Months after NATO officials started predicting the "imminent" Russian invasion of Ukraine and potentially the whole of Eastern Europe, nothing has happened on the ground. The rhetoric, however, remains very active, as do NATO's plans for a military buildup across the region, explicitly aimed at Russia.

Today, NATO defense ministers announced a "readiness action plan" aimed at building up the militaries of NATO members in the east, as well as "speeding up reaction time" of Western nations to a war with Russia.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted the move was necessary because of Russia's increase in military spending over the past five years, though Russia's entire military budget is less than 10 percent that of NATO.