No offence, but this seems highly self-congratulatory. You’re basically saying The Economist has “caught up” because they wrote something you agree with. I would also contest your claims that NATO aid has been a joke or that Putin will inevitably achieve his aims.

The only reason Putin has indicated a willingness to negotiate now is because Ukraine is conducting coordinated strikes deep into Russia, taken out one of Russia’s top generals (while he was in Moscow) and taken Russian territory. All of this has demonstrated that Putin’s nuclear threats were always a calculated bluff.

I can’t agree more that NATO aid has been slow and meagre until very recently, but it remains a formidable threat to Putin’s policy of turning neighbouring countries into satellite states. He certainly thinks so, which is why he’s been obsessed with Ukraine since 2014.