Putin thought Ukraine war was a missile to Nato. It may be a boomerang

Analysis: To turn stolidly non-aligned Finland and Sweden into members would join pantheon of great strategic blunders

It is conceivable that by the end of the year Nato's land mass, GDP and territorial borders with Russia may expand by nearly as much as they would have if Ukraine had achieved its distant goal of eventual membership of the western defence alliance - if not more.

The brutal manner in which Vladimir Putin has tried to foreclose Ukraine's security options has led to a sudden change in thinking in Finland and Sweden that has been all the more powerful since it seems to have come from below, as opposed to from the political elites.