What happens when the geopolitical bromance shrinks? Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin swore an unrestricted friendship when they met in Beijing before the Ukrainian invasion, but it was never clear where the relationship was going. Have they seen themselves as the creators of a new world order, like the blood brothers Augustus and Agrippa, the builders of the Roman Empire? Or as an anti-Western partnership bound by mutual complaints? Three months after the war, it is worth asking whether there is still a significant C-Putin axis or whether it is already under pressure.
The terms of their agreement seemed to suggest that when Russia seized Ukraine, China would guard Moscow’s back. It will not seek to use the westward shift of almost the entire Russian
Add Comment