Russia has been an expansionist force for centuries - long before the October revolution. There’s various explanations for this such as Russia constantly feelings vulnerable due to the vast plains to their west without any natural Geographics barriers. But instead of forging literally any true alliances or building any soft power with the nations in that area they just constantly antagonize all of them. The one country they have on side is Belarus and that’s because they have to constantly prop up its leader against the will of their people. No good will, only force.

The current former Soviet countries in that area have the distinct memory of living under Russian control during the USSR and shockingly - want no part of it again. So they join NATO. Voluntarily. To the tankie if someone wants to join NATO, no matter how rational their reasoning for doing so, it must be because the CIA and “the West” tricked them into it. Smaller countries and the people who live there never have any agency.

After the USSR , western political discourse was full of talk about whether NATO is obsolete. Russia did everything possible to prove that wrong.