All those Eastern European countries who joined NATO wanted to join NATO in order to ---DEFEND-- themselves against centuries of Russian colonization efforts directed at them. Your knife analogy is nothing but a complete, slanderous lie. NATO is not trying to "hurt" Russia. NATO countries want Russians to be prosperous, safe, and, waaaaiiit for it...democratic! Because democracy is the best way to have prosperity and safety! Putin and many Russian leadership for generations have NOT wanted to let surrounding ethnicities democratically govern themselves; their strand of Russian imperialism has been to work to control those surrounding peoples. On the other hand, you cannot deny that NATO countries would be OVERJOYED if the Russian people had an opportunity to democratically govern themselves with freedom.