their sphere of influence.
  Edit: lol someone pointed out correctly that this map is just a map of US embassies, holy fuck tankies are idiots
  
  Obviously none of that would ever happen because Russia isn't a western imperialist power
- That looks like a map of us embassies, not military bases.
  
  Nah, the US has military bases in Moscow and Beijing, that's how powerful they are
- Cute. Now post map of every military base that switzerland doesn't own in the world. Why isn't switzerland feeling threatened and invading neighbouring countries, threatening genocide and nukes? I mean the bases are right there!
  
  To be fair, Swiss never gave up on general conscription, got strong army and will forever remain somewhat weary of all of their neighbours, neighbours who have all blobbed out at least once before in history, except Liechtenstein :')
- Imagine if China or Russia did that
  Yeah, imagine if Russia started invading all its neighbors. What a wild hypothetical.
  Hey ivan, tell your buddies to stop smoking near ammo depots and oil refineries.
- Map of US military bases
  Not a single pin inside US soil
  Think this one through better next time, or validate your sources lmao
- You really Did Your Own Research on this one, huh?