Analysis: A quick geography lesson for any cable news hosts requiring it.
“Vladimir Putin does not want Belgium. He just wants to keep his western borders secure. That’s why he doesn’t want Ukraine to join [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ], and that makes sense.”“Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine because he didn’t want Ukraine to join NATO. Putin certainly had other motives as well. People always do have multiple motives, but that’s the main reason Russia invaded. The Russians don’t want American missiles on their border.
To avoid a scenario in which you, our hypothetical cable-news host, might say such a thing, let’s quickly review the member nations of NATO and their orientation relative to Russia. You can see that I’ve also highlighted Russia and Ukraine , given their salience to this discussion. And while Ukraine does share a lengthy border with Russia, there are several Baltic countries just to the north of Ukraine that share a border with Putin’s nation.Let’s zoom in. Here’s the region at issue, showing the NATO member countries in green.
to consider seeking admission to NATO as a defensive measure. An unintended consequence but a perhaps foreseeable one: If Putin’s motive were simply to maintain buffers against NATO, he just made that less likely to his country’s northwest.