Talking about foreign policy establishment I see that W. Lewis Anslelm - the Diplomad - has started to blog again. I send the links to his three latest installments. The last one (top of the list) is about Putin and Ukraine:
https://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2022/01/drums-along-potomac-will-we-bumble-into.html#comment-form
https://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2022/01/right-all-along-biden-as-ed-woods-bela.html
https://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2022/01/back-sorta.html
These two writers Philipps and Reyes are on Putin’s payroll.
The meeting that didn’t have US diplomats is mis-characterized. That Euro group is run from an EU alphabet organization, with full support of the US.
Also, Germany has stated emphatically that it will not use Nord Stream 2 if Russia invades Ukraine. So, the leverage with that pipeline goes both ways.
Trump is correct that it was stupid for Germany to go along with the NS2 pipeline. But not working out the way genius Putin thought.
Russian leverage is diluted by the fact that 80% of the Russian economy is energy. They need the cash from energy as much as Germany needs energy. It goes both ways.