Difficult questions can be welcome, but asking the same dumb question that has been answered 100 times already by multiple different posters does make it get rather tiresome.
Let me spell it out for you clearly one last time.
Independent Nation States request to join NATO, they are not told, forced, or instructed to do so by the US, the UK or anyone else. It is entirely voluntary and plenty of countries are still perfectly happy NOT being a member of NATO.
The reason for this is quite simple. The idea that NATO "backed Russia into a corner" is so utterly flawed and at this point downright ignorant that one has to wonder whether anyone still regurgitating these lines has more than 2 braincells to rub together for warmth.
NATO expanded because other independent nation states requested membership. They CHOSE to. They were not Forced or Told. They were not Invaded.
The ONLY "Hostile Expansion" there has been was Russia invading Crimea in 2014 and now again Invading the rest of Ukraine. This constant "But NATO Made us do it" is just so unbelievably flawed and stupid as an argument that frankly at this stage, all it really warrants is the response it gets.
The discussions have been had and done. long ago.. and many times over. The problem is that certain individuals refuse to actually listen to those discussions.
If they had bothered to actually do so, they would very quickly come to realize, as described above... That NATO Is a Defensive Alliance that people CHOOSE to join.
There was and never has been any "Hostile NATO Expansion".. Only Voluntary NATO Expansion, due to more and more countries wanting the safety and security that being part of a large defensive alliance can offer.(And after what Russia has done with Ukraine now, I suspect even MORE countries)
Arguably at this stage anyone still attempting to paint a picture of Western aggression and Hostile NATO expansion somehow caused Russia to invade an Independent Sovereign Nation and commit War Crimes against civilians is either deliberately trolling, or genuinely believes that Russia is justified in their actions....
Last time I checked, Hitting Hospitals, Malls and Apartment Blocks with Cruise Missiles and your troops raping and executing civilians are not just War Crimes, but pretty ****ing evil.
Whilst I agree that there seems to be far too many occurrences these days of people immediately jumping on the "Oh because you said this, you must also mean that" I feel I need to suggest that is not what was happening here.
The individual in question came in and asked (for the god-knows how many-th time it's been said in this thread) "Does no one think Russia were put into a corner by NATO and US encroachment both disregarding the North Atlantic treaty?"
Now, this has not only been discussed multiple times in the past in the thread and could easily have been searched for the numerous times it's been mentioned, but it has repeatedly in those discussions been wholly dismissed as both factually flawed and frankly stupid.
(see above, It's rather hard to have a "Hostile Expansion" of a defensive alliance that people choose to join of their own free will, If you want to see what Hostile Expansion looks like, just see what Russia is doing to Ukraine right now.)
It is akin to the Bully saying he was made to do it because he felt threatened by all the nerd kids who are just trying to defend each other.
TL;DR At this stage in the discussion any suggestion that NATO cornered Russia into becoming a massive aggressor, which somehow culminated into forcing them to invade a neighboring sovereign nation state and commit countless War Crimes is either Trolling, or Stupid.