Maybe because they don't want to be stopped from intervening in places like Crimea, Chechnya, Azerbajian, and Georgia?
On the wiki, they actually didn't want Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO.
Yes, you see, I have a number of reasons I have read somewhere already but I wanted to hear from people like Comrade P (a reasonable and friendly man) or even the passionate Avis or collected Gogis regarding joining NATO and the EU before I started firing those off.
Umm, because things what US wants and Russia wants are different. In other simple words, the corporation behind US and the ones on power in russia want to have more for them, they dont want to share.
This interests me a lot. In Europe we've pretty much all got the same "elite" whether you're in the UK, France, Spain or Germany. They've all got shared interests and they all lean in similar directions. The Scottish Independence debate has been illustrative of this; the ease with which certain EU-commisioner types like Barroso fell behind British Government arguments was one example. Evidently the Russian and CIS elite is very separate to the Western one, which is unusual.
Also god help us all if US and russia really join forces, than the world will be fucked up for real (never ever wish that, to have one supper power, you are assuming here that NATO and US are good, thy are not, they are as crap as russia).
If you knew me you would know that I have never thought that in my life. I've spent the last two years arguing that Scotland must be an independent, non-aligned country (i.e. not in NATO) for all the same reasons you have for opposing NATO.
I just think the main issue in this whole conflict is the fact that we have a world with two main players - China and the USA. The rest are periphery, though the EU is still in the West's sphere and China/Russia/India are almost in another sphere.
The problem is none of us are very comfortable in our respective "spheres" (see the enormous diplomatic rifts between China and India for example and Russia's superpower ambitions) and we're all trying to do our own thing.
If we're going to bother with these alliances at all it makes perfect sense for Russia to join the Western sphere in order to counter China. Even though the Western sphere may force them to make uncomfortable choices regarding human rights (as in they'd actually have to get some) I think the Western sphere would suit them better financially and economically. China's sphere is too unpredictable, ours is far more established and stable - and what do Russians like better than stability and economic security?
There needs to be competition in everything, if you have one on power, they will always, do whatever they want.
I'm pretty much proposing a NATO where there is greater competition within the organisation between East and West. That may lead to things "balancing out", or it could lead to a collapse of NATO. Either way I'm happy.