This rhetorics misses two crucial facts: first, that the eastern slavic states were eager to join NATO simply because they were worried about the Russian threat

This rhetorics misses two crucial facts: first, that the eastern slavic states were eager to join NATO simply because they were worried about the Russian threat. Russian chauvinism towards ex-soviet nations is not a recent thing and Russia's attempts to coerce and pressure neighbours into submission and dependence started immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For someone like me who grew up in Ukraine where the Russian threat was an everyday topic, the narrative of "aggressive NATO expansion" is a great illustration how people pushing it are far from understanding the post-Soviet reality. And second, in the 90ties there were negotiations about Russia joining NATO as well, which ultimately broke down in the early 2000s as Russia embraced state terrorism as a regular political instrument. The point is very simple: NATO or not NATO, Russian fascism and Russian imperialism would still be there. Without the NATO expansion however the Baltic states would have probably been annexed a decade ago.