… In eight months, Putin faces re-election with his popularity ratings having dropped by 20 percent and his myth punctured by the Wagner rebellion. Four months after that, Biden, if he manages to get his party’s nomination, will also face re-election. Both men need to show something for the immense resources they have used, or wasted, on a needless war.
… A number of events, under-reported by global media, point in that direction. First, there were leaked reports about the opening of a track-2 diplomatic channel by the US to Russia. Track-2 designates “probing talks” with an adversary conducted through unofficial or semi-official figures. In World War II, US President Franklin Roosevelt used the method through his dentist who held talks with a representative of the SS chief Heinrich Himmler in neutral Stockholm.
This seems a probable route to a politically necessary “peace.”
