I don't think the KGB think strategic thoughts.
Thats what Putin wants a recreated soviet state.
And a buffer zone between him and free European Nations (who are mostly involved with NATO).
So why did Poland and other ex warsaw pact members chose to join NATO. They feared Russian Oppression....
- That's cute. But I speak more about the difference between the kind of people who are strategic thinkers and those who aren't. Doesn't mean they always succeed, just that they play "the game" at a much deeper level.
- Nope, that is a miscalculation. He's an old KGB hard man, and definitely an autocrat, but has no intention of remaking a communist system that's already failed once. I think he's more like a Tsar, and tends to think in terms of old school great power competition. But consider this: a guy like that would not have taken power and kept it, if Russia was not under direct threat to begin with. Before Putin, there was Yeltsin, the guy who was perma-drunk while the country was weakened to near-collapse and its resources pirated by oligarchs, and jihadis began to try breaking southern regions away for themselves. Coincidentally, all this was around the time the USA began to talk openly about making sure they would be the only real power in the world, able to act with impunity, forever.
- Buffer zone? Yup. In fact, that's pretty much been the clearest & most consistent strategic objective of the Russians since the before 21st century even dawned. You'll have to ask the Americans why they continually rejected the idea in favour of increasing confrontation at every turn. Did any of this make Europe safer? Fuck no. Did it help Ukraine, ever? Fuck no. Could they have had peace from the Urals to the Atlantic if they just dropped the idea? Fuck yes. If the price of having peace across Europe was accepting the same kind of neutrality that made places like Sweden, Austria, and Finland so prosperous, who wouldn't want to accept those terms? Well, look and you will see: only Washington thought it was a terrible idea, and I suspect that's because it would have made NATO obsolete. A Europe at peace with Russia, or even allied to Russia, would not need the US presence anymore.
- Poland's been Uncle Sam's #1 fan ever since the Kaczynski twins were co-leaders of Poland and Dubya was US president. Of all the European countries, they are also the one that hates Russia beyond all reason, but will do literally anything Washington wants (like be the most eager to join the Iraq invasion). More cynically, Poland also competes directly with Russia when it comes to controlling Ukraine and Belarus (and remember Poland used to rule Ukraine too).
But another part of the answer to why those countries joined is this: while the Russians objected clearly to any ex-USSR republic joining NATO, and were always ready to go ballistic (pardon the pun) over Ukraine or Belarus, they were close to indifferent about NATO absorbing states like Poland or Romania, etc. Yes, they said this was the breaking of a key promise that was made to the USSR and then Russia prior to their troops leaving eastern Europe, but Russia was always clear and consistent when it came to what they would or wouldn't accept, what they did and what they did not consider a mortal threat.
"They fear Russian oppression" is not much of an answer, if you leave out the part where Washington was all too willing to manipulate other countries by stoking old grievances & paranoia. The USSR is dead, and Stalin even deader. The Cold War ended mostly peacefully, with USSR troops leaving eastern Europe voluntarily, not being driven out forcibly or even being handed an ultimatum to fuck off. Some threat; it retreated voluntarily. Everything that's gone wrong since then has been in reaction to a provocation (And there have been so many since then). When Russia objected to the Baltic states joining NATO, the Americans scoffed that there was anything Russia could even do about it - and maybe back in 2004, that may have been the case. But Putin never forgot it, nor that the US & UK supported the Chechen jihadis attacking Russia itself. Relations have been steadily worse since then, so I ask you (again) how has any of this NATO expansion strategy actually helped Europe? Europe is on fire now, and America's key strategy for the last 20 years has been prove either a lie or a total failure.
Another example: Look to east Asia, and you can see China and Korea (both of them) still angry at Japan over old history, but only North Korea might actually consider it an ongoing conflict. Japan has not fucked with anything on the Korean peninsula since 1945. China has reasons to play the wounded victim in diplomacy, when today it is the larger and more aggressive nation compared to modern Japan. South Korea actually gets along well with Japan, and they are basically allies, except for still wanting a Japanese apology for past wrongs. But North Korea still acts as if those wounds as as fresh as they were in 1945, picking fights with Japan over basically nothing, or acting like they could conquer South Korea like it's still 1949 - and for that, we consider the North Korean government quite insane. Living in the past to that degree is not bravery, it is foolishness. Of course, it does still matter when it is causing division and danger. Who benefits from that ? I would say both the US and Chinese, each in their own way, do not want the situation to ever actually get better.
The problem with the public (in the west anyways) is how naive people are. They see everything as white hat/black hat, and seem to forget everything that does not fit the narrative. Facts be damned, they want to take a side and then pretend it is the side of the angels.
There are no angels in charge. There are no good guys. Victims? Yes, plenty of those.