There's a strong sense, publicly stated by President Putin and other senior Russian leaders. They tend to see the colour revolutions in places such as Ukraine, central Asia, and whatnot, and attempts to democratize in some countries in their periphery as western-run influence operations to undermine Russian interests in those countries. They feel that the opening of NATO membership to eastern European countries similarly was a direct attack on Russian interests. They feel that, wherever possible, the west takes advantage of Russian weakness, so they're determined not to be weak.
On November 3rd, 2016. See this statement in context.