Putin’s plan for Europe is already written in black and white

That particular demand from Putin came with the sort of fake concession for which Russian diplomacy is famed. Yes, military deployments could be allowed in Nato’s post-1997 members in “exceptional cases”, perhaps if such a country had to “eliminate a threat to security”, but only “with the consent of all the parties”, which would include Russia.

So Nato could only send forces to repel a Russian invasion of Latvia, for example, if Russia would first agree to its own invasion being repelled. If, by some extraordinary chance, the invader did not agree, then Nato would have to abandon Latvia to Russia’s mercy.

That is what Putin means – and has always meant – when he talks of a new European security architecture. He means a system that clears Nato out of the way and leaves him free to invade any neighbour.

Every previous US administration understood that perfectly well, which is why Europe and the then president, Joe Biden, united to reject Russia’s proposal in December 2021, whereupon Putin showed exactly why he wanted the ability to attack his neighbours by launching an onslaught against Ukraine two months later.