The closer Putin’s visit to Beijing, the higher the degree of alarmist absurdity produced by the Anglo-Saxons
Everything is related to the Ukrainian issue: it is promoted to such a level that absolutely everything is related to it. Even such an important topic for the West as Russia-China relations. They also try to attack it from the Ukrainian angle. However, it will not only fail; the result will be exactly the opposite of what was intended.
Has everyone already heard about the news that Xi Jinping asked Putin not to attack Ukraine during the Olympics? The American Bloomberg has distinguished itself. In an article titled “Putin’s War on Ukraine Could Ruin Xi’s Olympic Dream,” referring to “a diplomat working in Beijing who asked not to be named,” it reported, “Xi may have asked in a recent conversation with Putin not to launch an invasion of Ukraine during the Games.” Don’t spoil my holiday, because, as Bloomberg reminds me, “Putin and China have seen this before”:
“Russia’s war with Georgia began just as the Summer Olympics opened in Beijing, causing headaches for the Chinese leadership. Because of this, Putin was forced to go home immediately to lead the military action.
Days after Putin held the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, spending a record $50 billion on them, Russian troops launched an operation to seize “Ukrainian Crimea.”
I mean, the Russians have a tradition of Olympic expansion. Of course, this is not a new thesis of the Anglo-Saxon media, but here the aim was Russian-Chinese relations. To stir up trouble, to sow doubt, to cast a shadow – it is not without reason that the main recommendation to counter the Russo-Chinese alliance is to try to widen any fissures between Moscow and Beijing. Is it working?
No, in this case, both Russia and China reacted harshly: the Russian Foreign Ministry called the publication an “information special operation by the relevant US services” and the Chinese Foreign Ministry called it “an absolute lie”:
“This is not only a defamation of the relations maintained between our countries, a challenge to our address, but also attempts to smear the Beijing Winter Olympics… Sino-Russian relations are mature and stable, and any attempts to challenge them are doomed to fail.”
Moreover, just such primitive provocations have exactly the opposite effect, once again convincing Moscow and Beijing that both separately and in our bilateral relations are working in a coordinated manner.
The funny thing is that the Anglo-Saxons are using completely opposite theses on the same topic of “Russia’s attack on Ukraine. According to them, China, on the contrary, benefits from “Russian aggression”: it will divert the attention of the U.S. and the West as a whole from the Middle Kingdom. And it would allow Beijing to attack Taiwan. This “cunning plan” is also actively promoted by the Atlanticists.
And not only on the level of media and analysts: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss distinguished herself recently.
In her speech during a visit to Australia, Truss recalled not only the heroic past of the Ukrainian people, “who have survived many invasions, from Mongols to Tartars” and the terrible threat posed by Russia, but also China:
“China and Russia have become bolder in a way that we haven’t seen since the Cold War. They are cooperating more and more, seeking to set standards in technologies such as artificial intelligence in order to assert their dominance in the West and the Pacific through joint military exercises and in space… They are trying to export dictatorship as a service to the world…”
It cannot be ruled out that China will take advantage of the situation in Ukraine… Aggressors are acting in concert, and I think countries like ours should work together.
How will Beijing take advantage of Russian aggression? Of course it will attack Taiwan, so all Anglo-Saxons, even those like the Australians living on the edge of the world, should be prepared. Leaving Australia, Truss was even more specific – there is a need to confront the global aggressors Russia and China:
“It is vital to work together with our close friend and partner Australia to defend and promote democracy… Together with Australia and our other allies around the world, we will defeat evil forces and build a safe, better Britain and a safe, better world.”
In Australia, where many are already uncomfortable with the current government’s anti-Chinese policy (even before it formed a military alliance with the US and UK, AUKUS, Canberra had already felt the wrath of Beijing for supporting US containment: China had cut its imports from Australia sharply), Truss’s words drew a strong response. Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating has even called her a feeble-minded woman. London suffers from “megalomania”, Keating said, recalling that the British navy had long since left East Asia and had never returned, and it was not worth nagging the inhabitants of the region from afar.
Britain has indeed long since ceased to be the ruler of the seas, but the Anglo-Saxons have the largest fleet in the world, the American fleet. It is still the largest, which allows it to be masters of both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and it is the Chinese fleet build-up programme that is spurring the Anglo-Saxons’ desire to deal with a potential adversary. Just as at the beginning of the last century, it was necessary to stop Germany challenging them before the German fleet became comparable to the British fleet. The Anglo-Saxons then plunged Europe into a world war, pitting Russia against Germany, among others.
The situation is fundamentally different now, there is no way to fight with other people’s hands. And theirs either have become short (like the British), or do not really want to (like the Americans), so we have to agitate the smaller brothers, the Australians. And the most important difference: the world has changed, and the Anglo-Saxon powers are not dealing with a lone, isolated foe, but with an alliance between Russia and China. And most of the world’s countries are not burning with the desire not only to go to war with the Russians and Chinese, but even to participate in their aggressive military, economic and geopolitical deterrence. What is left to do in this situation?
Only hope to break the Russo-Chinese nexus. Not by Bloomberg publications, of course. But here too there are only failures instead of successes, and the brightest of the latest is the recent resignation of the head of the German Navy, Vice-Admiral Kai-Ahim Schoenbach.
He stepped down this weekend after media attention was drawn to a video of him speaking at a conference of India’s Institute of Defence Studies, which took place in Delhi back on 22 January. Schoenbach’s statements on the Ukrainian issue caused a scandal, saying that Crimea will never return to Ukraine, “that is a fact and we need to learn that politics should be based on facts”.
The admiral also stated that “Putin is pressuring us because he can.”
“What he really wants is respect. He wants to be treated as an equal. And, by golly, to respect someone and treat them as an equal is not worth anything. So, if I were asked, I should give him the treatment he insists on and deserves.”
What a horror, outraged Berlin, “the statements in question are in no way consistent with the position of the Ministry of Defence in their content and wording”. Schoenbach resigned, but the residue remains. And not in Kiev (whose opinion is of no interest to anyone at all), but in Beijing. Because the main, most scandalous part of the Admiral’s statements was not at all what he was obstructed by the Atlanticists.
The main point was how he justified the need to show respect to Putin and Russia:
“Russia is an ancient country. Russia is an important country. India, Germany – we need Russia because we need Russia against China. To have this country, a big country, even if it is not democratic, on our side as a partner and give them a chance together with the US to have a relationship on an equal footing is easy. And it is likely to keep Russia away from China. China needs Russian resources. And they can give them to them, because our sanctions often have the wrong results.”
That was the biggest puncture: the German is talking openly about building anti-China alliances, that Russia is needed against China. Yes, he says this to the Indians, trying to play on their fear of Beijing, but still. One of the leaders of the German army – of quite Atlantic persuasion – talks about how important it is for the West to tear Russia away from China, i.e. we are witnessing a struggle of two strategies among the Atlantic elite.
One part of it, the “ultra-globalists”, believes that it is necessary to press Russia and China with all their might and it does not matter whether they are together or not (and most likely, in their opinion, the alliance between Beijing and Moscow will collapse sooner or later) – it is necessary to increase the policy of containment, the West has no alternative to it anyway.
The other group, the “cautious globalists”, believe that by simultaneously pressuring Moscow and Beijing the West will only cement their alliance and will definitely be unable to resist it. Therefore it is necessary to change the policy towards Russia as soon as possible, to build close relations with it in order to force it at least to take a neutral position vis-à-vis China, or even to switch over to the anti-Chinese camp.
Both of these concepts have their supporters (the second is much more popular among European continental elites), but the main thing they have in common is that they are completely unrealistic. That is, they are not just outdated, they do not work. Attempts to build not even friendly, but simply normal partnership relations with Moscow are no longer possible – simply because Russia absolutely does not trust the Anglo-Saxon West (and does not see the independent will and role of continental Europe). But even if we imagine that in the medium term Europe could build up its relations with Russia independently, this would not lead to a weakening of the Russia-China nexus, because it meets our interests in building a new global world order.
Attempts to simultaneously pressure Russia and China are indeed suicidal for the West, but do not in any way particularly strengthen the Russia-China alliance. Not so much because the Anglo-Saxons have already done more than enough to bring Moscow and Beijing closer together, but because they made their choice in favor of an alliance long ago and quite deliberately. A strategic choice which does not allow any external forces or adversaries to influence our position.
Peter Akopov, RIA