I agree, in principle, but there is a problem.
Per its ultimatum in December 2021, putting any NATO troops anywhere east of West Berlin - even in their own barracks on their own home bases in their own countries - amounts to NATO “poking the bear” so we shouldn’t do it.
In fact, for the sake of all our safety, we should just disband NATO, dismantle all our armies, and invite Russia to invade any of us whenever it likes without so much as a peashooter in the way. It’s the only guaranteed way NOT to piss them off.
At some point we’re gonna have to stop indulging Russian silliness.
So Putin wants to bring back an Iron Curtain of some kind, wave the hammer and sickle flags everywhere, and have a Warsaw Pact 2.0 of annexed regions? Fine.
Let him build it along the Russian border with the civilised, non-vatnik world.
Maybe we should let Russia have Lugansk and Crimea as its Warsaw Pact equivalent. One is a completely bombed-out ruin now, but as Putin has such a hard-on for bringing back big walls and a Checkpoint Charlie, it’s got the real estate for a whole new city.
And then all the folks in south Ukraine who want to live in Russia, can actually just move to the new build Mariupol for the next best thing, or move a few more miles east and live in the blown-up shit-hole that is Russia.
Totally voluntarily this time, though. Free land for Vatniks in Lugansk! Bring your own building materials and washing machines.
Sounds a bit like the “Chamberlin Plan”.