Its a rather interesting thing - - here in the U.S. we are very fortunate to only share borders with two countries and both of those countries are militarily aligned with us which gives us a great deal of perceived security compared other countries that share their land borders with many more countries that often times may not be politically/militarily aligned with them.
Being that age that I am I remember how the U.S. totally freaked out when Cuba was basically becoming a military base for Russia - - the thought of "the enemy" being that close to our doorstep was deemed totally unacceptable and put us on the brink of war - people in the neighborhood where I lived were constructing concrete bomb shelters in their yards in the fear that Russian nukes from Cuba could be launched at a moments notice.
Remembering this, and the tension that went along with the idea of "the enemy' being that close I find that I can understand why Russia might feel a similar level of anxiety at the idea of a NATO aligned country, along with the military and bases that might go along with that, sitting right on their door step
I think it is interesting how we, the U.S., often seem surprised when other countries do the same things or react the same way as we have historically - - its like when we do it we think its totally normal and acceptable, but when "they" do it we act shocked like its some kind of horrible unacceptable thing
Seriously - - think about it - - your some small country and you want weapons comparable to what the U.S. has, and what do we do, we threaten, and we impose sanctions and might even intervene militarily telling you - NO! - you can't have what we have! - - I have to imagine that to much of the population of this world we must look like incredible hypocrites.
so anyway to my point - I can understand why Putin wants the Ukraine to be more aligned with Russia and not aligned with NATO - just like we didn't want Cuba militarily aligned with Russia - - its totally understandable
