It should be up to sovereign countries to align themselves with whoever they like? When it suits us! Cuba, Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada, post WWII Greece, etc. Nothing is ever that simple. It is understandable that Russia should feel threatened in the context of its history.
Ukraine however is preventing a sensible conversation about this between NATO and Russia. I do allocate blame 99% with Putin, but regardless of this there needs to be dialogue, rather than jingoism.