There has been no NATO expansion, in the sense of an expansion initiated or supported in any way by NATO. Many countries have joined NATO from their own initia

There has been no NATO expansion, in the sense of an expansion initiated or supported in any way by NATO. Many countries have joined NATO from their own initiative, because they knew wery well that Russia is willing to rob and murder any neighbors and those neighbors are too small to oppose Russia without allies. Regardless whether those countries loved NATO or not, they all have made great efforts to join NATO, including by making various sacrifices, as renouncing to things that had belonged to them or accepting to finance various onerous contracts with companies located in NATO countries. The countries that have joined NATO have been willing to do this at considerable expenses, because any such expenses were less important than the risk of being vulnerable to Russian attacks. Russia has a history of attacking their neighbors only days after those neighbors have lost their allies, so they could not count any more on anybody else for defending against Russian attacks.