A well-reasoned view with which I'm inclined to agree if you believe that Russia just wants recognition/respect and is not intent on territorial expansion. As I think you have said previously – they are broke; and much of their equipment is very old but that doesn't stop it having very good effect: remember SCUD missiles during the 1st Gulf War? Totally obsolete Cold War stuff but they sure scared the $hit out of many people. Their fleet steaming down the Channel recently, is all old stuff from the eighties but it looks good.
I think the key here is Putin: he wants to be taken seriously and portrays himself as a big, strong and tough man (remember all that bare-chested exhibitionist stuff ? – And yet still he only looks like a better-fed version of Andrew Marr!). Trump is the first western politician to have given him any kind of respect and despite the enormous difference between East and West and as you rightly say, our pursuance of disadvantaging them at every opportunity, there is the paradox that Trump may lead to a better relationship – possibly?
As I said before, the basic problem with NATO is that nobody knows what to do with it. The military love it (especially UK) because it's a really good club for military types. The European politicians have never been serious about defence (excepting the French – who were never fully paid up members of NATO anyway) since the Americans looked after them – so why should they change. The European army is just the latest idea to prop a failing EU.
There is an enormous opportunity here for some different thinking. Is there anyone with the foresight and vision to carry it out? I live in hope.
