To your point about us appeasing such behaviour. Well...what are we gonna do about it? Moan? Demonstrate? Cry? Russia couldn't give a toss about how we feel.
You might think I'm being silly but this is exactly what they thought in 1938. 
Although Trump is Putin's new 'Bestie' he is right about NATO, in that many countries don't pay their fair share. The thing is, at the end of the day the US will always fight their battles on European soil, because if Europe falls the next battle will be on home turf and they will do anything to prevent that. 
As to the EU, if it survives it will definitely become more of a nation state and individual countries will have less say and control over it's affairs. It was always the plan and we have been lied to about this for 40 years! 
FOOTNOTE: Russia and Ukraine have been mentioned more than once recently in this thread which can only mean one thing! 
Rods2 to to GenDiss!! 
Before the Russian invasion of Crimea, followed by the further invasion of Donbas, Ukraine's population's interest in joining NATO was always less than 20%, anything other you have read is Russian propaganda. However, what was much higher was Ukraine's interest in joining the EU, which was around 40-50%. The country's main motivation for joining the EU was to escape from their post-Soviet economy, totally corrupt system and poverty.
Russia used and uses Russian-Ukrainian oligarchs and mafia ties to try and keep the Ukrainians in their place. Didn't work under Stalin hence over 1000 uprisings against Soviet rule, especially in 1930-32 against collectivization which culminated in Stalin's deliberate starvation and genocide of 5-8million Ukrainians in the 1932-33 Holodomor and it won't work under Putin now. The Dnieper river area in Ukraine is where the famous Cossacks originated from and was always Russia's preferred recruitment area when they wanted to raise an army. Ukrainians had seen the other post-Soviet countries take this route, reform under the EU rules and guidance and transform themselves into much richer, much less corrupt countries and societies. Ukraine wants the same, but Russia wants to keep the immediate countries on their border as poor corrupt post-Soviet societies. Moldova was the first problem country, hence the Russian support and the formation of the 'Russian controlled' breakaway area of Transnistria. Georgia was next, hence the 2008 invasion and then Ukraine in 2014. Next will probably be either Kazakhstan or Belarus.
Most trade between Ukraine and Russia has now stopped and Ukraine imports all its gas through Western countries. Gazprom recently offered Ukraine the cheap price of $185MMBtu and Ukraine said no. Ukraine-EU exports grew by 30% in 2015, the first year of the EU agreement. Since 2014 Maiden, Russian invasion and economic attacks, Ukraine's economy contracted sharply, but it has now started growing again.
These days, in Ukraine, NATO memberships polls at 50-80% of the population and the EU at up to 95%. Russia carries out these invasions as they know a country having any disputed territory or war automatically excludes NATO membership. Last week Ukraine and Georgia finally managed to get visa free travel, in the Schlangen area of the EU, for visiting up to 90 days in 6 months, which will further boost trade.
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