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Stephen Kotkin – the leading expert on Russia – demolishes the Kremlin-backed, yet still fashionable in the West, idea that NATO's enlargement “created” Putin’s Russia. “The argument assumes that had NATO not expanded, Russia wouldn’t be exactly the same – or very likely close to what it is today. What we have today in Russia is not some deviation from a historical pattern.” “Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 sq miles per day for hundreds of years, eventually covering one-sixth of the Earth's landmass.” “Way before NATO existed, in the 19th century, Russia looked like this. It had an autocrat, it had repression, it had militarism, it had suspicion of foreigners.” “It’s not a response to actions of the West. There are internal processes in Russia that account for where we are today. NATO expansion has put us in a better place to deal with this historical pattern in Russia that we’re seeing again today.”