Russia is very brave to stand alone against NATO

Eh, Russia has very little choice. Russia's only two real conquests in the twenty-first century have been massively cowardly and opportunistic. The annexation of Crimea, in particular, was done in a time of political turmoil so severe that the Ukrainian government was literally incapable of ordering a gun to be fired. Ukraine has a tenth of Russia's military might, and the Russians weren't willing to even go up against that. And I don't even need to explain the silliness of the invasion of Georgia.