China is Mild About Russian Attack and That is Not for Nothing. As it rains international sanctions and convictions, Russia is less alone than it may seem.
While one world leader after another has harshly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s regime is less isolated than it sometimes appears from the Western point of view. For example, world power China is strikingly on the brink.
According to China, the attack on Ukraine is “not an invasion,” the government said in a statement. However, the country insists on diplomacy. “The door to a peaceful solution is not yet completely closed and should never be closed,” Beijing said. The Chinese UN ambassador in New York said the situation should not get any further out of hand and that his country wants to hold talks with the concerned parties.
China has an ambivalent stance in this conflict. On the one hand, the country supports Putin in his opposition to NATO expansion. On the other hand, the country does not benefit from war. Certainly not in Ukraine, with which China conducts the necessary trade. China buys a lot of grain from Ukraine and finances, for example, constructing a new metro line in the capital Kyiv. The New Silk Road, the trade route through which China wants to expand its hegemony, also runs partly through Ukraine.
China is not for nothing. Chinese leader Xi knows better than anyone that Putin needs his support to deal with the consequences of Western sanctions. For example, Germany says that new gas contracts with Russia are now unthinkable, but that will not hurt much now that China wants to buy a lot of Russian gas.
An additional advantage for Putin is that Xi does not pay in dollars. As a result, United States sanctions, making it more difficult for Russia to trade in dollars, are suddenly less effective. And benefit for Xi: Russia is becoming more dependent on China. Yet another step closer to the ultimate goal of surpassing the United States as the world’s largest economy (and most powerful country).
In any case, Russia can count on unconditional support from the member states of the CVVO, the military alliance of several former Soviet states: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus. The latter country has already said it will help the Russians if necessary.
The text continues after the interactive map showing the current state of the war in Ukraine.
There is also support for Putin in the Netherlands. Although almost all parties condemn the attack on Ukraine, Forum for Democracy stands up for Putin. According to Forum leader Thierry Baudet, the West is to blame for threatening Russia’s security by years of trying to get Ukraine into its sphere of influence. He also recently suggested on Twitter that the United States is deliberately provoking the war to push through “the great reset,” a term used by conspiracy supporters to indicate that citizens’ freedom is being taken away by an elite.
For several Western politicians, Putin is a kind of champion of conservative Christian values against what they see as overly liberal thinking of Western leaders. Former US President Donald Trump called Putin’s performance “smart” and “genius” this week. A recent study by the Clingendael Institute showed that one in five Dutch people sympathize with Putin’s ideas. The support is mainly to be found in the supporters of the PVV, FvD, SGP, JA21 and BBB.
