Putin: The West is Failing, the Future is Asia
The Russian president is expected to meet with China's Xi Jingping
Russian President Vladimir Putin took an unveiled swipe at the U.S. Wednesday and said “Western nations” are hurting everyone — including their own people in their effort to maintain global order.
“The West is failing,” Putin said. “The future is Asia.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Putin will meet with his Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan next week, according to Russian media.
Russia sees China as an economic lifeline. China is Russia’s top trade partner with total trade last year jumping 35.9 percent to a record $146.9 billion. Reuters said trade between the two countries jumped 50 percent after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. That trend has continued. During the first five months of the year, trade between the countries hit $65.81 billion, up 28.9 percent from 2021.
BUDDING FRIENDSHIP Despite attempts from the Biden administration, China has refused to speak out against the Russian invasion. There’s a theory that when Putin met with Xi at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, he got the Chinese leader’s blessing before the conflict. Russia would be sunk without China’s support.
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Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, has mentioned a new “world order.”
"We, together with you [China], and with our sympathizers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order," Lavrov said in a video statement in April.
President Joe Biden mentioned an emerging ‘new world order’ earlier that month and said it must be led by the U.S.
WASHINGTON’S FAULT: Beijing has been clear that it believes the world arrived at this point due to Washington's interference in Kyiv. (SEE: DIRTY JOKE: ZELENSKY THE COMEDIAN.)
Shortly after the conflict started, Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided.
“China has taken a responsible attitude and persuaded all parties not to escalate tensions or incite war,” she said. “Those who follow the U.S.’s lead in fanning up flame and then shifting the blame onto others are truly irresponsible.”
WHAT PUTIN SAID The Russian president said the ongoing economic global crisis was triggered by elites in the West “who would not, or even cannot, acknowledge objective facts” about changes in the world. He said they only see a “world order that benefits only them, forcing everyone to live under the rules, which they invented and which they regularly break and constantly change depending on the situation,” The Global Times reported.
The BBC noted that Putin accused some European countries of acting like colonialists. He said he would consider limiting grain donations to Turkey because “practically all the grain taken out of Ukraine is destined not for the poorest and developing countries, but for countries of the European Union.”
PRICE CAPS ALREADY A BUST? Putin vowed to halt all deliveries of gas, oil, diesel oil or coal if the European Union goes forward with putting price caps on Russian oil.
“An attempt to limit prices by administrative means is just ravings, it’s sheer nonsense. If they try to implement that dumb decision, it will entail nothing good for those who will make it,” The Associated Press reported.
Fortune magazine, citing the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, noted that Moscow pulled in $157 billion in “the past six months from fossil fuel exports—with EU nations importing 54% of this amount.”
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