How Russia Has Revived NATO

These are great times for NATO, as an organization and an alliance. After the fall of Communism in the 1990s, NATO lost its raison d’etre. It never fully revived as a military alliance - until now. This is exactly why Putin is suddenly downplaying a NATO expansion, while simultaneously threatening Finland and Sweden, even if vaguely. The new message is that Russia does not fear a NATO expansion, despite the fact that from the beginning, the war on Ukraine was about precisely that - along with securing more authoritarian power for Putin at…