Part and parcel of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to spin his war of conquest in Ukraine as something other than the bloody manifestation of an imperialist fever dream, entails parroting an old cliché: The best defense is a good offense.

For years, Russian state media and the Kremlin’s global network of unofficial propaganda channels, have insisted that NATO poses some manner of threat to Russia.

Such narratives run the gamut from mostly plausible (i.e., NATO is a military alliance, and it does operate on Russia’s doorstep, so even if there’s no actual, active threat, there’s an implied threat) to wholly far-fetched (i.e., prior to Putin’s “special military operation,” NATO was plotting against Russia).

All versions have in common a basic underlying paranoia. Moscow has to remain vigilant, lest NATO should… well, nobody knows really. No one outside the Kremlin can finish that sentence. I realize Russia is beautiful in places, and is as rich in heritage as it is in natural resources. But frankly, nobody wants it. And even if they did, a ground invasion is a logistical impossibility. No “defense” was needed. So, any offense was just that — offense. Putin’s war in Ukraine is, and always was, an offensive war.

Putin will tell you that’s not true, but even if you could get him to concede that it was (and once he subjected you to a half-hour nonsense harangue about “drug addicts” and “Nazis” in Kyiv), he’d still contend his actions were at least secondarily motivated by a desire to send a message to NATO. That message: You can’t expand anymore, and if you do, Russia may have to respond militarily in order to protect its sovereignty.

The Kremlin did indeed end up sending several messages to NATO, but I’m not sure any of them were consistent with what Putin meant to convey. One message heard loud and clear was that sans-nukes, the Russian military is a paper tiger. Chasing Sunni extremists around Syria with fighter jets while Hezbollah does the dirty work on the ground is one thing. Trench warfare with another country’s military is another entirely, especially when that country is receiving heavy arms and boatloads of money from the West (and not through CIA backchannels or any desert air drops, either, but rather right out in the open).

Another message the Kremlin sent to NATO said something about Putin’s state of mind. Initially, some observers feared he’d lost it (his mind) entirely. A year into the conflict, I’ve heard enough from him to know he’s not senile or “losing it,” so to speak. Rather, he’s just an aging tyrant trying to make his mark on history. Sure, he’s a little paranoid, which certainly doesn’t help, but he’s only “crazy” in the kind of way you’re crazy when you start a war for no good reason (plenty of world leaders have been crazy that way, including one recent US president). Putin wanted war, so he initiated one.

Those messages (and a few others) resonated in the West, but the message he meant to send about the purported perils of NATO expansion didn’t. Instead of discouraging expansion, he literally facilitated it. On Tuesday, Finland’s flag was hoisted up outside NATO headquarters, two weeks after Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light. (He’s still holding up Sweden’s bid.)

“What we see is that President Putin went to war against Ukraine with a declared aim to get less NATO. He’s getting the exact opposite: More NATO,” Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday, adding that the alliance’s door “remains firmly open.”

Without trafficking in NATO “rah-rah” publicity, there’s really only one way to describe Finland’s accession: It’s an own goal for Putin. Were it not for the tragic circumstances, It’d be slapstick. Putin has now succeeded in doubling Russia’s border with NATO. Nearly 900 miles of previously neutral border territory is now a red line for the Kremlin.

Sauli Niinisto called Tuesday “a great day.” Russia, he said, “tried to create a sphere” around Finland. “We are not a sphere.” No, apparently not. A “spear,” maybe. The tip of one, to be precise. Poking right up against the ribs of a bear.

Russia made a few vacuous threats. They weren’t worth quoting. Just hours ahead of Finland’s official welcome to the alliance, the country’s parliamentary website was hit with a denial-of-service attack. A pro-Russian hacker group claimed responsibility.