How did the January 2022 Russia-NATO proposal look at the time?

What should be made of Russia's peace-plan proposal and the claim that NATO expansion was hypocritical?

In this January 2022 discussion, the proposal is treated as coercive and the alliance analogy as incomplete because neighbouring states retain agency over whether to seek NATO membership.

This is explicitly a January 2022 snapshot of Russian proposals concerning NATO enlargement. The offer is characterized as asking NATO to close its door in return for Russian restraint, while neighbouring states had reasons to distrust Moscow after earlier intimidation and the use of unacknowledged forces. The analogy with Russian basing in Mexico is rejected because Russia could seek such an alliance, but Mexico would still have to choose it; the same principle applies to European states choosing NATO. The exchange presents an argument about alliance agency and coercive diplomacy at that moment, without claiming that later events were inevitable.