Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey writes NATO, and particularly member states France and Germany, are scared of expanding the alliance because of their fear of Russia. They fear that NATO expansion into Georgia, for example, would lead to a direct military conflict with Russia. Meanwhile Russia has actually expanded its military presence into Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and Eastern Ukraine. Russia also wants to put a naval base in Montenegro, a country whose government has been desperately trying to join NATO, yet has been turned down like Georgia.