US President Barack Obama and America's top diplomats used to engage in tough rhetoric when it came to Russia and its policies but this era has ended.
"Kerry is coming. Obama quietly buried the corpse of his isolation policy in the White House gardens so that no one would see it. Nobody even thinks" about this strategy anymore, Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov tweeted.
К нам едет Керри. А труп своей политики изоляции Обама тихо закопал ночью в саду Белого дома,чтобы никто не видел. И о ней уже не вспоминает
— Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) 13 декабря 2015
Washington's political establishment has finally understood that it needs Russia to tackle global challenges, including international terrorism.
Indeed, Syria makes a fine case in point. Russia's counterterrorism campaign in the war-torn country guarantees that Moscow will take part in the upcoming peace process, many US politicians and experts now acknowledge.
"We can't wish that away. Putin has created facts [in Syria] that the rest of the world now has to reckon with – including John Kerry," Politico quoted Andrew Weiss, an expert on Russia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying.
Obama and Kerry have adopted what the media outlet described as a "businesslike" tone in their dealing with Moscow since unlike a "freeze-out" this approach is far more likely to help find common ground when it comes to Ukraine or Syria.
"The president has always said that he will work with Putin, he will talk to Putin, when it's our responsibility to solve something really important on global security," the media outlet noted, citing an unnamed senior administration official.
