> Putin is currently playing out the same game as he did in 2008 in Georgia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia aren't formerly part of Russia; their existence merely guarantee that Georgia cannot be part of NATO.
They don't actually guarantee that, there is no formal bar to admitting a country with active disputes to NATO; and even if there were it would take agreement of exactly the same parties as are required to admit a new member to either eliminate or modify the formal requirement.
Also, the new regions aren't necessary for that if it was a bar because of the occupation of Crimea since 2014.
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They don't actually guarantee that, there is no formal bar to admitting a country with active disputes to NATO
There's no formal bar, but it would be politically difficult. (Because now you either need to ignore your newest member's problems, or commit to a war that you didn't even want to fight.)
The former significantly undermines confidence in the organization, the latter... Ties it to actually fighting a war (with all the nasty ways in which it can escalate), as opposed to muttering about sanctions.
Out of the US, France, the UK, and Germany, which of those four countries do you think want to fight a shooting war with Russia?
At the moment, the answer is 'none of the above'. Implementing sanctions is comparatively easy, though.
They don't actually guarantee that, there is no formal bar to admitting a country with active disputes to NATO; and even if there were it would take agreement of exactly the same parties as are required to admit a new member to either eliminate or modify the formal requirement.
Also, the new regions aren't necessary for that if it was a bar because of the occupation of Crimea since 2014.