of an aggressive expansion particularly over nato? well, first, i think it is important to point out that putin is making a strawman argument, as the uk defence secretary ben wallace recently wrote in the times. nato only borders about 6% of russia's borders. there is no plan for ukraine or other public and georgia there is no plan for ukraine or for the republic of georgia to join nato any time in the nearfuture — they're not close to achieving the standards that are required for nato members — and so i think putin is looking for a pretext for a conflict. that's what russia actually was looking for with its demands as well, an end to nato's open—door policy and a promise that ukraine and georgia wouldn't become nato members, absolutely denying the millions of ukrainians and georgians who increasingly and overwhelmingly want euro—atla ntic integration for their countries, not to mention that these countries and their political leaders have the right to decide their own allies. so that was always going to be