Writes Rick Rozoff:

….the fix appears to be in.

Putin has said more than once that he preferred Biden to Trump in this year’s election, notwithstanding the former’s more than half-century-long history of pathological Russophobia.

Then the unprecedented prisoner exchange that might well have waited for January, and represents a desperately-needed foreign policy public relations boost to the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

And several op-ed pieces like the following on Russian state media of late.

But perhaps most revealing of all, the Russian collusion/conspiracy dogs that deafened us with their baying eight and again four years ago are silent this year.

My assumption is that this is the signal of an acceptance by Washington of a limited sphere of influence arrangement in which the White House urges the Zelensky government in Kiev to accept the least unacceptable deal with Moscow, while still being promised eventual NATO membership. Crimea will remain a sticking point, for there’s no way Russia will sacrifice its Black Sea Fleet.

In return – and it’s a big quid pro quo – Moscow gives the U.S. and Israel a free hand in Iran and the U.S. perhaps elsewhere (e.g., Venezuela). The plan would also perfectly accommodate the interests of Turkey and Azerbaijan, which have Putin and his self-touted Turkologist spokesman (gray eminence?) Dmitry Peskov in apparent total thrall, who in their ever-expanding pan-Turkic designs have their gaze fixed on Iranian Azerbaijan (West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Ardabil).

This would be perfectly in keeping with Putin’s capitulation to Azerbaijan and Turkey in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Libya, Syria, Iraq and even Ukraine, in which the lives of thousands of Russian allies and numerous Russian military personnel have been offered up on the altar of neo-Ottomanism. Turkey and Azerbaijan have killed Russian soldiers and shot down Russian planes and helicopters in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Syria. Turkish Bayraktar TB2 combat drones have killed any number of Russian servicemen and disabled any number of armored vehicles in Ukraine.

A new détente: Can Putin and Biden make a deal?

The Kremlin seems to have decided it would rather deal with Biden-Harris than wait for Trump

Top US officials were in a festive mood. Joe Biden spoke at the White House, surrounded by the families of those transferred. The Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, flew from Houston to Washington to meet them. So, they were received at the highest level.

…it is no big secret that it’s much easier to come to an agreement with the Democratic Party in general and the Biden-Obama-Harris faction in particular. This is what we are witnessing.