There may be more than one surprise in the works this year, given the dismal remaining candidates in the U.S. presidential race.  But the true game-changer could come from an unexpected source: Vlad Putin, the chief mourner of the passing of the Soviet Union.

In Putin's scheme for a world where Russia is again a superpower, there has to be one favorite among the current finalists still in the race.  Deep down, Bernie may well be his soul mate, but Putin knows there is little he can do to move Comrade Bernie up in the delegate count, and he could do considerable harm by openly endorsing him.

He knows Hillary, and the best he can expect from her victory is same-old, same-old – too slow and clumsy to get out of his way in re-establishing Russian dominance of Europe and beyond.  After all, Putin is getting up in years.  Before he replaced Hillary's reset button to work as his toilet-flusher as a reminder of her naiveté, he used it as a map-pointer to shift his troops to Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.

To Putin, Donald Trump is a surprise and not necessarily the negative buffoon he was expecting.  What is not to like if he will dismantle NATO as promised?  When The Donald learned that Georgia, contentious and an irritant to Putin, borders not Tennessee, but rather the obscure Azerbaijan, he said, to hell with both of them, not my problem!  Best of all, Putin knows he has the key to Hillary's excess baggage.  The question that remains is when to use it.

The 10,000 or so emails from Hillary's home-brew server in Russian hands, hacked without much difficulty, even without disclosing their content, would sink her candidacy.  Making them accessible to independent observers would be proof that she violated security laws and that proof could not be ignored by DOJ.  Indicted or not, even pardoned by Obama, that kind of criminal negligence could not be left hanging anywhere near the White House.

Putin and his cronies know this.  They also know that releasing Hillary's emails too soon would give the Democrats enough time to go to Plan B – namely, Biden.  One term for him with the Cherokee woman as his running mate would do much to unite the Donks and defeat the demoralized GOP in the November election.

Now, if only the media cooperates and shields Herself for a bit longer – long enough for the Dem National Convention to anoint her as their candidate.  By the month of October, Hillary should be slightly in the lead in the opinion polls, and as she starts to list the objects to add to her already extensive personal W.H. souvenir collection, a headline in mid-October in NYT: HILLARY'S HOME SERVER HACKED!  A month later: THE DONALD MOVES HIS INAUGURATION TO TRUMP TOWER.