In fact, NATO began to expand long before the West launched a 2014 coup d'état in Ukraine. And long before 2014, the US unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty and began building a missile defense in Europe. So it's silly to blame Russia, which reacts very, very restrainedly to the multiple increase of NATO troops at its own borders.NATO's build up was due to the annexion of Crimea and the alleged active Russian role in the war in eastern Ukraine,and at the sole demand of the Baltic and eastern European countries,who saw Russia's resurgence and subversive tactics as a direct threat. Not to add the threat of nuking countries or conducting large scale exercices on NATO's borders.
Before Ukraine's events,the US were removing troops from Europe,and pretty much all European countries were cutting their defence budgets and forces.
NATO forces are there on a strictly defensive role to reassure worried members,so no chances for NATO to unleash its troops and tanks on Russia's plains.
Why NATO exists at all after the Warsaw Pact was dissolved and there are no more communism? Why NATO is expanding to Russia borders and the agressive side - is Russia? Just look at the maps of 1989 and 2017.
