Should Putin's Warning Sweden and Finland Surprise us?

     
     The answer to that question should be  that sometimes-yes we should be and sometimes no. It all depends on how likely the event is considered.  A surprised reaction is only justifiable whenever events that are considered impossible or  extremely unlikely suddenly happen anyway.  In contrast, things that are likely to occur never cause  feel astonishment or surprise. Which brings us to the issue at hand, why are Americans so surprised when Putin warns Finland and Sweden not to join NATO? Should they indeed be surprised by his Putin's reaction? 

     Well, if no provocation had been taking place,  then, yes, of course. But unfortunately, such is not the case. How so? Well,  please consider that the USA has been storing nuclear weapons deliverable to Russian targets via bombers in NATO countries in the event that a war should break out.  So naturally, any additional country added as a member of  NATO means having more nuclear bombs stored and ready to be deployed and right across Russia's border. 

      True, during the Cold War, this policy seemed  justifiable during the Cold War. However, once the Soviet Union was dissolved, and the threat of War against a  communist Soviet Union no longer existed there seemed to be no reason to escalate such a deployment.  Ironically, such a policy was not discontinued once the Soviet Union dissolved. Instead, it continued unabated despite Russia's repeated protests.

      So the storage of nuclear weapons in NATO countries so close to Russia after the Cuban Missile Crisis wherein the USA refused to tolerate Russian nuclear missiles 90 miles from its shores seems rather hypocritical.  Now, if we indeed considered it an act of provocation demanding a military response, why did the USA assume that Russia would calmly accept the same on the part of USA, and why should we feel surprised Russia does? That's tantamount to a neighbor placing a bomb next to our door, and we demanding that it be removed, only to later place one next to their door and expect them to remain calm, and then act astonished when the they don't.