Russias propaganda piece: “Nato is to blame”
This propaganda relies on peoples lack of understanding of how NATO works and what the political environment has been around Russia after the collapse of USSR.
There is no agreement were Nato has signed not to accept new members. The countries joining Nato, join out of free will and are completely allowed to do so. They are sovereign countries that can themselves decide what is their main threat for their sovereignty and if joining Nato benefits them or not. Nato does not posses a threat to Russia as it is a defensive alliance where countries are not obligated to attack if other member decides to attack.
Russia sees NATO as a threat but not to Russia itself, it’s a threat to Russias sphere of influence. When a country joins NATO Russia no longer can threaten it with use of force or declaration of war against it. NATO discourse from Russias side is purely based on fear of not being able to coerce it’s neighbours to make decisions that benefit Russia.
Why Russias claim of NATO being a threat to Russia is pure propaganda:
Europe, and thus most of NATO countries near russia, were reliant on Russian energy exports. Most of they countries in fact invested in this reliance of Russia. In EU they believed by making the economies of Europe and Russia tied closely together it would prevent war as both side would have huge economic losses.
But what if Nato wants the resources and attacks Russia to get them? Even a second grader can calculate that the costs outweigh any benefits of such an attack by billions of times. Fruthermore Russia has nuclear weapons, so no, Nato never possessed a military threat to Russia in real life. This is just another take on Russia panicking over the weakening of its sphere of influence.
The sphere of influence ideology that this propaganda portrays doesn’t take into consideration the will of the people in the countries that joined Nato completely voluntarily. Thus the premise of Nato enlargement is already flawed as Nato is not conquering or annexing them.
Here are some links that root out more reasons why the idea of Nato enlargement is rooted in propaganda:
Russia’s myths about NATO: Moscow’s propaganda. by Federal Academy for Security Policy of Germany
Mearshmers accusation of the west behind Ukrainian-Russian war doesn’t stand closer inspection.
Missreading the war in Ukraine
russias claims by analysis of putins speeches
Most recent piece of scientific analysis of the short comings in “west is at fault” thinking:
A Critique of Geopolitical Reason from Monroe to Mearsheimer
More critic for Mearsheimers realistic ideology
Conclusion:
Main take away from those sources provided above is that: The only purpose of the sphere of influence ideology and propaganda around NATO forcing Russias hand, is to try to diminish and hide Russias agency of it’s own actions. People like Sachs and Measrsheimer completely omit Russia’s own agendas, and ignore decades of European co-operation politics. People peddling the “NATO is to blame” propaganda don’t consider smaller countries as independent states but as puppet states that should bow to the closest oppressors.
When a country joins NATO Russia no longer can threaten it with war. NATO discourse from Russias side is purely based on of no longer being able to coerce it’s neighbours to make decisions that benefit Russia.