Russia isn't our Goldberg. Russia's the country that has invaded two European countries within the last six years. NATO exists to defend against Russia because Russia is the only country that needs defending against. That's why Russia can't join NATO: It isn't at all established what happens when NATO members attack each other.
By my experience Russia has been used as a Goldberg-entity to scare Scots away from voting for independence (allegedly we could not defend against them militarily) and as a means of justifying the presence of nuclear weapons on our land. I predict that it will be used in similar arguments in the USA to justify the obscene levels of military spending in that country.
I think this is where our opinions are going to diverge and the Russians that I've spent the last two weeks criticising and accusing of genocide will begin to understand that there's more to us than some homogenous "Western" Goldberg bloc. I would have liked to have heard from some more Russians (Guardian is basically Russian) on this issue before the debate commences but ach well.
As belligerent as Russia is under Putin and the current elite who exploit the anti-Western, nationalist undercurrent that grew in Tsarist times and was expanded upon by the Soviets, I do not believe that we need to defend against them militarily. Russia is no threat to us, only to the poor bastards that they consider to be on their "turf" - that goes for the Baltic Republics and the Black Sea region.
They may expand their sphere of influence as much as they like within that area, but they will never invade Western Europe or drop a bomb on Paris or something like that. You understand that I object to the very existence of the Russian
Federation (though I do not object to the existence of "Russia") and oppose the current Russian government in every way, but I do not see them as being the threat that our governments make them out to be.
Even if we are in a situation where military force could be a factor, like the invasion of Ukraine, the only things we are able to do are apply economic sanctions that don't seem to be working much. We can't go to war with Russia. I don't even need to qualify that statement with reasons, they're obvious to you all.
We're thus left with only two options - sit and watch, hoping for an economic crisis to sweep the country and force Russia into a state of chaos after Putin is ousted (you can imagine the problems this will create), or integrate them into our sphere, thereby taking away the best tool the Russian elite has for controlling the Russian people.