Nato does not have territory... it has members who want to protect their own territory.

Nato really had no capacity or desire to invade Russia. Ukraine had and has far far less.

But.... no one who was under the communist yoke ever wants to see a reinstitution of the Soviet Union... not even most Russians!

Putin uses all this as a pretext to stay in power for life.

He's pushed himself into a lonely corner and set his country back decades.