Putin _is_ consistent, but not with his words but with his actions. He is not thinking in the short term, but in the long term, how can he make Russia a bigger player on the world stage. I repeat, assigning perfect reason to Putin is a mistake, he's driven by ideas that override immediate pragmatism.

His claims of NATO security threats are a veil, a lie. I think this post sells it quite well: https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/t2mb0c/the...