On the "Shotinthedark" site, host Mitch Berg has a list of laws, or really more aphorisms about the hypocrisies he sees, especially on the progressive left. And so I would like to adopt, and slightly modify, Berg's Seventh Law dealing with progressive projection to use it regarding Russia, which has lately claimed via mouthpiece Sergei Lavrov that increased defense spending will destroy NATO, and hilariously claims that Russia plans to reduce defense spending next year.
In other words, bluster to get Ukraine to accept Russia's unworkable terms that would more or less re-integrate Ukraine into a new version of the Soviet Union.
But that noted and mocked per "Darth Putin's" adage to never believe anything about Russia until the Kremlin or state media denies it, there is a big risk to NATO that most media pundits don't seem to be up to speed on; we can call it the "Tom Daschle" effect. That effect was that until Republicans wised up to what was going on, Democrats realized that with sufficient money spent on the Dakotas, they could get compliant Senators who would reliably align with the Democrats.
Same basic thing in the poorer countries of Europe; Putin realized quickly after the fall of the Berlin Wall (which he called "colonization" and a "catastrophe") that they could be bought off through vote-rigging or corruption. The trouble with this is that NATO works a lot with unanimity, so if Slovakia or Hungary objects, NATO cannot act strongly.
The long and short of it, I think is that nations bordering Russia and Belarus are going to need to "bring the goods" in countering Russian aggression, and they'll not be able to count on extensive help from the whole of NATO. Moreover, the U.S. and other defenders of freedom are going to need to work to expose FSB interference in the affairs of Russia's neighbors.
And an update: the Prime Minister of Hungary claims that 95% of the vote regarding the possibility of Ukrainian accession to the European Union is "no". I think that's a good example of the "Tom Daschle Effect" led by the FSB (successor to the KGB). Nobody gets 95% of the vote in nationwide referenda honestly.