I will mention elephant in the table full nuclear disarmament or close to it down to a handful of weapons, in return for NATO membership.
To achieve this, have a true full blown Russian civil war after the fall of communism... POD after the fall is too late for my idea, must be during the fall... the more unstable it is the better this works. The military must allow this, so have the money spent on nukes spent on conventional forces instead, especially salaries to ensure their loyalty to the new regime. Bottom up approach is better with an oath-of-loyalty from the individual soldier to the new President, and have the new President be a true democracy advocate. Basically my idea is to go full hog Rome / Egypt with the KGB and military at each other's throats with the President commanding the loyalty of the individual soldier with personal charisma and hard dollars rather than appeal to the past.
Since the point of NATO is as counter to Russia / USSR, if they possess only a few nukes or a handful, NATO becomes pointless and Russia would be allowed to join as an afterthought / political fig leaf. Everyone stays happy, except for the KGB / Putin types who are quietly retired when nobody is looking.
To achieve this, have a true full blown Russian civil war after the fall of communism... POD after the fall is too late for my idea, must be during the fall... the more unstable it is the better this works. The military must allow this, so have the money spent on nukes spent on conventional forces instead, especially salaries to ensure their loyalty to the new regime. Bottom up approach is better with an oath-of-loyalty from the individual soldier to the new President, and have the new President be a true democracy advocate. Basically my idea is to go full hog Rome / Egypt with the KGB and military at each other's throats with the President commanding the loyalty of the individual soldier with personal charisma and hard dollars rather than appeal to the past.
Since the point of NATO is as counter to Russia / USSR, if they possess only a few nukes or a handful, NATO becomes pointless and Russia would be allowed to join as an afterthought / political fig leaf. Everyone stays happy, except for the KGB / Putin types who are quietly retired when nobody is looking.