Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
This is what Putin's insane charge that NATO is a threat to Russia has wrought:
According to the pro-Kremlin pollster FOM, the majority of Russians (53 percent) consider the threat of nuclear war “real,” with most believing the main threat is coming from the United States. Some 39 percent of Russians do not believe in an impending nuclear war with the West. But in the age bracket from 46 to 60 years old, some 63 percent of Russians consider the threat of nuclear war both real and imminent (Gazeta.ru, December 7).
Years of pretending NATO is a threat to obscure Russia's appeasement of China is having an effect.
How will Putin manage to shift to admitting China is the real threat? Russia today is not the 1939 Soviet Union when Stalin could go from seeing Germany as an enemy to a friend overnight with nobody complaining--or even publicly noticing the change.
Will Russia be locked into lingering popular fear of NATO that handcuffs Russian policy even as Russia desperately needs a friendly NATO in its rear area as Russia tries to defend its hold on 19th century conquests in the Far East from Chinese territorial claims?
