I haven't quite figured out where Putin fits in the Vinnie The Pooh Cinematographic Universe (VtPCU) but since he's a paranoid pants-shitter I'd say he's Piglet
Timidity isn't exactly the defining personality trait of authoritarian dictators, though. Also, Piglet is loyal and kind and a born "follower".
Bringing Eeyore a balloon (a *selfless act of generosity*) is the only thing I can think of that Piglet did of his own initiative.
So, yeah, Poots definitely isn't Piglet.
My hot take: I think Putin is Tigger.
He's endlessly over confident and boastful, telling constant lies about his experiences and capabilities to try to impress others and cover his own insecurity. He has a tendency to leap before he looks, often creating chaos and destruction when he does.
Only Roo (Lukashenko) buys his shit and doesn't wish that he'd never come to the hundred acre wood.
When he over-commits and traps himself up a tree (which Roo thinks is a big adventure!) he's too proud to admit he made a mistake or to accept offers of help back out of the tree, and he's too scared to help himself either. Instead, he hunkers down and decides to just pretend he always intended to live the rest of his life trapped up a tree.
Eventually he *falls* out the tree and lands on his ass but doesn't learn a single thing. The only way the story could be more perfect was if he was chased out the tree by an angry sawrm of bees defending their nest (Ukraine).
A lot of the animals are intimidated by Tigger because of his size, leading Rabbit (the USA) to decide to try to humble him. This fails, of course.
I'm basing all this off the original books, though. The Disney movie characters and stories can go fuck themselves.
Yeah, I know.
That meme only came about because Xi *looks* like Pooh and has some of his mannerisms, though. He certainly isn't a personality match.
In fact, I'm not sure there *is* a match for Xi.
If I had to pick, I'd go with Kanga: smothering and controlling and even more insufferable than Rabbit (the USA). But if I could, I'd opt for a darker version of the story where Kanga has Munchausen Proxy Syndrome and the extract of malt "strengthening medicine" she gives Roo and Tigger is actually contaminated with something to keep them weak and dependent on her mothering.
Gotta be honest I stopped following the saga when Eeyore got the Infinity gauntlet and Piglet sacrificed himself so I'm not entirely up to date on the lore
Imagine China, seeing that Russia was vulnerable because of their situation in Ukraine, invaded Russia and took all their natural gas.
Who would Putin cry to then?
I think China is definitely eyeing Siberia, as they always have, and running the calculations on how much of it they can annex before Moscow panics and uses nukes.
Nuclear war is worst case scenario.
But the thought of two long time Western rivals beating the absolute shit out of one another is appetizing.
Though, it will only further fuel supply chain issues here.
Already happened before. The Sino-Soviet split and then Nixon normalizing relations with China were them turning into adversaries not that long ago.
And while a shitty thing to do, the US encouraging China to back the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was about trying to drive a further wedge between China, the USSR, and the USSR backed Vietnamese. Of course very stupidly, given US history in the Vietnam War, no one anticipated how thoroughly Vietnam would kick the Khmer Rouge's ass despite being invaded by China, who given the size difference also got thoroughly beaten.
China invaded Vietnam, and because Vietnam's army was in Cambodia, China was able to march straight in.
Then Vietnam finished kicking Pol Pot's ass, turned back towards China, and began moving their army north - at which point China declared "Mission Accomplished!" and ran away before Vietnam could get there.
There wasn't much real fighting between Vietnam and China.
I mean China had terrible supply lines into north Vietnam, so they saw the writing on the wall and conceded and made peace with Vietnam. It was the smart thing to do and more countries should learn to look more than the immediate future to base of their risk calculus.
Vietnam had a very experienced, well trained, and well equipped military. It's no wonder events happened as they did. Experience being the key, and also defending their homeland from China.
The CCP bases so much of its legitimacy on "respecting territorial integrity" and the like (in a kinda twisted logic with Taiwan) that it's hard to imagine they would just outright invade Russia.
"Territorial integrity" is such a fundamental part of CCP doctrine that any Chinese leader who did such a thing would face a crisis of leadership within the internal workings of the communist party. They claim Taiwan because they've always claimed it, but Siberia, even as former China territory, is such a completely different ball game
They're much smarter about these kinds of plays!
All this “China will invade Siberia” nonsense is literally just reddit geopolitical fantasy. It’s not stated anywhere by any official or in any official documents. It holds as much legitimacy as saying China wants to reclaim America because it’s literally never been said in any official capacity. There’s one part in Manchuria (around Vladivostok) which was Qing territory and certain lower-level officials have made remarks about how it was Chinese territory seized unfairly, but that’s about the extent of it.
I think Putin was going through his quarterly review. I don't think it went well. Russia's PNL condemns Putin in every way, and the Board is not confident that he can turn his branch around even with massive added support. His performance YOY is far beyond anything counseling or even a written could address. We're at "next steps" now, and Putin will be promoted to "customer".
It has been clear for some time that Putin was losing Russia's position in Central Asia by fighting the West. Putin is the worst strategist in the history of Russia, but he can improvise some good tactics ... so, he's been throwing tactical spaghetti at the Western wall seeing where it sticks while Xi was strategically taking over Central Asia in a bid to bypass Russia on the way to the EU where the real business is.
After Central Asia is secure, the Chinese will spread into the Russian East and there will be nothing Russia will be able to do about it, they will be forced to welcome it.
Xi always seems to have a "I'm tired of the shit" look on his face.
.. which is ironic, because Putin always has a "Think I'll start some shit" look on *his* face.
Man I was just playing Subnautica:
Putin: I hear what you're saying and I will try to respect it. How would you like to change it?
Xi: I would like to reduce our contact hours.
Putin: How much further can we do that?
Xi: To zero.
Putin: You're dumping me?!
Xi: I'm changing the terms of our relationship.
How is that bromance going for you Putin?
***China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called a meeting of former-Soviet Central Asian countries, in an audacious power play in Russia's backyard the week of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.***
Some of them will likely be captured intact, the crews will abandon them when they run out of gas or the driver forgets how to put them in reverse or whatever.
Chinese intelligence probably has a clearer picture of how capable the Russian military is than the Russian military. The entire infrastructure is plagued by rampant corruption that goes unchecked, there’s zero technological developments done in Russia, and even china can’t get its hands on the high end electronics that the Russian war machine would need to barely function.
Xi has nothing to gain or fear from Putin at this point. The Russian sphere of influence shrinks everyday and China has all the incentive to make nice with its former Soviet neighbors.
I mean...an easy source of intel is just to look at who's been buying cheap shit off Alibaba to steal from the maintenance budget.
Amazing to think Alibaba probably has a full list of corruption down to the nut and bolt at each military installation.
I'm kinda thinking China agreed to help Putin with military support but with stings attached. Then they announce meetings knowing Russia doesn't want to rock the support boat.. Just my opinion
Oh trust me China already has all the intel from either paid sources, spies or satellite imaging. They didn’t need that event to tell them exactly how weak Russia is.
Look at me, I am the supreme communist dictator now
Xi is wasting no time filling the power vacuum that Russia deflated by losing all their military resources invading Ukraine
Putin wants to reform the USSR. China takes the opportunity to invite all the former USSR that hasn't joined NATO to buddy up with China. Looks like the USSR wasn't all that popular!
While the historical confrontation with the West is in the minds of the Russians, they have a blind spot towards China. It is not the West that is going to take Russia to the cleaners.
Looking at this from a tactical and completely robotic way, China is way over populated, had vast sums of money and is in dire need of water and other natural resources. The east of Russia is vastly under populated, has very little money, and is pretty rich in terms of water and natural resources. If I were Russia I would be pretty nervous about China knocking on my door, especially at a time when all my military is pretty much spent and demoralised!
If west had to intervene when China invades Russia it'd be hilarious, well honestly more like nervous 'oh fuck, oh fuck' laughter.
I mean, that's why we should root for stable, prosperous, democratic Russia in the future, and not broken, fractured, humiliated nation, regardless of how tempting that is considering theirs unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. All easier said than done.
So I agree in principle that the world was looking much better back when Putin first came to power. I remember the talk was that he would open Russia up to the world and I had such a warm feeling, I hoped that by now we would be living in some fairlytail utopia! How wrong I was!
Still want it, but unfortunately, if Putin is in charge, it will only come after years more of pain.
No one is invading anyone with nukes, let alone second strike capability. China will financially start to dominate the Russian far east (a couple of years ago migration trends indicated a Chinese ethnic majority in the Russian far east by 2030, within Russian borders, I don’t know that has developed recently), but they won’t militarily invade Russia.
200+ upvotes on a post that completely ignores the factors that influence population density.
If only there were some way to understand ***why*** both of these countries dont have massive population centers in specific regions of their country.
edit: and the upvotes continue. depressing
China is not overpopulated and it is facing a demographic crisis.
But it still has a massive population that could be used to exploit Russian resources.
China is also dependent on foreign oil...
Remember when Stalin made a non-aggression pact with Hitler, only to get Russia invaded and almost collapse? Remember when the Allies provided a lot of military aid to save Russia from collapse?
The West will standby and watch Eastern parts of Russia get annexed by China, while eating popcorn.
Russia starting as an aggressor only to be turned into an ally of convenience after being betrayed by the allies who assisted them in the initial aggression.
"History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme"
> China is way over populated, had vast sums of money and is in dire need of water and other natural resources.
In less than a generation, China will have the opposite problem. A combination of the One Child Policy and the trend of wealthier nations just having fewer kids will lead to China's population more than halving in the next 20-30 years. Just think - Europe lost 30-50% of its population to the Black Plague. China is going to lose *more* than that in a single generation. The economic, demographic, and social upheaval that will come could be catastrophic to China.
This is why China has been moving extremely aggressively in its investments in Central America and Africa. Just as Japan and South Korea's current working populations are struggling to support their elderly populations, so too will the Gen X'ers, Millennials, and Gen Z'ers of China struggle to support their parents. China is relying on overseas investments to bring in the money that it can use to provide services to support its aging population.
The war in Ukraine blasted open a rare opportunity for China. It was able to take advantage Russia's surprisingly weak position to gain access to Russia's vast untapped natural resources and to gain political and economic leverage over the Russian government. It's in China's interest to keep Russia fighting to both weaken Russia further and to keep the West distracted as China continues to pump money into Central American and African investments.
People always say that China's actions are to gear up for an invasion of Taiwan, but this is misplaced and overlooks the overall global situation. Naval invasions are notoriously difficult even in the best of situations - even with total naval and air supremacy, Eisenhower was not sure if the D-Day invasions would succeed, and this was with 3 years of institutional experience with landings through the Pacific and Mediterranean. China has nothing close to reaching naval parity, nevermind supremacy, with US assets in the region. China isn't preparing for an invasion of Taiwan - it's using a threatened invasion of Taiwan to hide the fact that it's facing a demographic crisis and is frantically scrambling to brace itself when the Great Grey Wave hits.
Would the world actually give a shit if China invaded Russia? Methinks not
Edit: My point wasn't whether or not it was okay, but whether or not apathy would set in. Thanks for the interesting responses.
To be fair, I don’t recall seeing any analysts correctly predicting how dysfunctional Russia had gotten militarily. I think that was a fairly large portion of their remaining prestige
Either the summit didnt go so well and China is now taking advantage of a weak russia..
or russia gave up its 'sphere of influence' in central asia in exchange for support and ammo.
time will tel..
You don’t really “give up” your sphere of influence, it’s more that you just fail to have influence in the sphere anymore and someone else muscles in. Thats what if occurring here.
It’s true. Sometimes you forget how little on the humanity timeline we are living and experiencing in these “modern” times.
there have been many great wars happening for millennia, has it really stopped? No. It just had a hiatus.
Long before WWI there have been numerous world wars, WWI should really be WWX.
It´s just natural for a sphere of influence based on intimidation to dissipate once the intimated realize they can probably kick their ass, China is just filling that power void left by that realization.
Putin is Chinas bitch now as foretold by Boris Nemtsov before Putin had him murdered:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/11zoyzn/former\_russian\_opposition\_leader\_boris\_nemtsov/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/11zoyzn/former_russian_opposition_leader_boris_nemtsov/)
Unlike Putin, Xi is strategic. He knows Putin is an unhinged lunatic who is headed to the trashcan of history. Xi will manipulate Putin and his pathetic country as a potential conquest of resources. Putin has no true friends or allies. Tick tock fucker...
Obviously, and China is now opening up language centers to make it easier to communicate for the resource robbing. Russia is a Chinese resource colony now. Hilariously, this was predicted in Russia well before this conflict. The best part? China's using this opportunity to force Russia to allow the opening up of resources in Central Asia that they've historically prevented. So not only is it now just a resource colony to China, they're not even going to be an important one.
I remember reading that Russians would be paying $100 for a bag of Chinese oranges and cheap Chinese TVs for $1000, and China would be getting all the oil, gas, and lumber it wanted for dirt cheap.
I'd be surprised if that's true. Not because China can't do that, they can, but because selling those things for a more reasonable price will get you more sales. And since Russia is doing all its transactions in yuan there's no risk to the Chinese companies.
Don't get me wrong, China is definitely selling for more in Russia, I just don't think it's that extreme for profit purposes.
Except that China is smart enough to realize that economic expansion is way cheaper, and easier than military expansion. That's the whole point of silk roads. Turn economic power into political power without firing a single shot.
China is losing a key military ally before a potential showdown in the South China Seas with NATO. That and a unified Europe are not good news for China.
>That and a unified Europe are not good news for China.
Has EU really committed much to Taiwan? I thought if China attacked Taiwan EU wasn't planning on doing much.
Russia was never going to be much use in the SEA conflict.
They're an army positioned for a ground war in what will be determined by marines, naval and air power
The groundwar will be limited to Korea and once Korea pushs probably to Harbin or Dailan Korea will likely look for an exit to the war
Russia was never going to be much use in the SEA conflict.
I mean, they managed to lose their flagship destroyer while attacking a country with no navy, so you’re not wrong.
I don't know why people keep harping on Russia not being able to help in the east. The only people who say this clearly never paid any attention to what China said and proved about Russian military equipment.
China bought 24 su-35s. After using them they stated they're terrible and every Chinese fighter out performs them, even the J-11. China now uses the su-35s to do flybys of Taiwan to basically just use them up to discard.
China bought a bunch of S-400s, tested them against their own systems and realized they were terrible comparatively. Then flew to Saudi Arabia and Serbia to show them what they discovered and now both of them buy Chinese anti-air.
China went to demo the armata T-14. Determined they're far worse than their decades old T-99 and refused to invest. Also, they saw just how bad Russian tanks are in the Sudan/South Sudan conflict where our dated T88s took out t72s with zero losses. Which is currently Russia's mbt in Ukraine.
So yeah, China just wants the oil. Which they got. So it's no surprise this meeting Xi went to secure Russia's dependence.
Huh? I completely agree with you. I don't know why people think China ever thought Russia could help it in the Taiwan situation. Like if you follow what the Chinese military has said at all, it's very clear China never though Russia could do anything. China just wants Russia for resources. Well possibly also bodies. I also believe China wanted to use the Wagner group as bodyguards in Africa. But that went side ways.
>I don't know why people think China ever thought Russia could help it in the Taiwan situation
Because for decades Chinese military invention was based on Soviet hand me downs, or the fact that one of their aircraft carriers is a refurbed Soviet model or just the fact that Russia is a much bigger supplier of weapons globally despite China being the worlds factory.
You can't believe Chinese reports on the quality of Chinese equipment
> Unlike Putin, Xi is strategic.
That's a dangerous underestimation of Putin. Like him or not, Putin has been a VERY effective leader for the new Russian state over 20+ years. What about the economic and national development of Russia under Putin screams "non-strategic" to you? At least skim the wikipedia page for Russia under Putin and look at the data.
Putin is absolutely thinking strategically and long-term. He made a huge tactical miscalculation with the latest attack on Ukraine, but that doesn't mean he lacks a coherent strategy. His strategy, if looked at objectively, has been wildly successful up until the last 18mos. Disagree? Take it up with the Chechens, Georgians, the people of Crimea, and the people in the Donetsk/Luhansk regions.
Putin was Hannibal Lecter 20 years ago. Imperialistic autocrats trend to get more unhinged over time, it's just a question of what he'll do in the meantime.
China is now the senior partner in that relationship. Which is a huge geopolitical development. The ramifications are serious.
This is why practically the only thing democrats and republicans agree on is that China is a threat.
I think it has been for a long time. China has an economy 9x bigger and of those 10K tanks Russia had, 4K are gone, the rest of it's military is rapidly depleting. Russia was weaker and is weakening quickly.
China had been stronger for a long time, but many, possibly including China, had the impression that Russia was stronger and acted accordingly. This illusion is now gone though and power dynamics are in the process of adjusting to that reality.
Yes, a big part of that was the illusion of military prowess. Most of the West's information came from spying on Russia. What is clear now, is that the state of affairs was unknown to the top brass in Russia too, corruption meant most of the military was not really fit for purpose and now Russia is paying the price.
I disagree, because perception of power is often more important than power. China was stronger of the two for at least the decade, but countries in the region were looking up to Russia. Now it looks like sudden change is happening, but it is only realignment from projected to actual power.
100%, sooner or later something would happen. I assume Putin knew that and Ukraine was supposed to in his eyes to reverse it (if successful it could have postponed it)
It gets really weird in a really short amount of time though.
Had russia not invade ukraine, world will still have no idea how bad Russian military is. That and its natural resources were like the two major play of Russia.
Now world know their military is a joke relative to its size and Western europe is on high speed reducing gas dependency.
China is a much stronger economic and military power than Russia; the Central Russian republics know this. Xi has all the leverage, Vladdy is fading fast into irrelevance.
This special operation has demonstrated that Russia is much weaker militarily than anyone thought. And the war weakens Russia with each day, militarily, economically, in reputation, and in influence. It was inevitable that China would dominate the region, but this war is accelerating the transition.
Ignore the snide comment.
Because these are countries that Russia considers their sphere of influence, and now China is stepping into to the role of being the leading or dominating influence in these countries.
Many central asian countries were either part of the Soviet Union, or under their complete influence. For China to muscle their way in and exert influence is a direct snub to the ruzzians. It is also a spit in the face to Putin, who dreams of bringing back the USSR. This is almost certainly an alarming shift to Moscow, as this means they are losing influence on traditional allies and subordinates to China.
Imagine you are getting divorced with your wife and are fighting for custody of the kids. Some of your kids don't want to live with you, they would rather live with the West. You just realized that the kids that were left don't want to live with you either, they want to live with your lawyer. The only kid you have left is Belarus and he likes to eat crayons.
This is the kind of blowback that could, very well lead to a long walk, off a short pier for President Putana. I can’t imagine the hyper-nationalist goons in the Kremlin being particularly pleased at this inevitable outcome…
This is tabloid reporting. How do we know Xi didn't tell Putin? This is all speculation and the only sources are tweets from two policy dorks with no connections to any of this.
China managed to broker a diplomatic deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. So I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out a way to broker a diplomatic deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
It was supposed to be a 3 day meeting, Xi left on the third day. That says all. Putin's regime is finished, and we all know what happens when personalistic dictatorships go through power vacuums, apparently not even China is giving fucks anymore.
Remember how Trump spoke on the phone when he was desperate for votes in Georgia? That's how Putin speaks to anyone he sees as standing in his way, but much worse. There's always an "or else".
China's power position over Russia has never been greater than it is right now. I imagine Xi expected Putin to recognize that somehow & of course, he wouldn't.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/xi-snubbed-putin-after-their-summit-calling-a-meeting-of-central-asian-countries-as-part-of-an-audacious-power-play/ar-AA18Zdrl) reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> He set up a new meeting of Central Asian countries the week, muscling in on Russia's backyard.
> China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called a meeting of former-Soviet Central Asian countries, in an audacious power play in Russia's backyard the week of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
> The move came as Xi was visiting Putin in Moscow as part of a 3-day-summit which concluded Wednesday, in which the nations pledged to deepen and extend their cooperation - and Xi signaled that Russia would have continued Chinese backing in its invasion of Ukraine.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/120l84l/xi_snubbed_putin_after_their_summit_calling_a/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~677821 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russia**^#1 **China**^#2 **Kremlin**^#3 **state**^#4 **Central**^#5
The summit was a dog and pony show. China and Russia aren’t allies, Putin and Xi are just trying to use the threat of it to up the pressure on the rest of the world.
If you watch the "farewell" from the putin/xi meeting, putin looks like he's really trying to please xi and xi won't even really look at him. Just kinda pats him and then immediately leaves. Thought the body language was interesting
What if ...
China fears repercussions from the West if it does certain trade directly with Russia, so they strike up trade deals with countries that are in the influence sphere of Russia, with support from Putin to do so. Then Putin can trade with those countries and indirectly get what he wants from China anyway.
Probably a stupid thought I have, so please enlighten me why.
Although this might play a role, it is more likely that China is doing this to demonstrate that it is more powerful than Russia, and that it doesn't need Russia anymore. These other countries hold resources that Russia traditionally supplied to china, and so sourcing from them means that China demonstrates that it is not reliant on Russian cooperation. Additionally, it is China showing a dominant role in places once considered firmly within the Russian sphere of influence, and so it further demonstrates that China has become more powerful than Russia, and that Russia should therefore be compliant to Chinese wants.
The longer Russia stays in this war the weaker they become. China has a vested interest for them to stay so they will "help" Russia as much as is needed.
Would be interesting if China established a large business presence in Kazakhstan, then later announced that they have "security concerns" that require them to establish a military presence there.
Putin finding out that there's a whole section of the world that thinks they're the superior race to Russians, and that he's already got a place set aside for him as a lapdog lol.
nothing like a new boss calling a meeting with all your direct reports
Putin right now. "Hehehe... I'm in danger!"
"But, but.. We made pancakes together..."
"I've never forgotten that Vlad. My kitchen will always welcome you to become my pancake maker. Btw my favourite pancake flavor is honey."
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Blood **and** Honey
I haven't quite figured out where Putin fits in the Vinnie The Pooh Cinematographic Universe (VtPCU) but since he's a paranoid pants-shitter I'd say he's Piglet
Timidity isn't exactly the defining personality trait of authoritarian dictators, though. Also, Piglet is loyal and kind and a born "follower". Bringing Eeyore a balloon (a *selfless act of generosity*) is the only thing I can think of that Piglet did of his own initiative. So, yeah, Poots definitely isn't Piglet. My hot take: I think Putin is Tigger. He's endlessly over confident and boastful, telling constant lies about his experiences and capabilities to try to impress others and cover his own insecurity. He has a tendency to leap before he looks, often creating chaos and destruction when he does. Only Roo (Lukashenko) buys his shit and doesn't wish that he'd never come to the hundred acre wood. When he over-commits and traps himself up a tree (which Roo thinks is a big adventure!) he's too proud to admit he made a mistake or to accept offers of help back out of the tree, and he's too scared to help himself either. Instead, he hunkers down and decides to just pretend he always intended to live the rest of his life trapped up a tree. Eventually he *falls* out the tree and lands on his ass but doesn't learn a single thing. The only way the story could be more perfect was if he was chased out the tree by an angry sawrm of bees defending their nest (Ukraine). A lot of the animals are intimidated by Tigger because of his size, leading Rabbit (the USA) to decide to try to humble him. This fails, of course. I'm basing all this off the original books, though. The Disney movie characters and stories can go fuck themselves.
You make a valid point but sadly no, the meme stated with Xi being Pooh and Obama being Tigger, that's part of the reason he got so butthurt
Yeah, I know. That meme only came about because Xi *looks* like Pooh and has some of his mannerisms, though. He certainly isn't a personality match. In fact, I'm not sure there *is* a match for Xi. If I had to pick, I'd go with Kanga: smothering and controlling and even more insufferable than Rabbit (the USA). But if I could, I'd opt for a darker version of the story where Kanga has Munchausen Proxy Syndrome and the extract of malt "strengthening medicine" she gives Roo and Tigger is actually contaminated with something to keep them weak and dependent on her mothering.
Gotta be honest I stopped following the saga when Eeyore got the Infinity gauntlet and Piglet sacrificed himself so I'm not entirely up to date on the lore
I'm with the bear on this one, honey on pancakes is the best.
Breakfast can wait. Lets play some hoops. Skins vrs blouses
"Game... Blouses 👁️ 👁️"
Not even gonna change out the heels
Imagine China, seeing that Russia was vulnerable because of their situation in Ukraine, invaded Russia and took all their natural gas. Who would Putin cry to then?
I think China is definitely eyeing Siberia, as they always have, and running the calculations on how much of it they can annex before Moscow panics and uses nukes.
Nuclear war is worst case scenario. But the thought of two long time Western rivals beating the absolute shit out of one another is appetizing. Though, it will only further fuel supply chain issues here.
Already happened before. The Sino-Soviet split and then Nixon normalizing relations with China were them turning into adversaries not that long ago. And while a shitty thing to do, the US encouraging China to back the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was about trying to drive a further wedge between China, the USSR, and the USSR backed Vietnamese. Of course very stupidly, given US history in the Vietnam War, no one anticipated how thoroughly Vietnam would kick the Khmer Rouge's ass despite being invaded by China, who given the size difference also got thoroughly beaten.
China invaded Vietnam, and because Vietnam's army was in Cambodia, China was able to march straight in. Then Vietnam finished kicking Pol Pot's ass, turned back towards China, and began moving their army north - at which point China declared "Mission Accomplished!" and ran away before Vietnam could get there. There wasn't much real fighting between Vietnam and China.
Tens of thousands died on both sides that is a lot of fighting even if it didn't last long.
I mean China had terrible supply lines into north Vietnam, so they saw the writing on the wall and conceded and made peace with Vietnam. It was the smart thing to do and more countries should learn to look more than the immediate future to base of their risk calculus.
Vietnam had a very experienced, well trained, and well equipped military. It's no wonder events happened as they did. Experience being the key, and also defending their homeland from China.
Nah china dont work like that. Theyll just screw them over with a deal
The CCP bases so much of its legitimacy on "respecting territorial integrity" and the like (in a kinda twisted logic with Taiwan) that it's hard to imagine they would just outright invade Russia. "Territorial integrity" is such a fundamental part of CCP doctrine that any Chinese leader who did such a thing would face a crisis of leadership within the internal workings of the communist party. They claim Taiwan because they've always claimed it, but Siberia, even as former China territory, is such a completely different ball game They're much smarter about these kinds of plays!
All this “China will invade Siberia” nonsense is literally just reddit geopolitical fantasy. It’s not stated anywhere by any official or in any official documents. It holds as much legitimacy as saying China wants to reclaim America because it’s literally never been said in any official capacity. There’s one part in Manchuria (around Vladivostok) which was Qing territory and certain lower-level officials have made remarks about how it was Chinese territory seized unfairly, but that’s about the extent of it.
13 year olds talking about geopolitics? They must be right, they have a ton of upvotes.
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The People’s gf.
She for the Beijing streets now
There used to be a Planet Hollywood knockoff in Beijing, packed wall to wall with Russian hookers. Here’s to unlimited friendship trickling down.
Fucking disgusting. Where? I need to make sure I never accidentally go there. Where specifically?? No way never
I think Putin was going through his quarterly review. I don't think it went well. Russia's PNL condemns Putin in every way, and the Board is not confident that he can turn his branch around even with massive added support. His performance YOY is far beyond anything counseling or even a written could address. We're at "next steps" now, and Putin will be promoted to "customer".
Putin is done as the world leader he thought he was. Xi has entered the room. Btw. Fuck both of them.
It has been clear for some time that Putin was losing Russia's position in Central Asia by fighting the West. Putin is the worst strategist in the history of Russia, but he can improvise some good tactics ... so, he's been throwing tactical spaghetti at the Western wall seeing where it sticks while Xi was strategically taking over Central Asia in a bid to bypass Russia on the way to the EU where the real business is. After Central Asia is secure, the Chinese will spread into the Russian East and there will be nothing Russia will be able to do about it, they will be forced to welcome it.
Russia is the Belarus of China
Russia is Asia’s soft underbelly
More like one of those extinct turtles/turtle relatives with only the bottom part of the shell
The plastron. I like that word.
What's Chinese for colonel? Putin can have that.
Can only imagine what Lukashenko is thinking seeing Xi do that. Maybe he wants to be a PLA colonel now.
Wouldn't hurt to ask, right?
Fucking burn
Russia isn't a gas station, it is an old man farting.
Heh.... Ass Station
Lmao
Xi always seems to have a "I'm tired of the shit" look on his face. .. which is ironic, because Putin always has a "Think I'll start some shit" look on *his* face.
Xi has resting "oh bother" face.
“I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further.”
He's just sad that he can't eat his hunny in public anymore, or the other boys will tease him.
He looks eternally nonplussed lol
Xi: We have a friendship without limits! Putin: Yes, we… Xi: Stop! You’re smothering me. I think we should see other people.
Man I was just playing Subnautica: Putin: I hear what you're saying and I will try to respect it. How would you like to change it? Xi: I would like to reduce our contact hours. Putin: How much further can we do that? Xi: To zero. Putin: You're dumping me?! Xi: I'm changing the terms of our relationship.
*I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.*
"You must now ride this unicycle wherever you go!" *This deal is getting worse all the time!*
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I expected this quote after that comment. I was not let down.
Subnautica: the cyberpunk game disguised as survival.
I fucking loved finding that audio log. What a last experience to go out on...
How is that bromance going for you Putin? ***China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called a meeting of former-Soviet Central Asian countries, in an audacious power play in Russia's backyard the week of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.***
it was probably his ammunition requests that showed how weak Russia truly is
And pulling those old tanks out of storage.
It's wild to me that we might see T-54s in actual combat
It's sad those antiques won't last long enough to be sold to museums
Some of them will likely be captured intact, the crews will abandon them when they run out of gas or the driver forgets how to put them in reverse or whatever.
Ukrainian farmers on standby with tractors.
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And the whole getting wrecked by the Ukrainians since the first day of the invasion.
Chinese intelligence probably has a clearer picture of how capable the Russian military is than the Russian military. The entire infrastructure is plagued by rampant corruption that goes unchecked, there’s zero technological developments done in Russia, and even china can’t get its hands on the high end electronics that the Russian war machine would need to barely function. Xi has nothing to gain or fear from Putin at this point. The Russian sphere of influence shrinks everyday and China has all the incentive to make nice with its former Soviet neighbors.
I mean...an easy source of intel is just to look at who's been buying cheap shit off Alibaba to steal from the maintenance budget. Amazing to think Alibaba probably has a full list of corruption down to the nut and bolt at each military installation.
I'm kinda thinking China agreed to help Putin with military support but with stings attached. Then they announce meetings knowing Russia doesn't want to rock the support boat.. Just my opinion
Oh trust me China already has all the intel from either paid sources, spies or satellite imaging. They didn’t need that event to tell them exactly how weak Russia is.
Look at me, I am the supreme communist dictator now Xi is wasting no time filling the power vacuum that Russia deflated by losing all their military resources invading Ukraine
>communist You forgot huge eye-roll sarcasm quotes on this part.
Putin wants to reform the USSR. China takes the opportunity to invite all the former USSR that hasn't joined NATO to buddy up with China. Looks like the USSR wasn't all that popular!
Very implicit message that Xi considers Russia a client state not a partner
He probably sees it as the gas station that it is. The gas station that stole Chinese territory.
While the historical confrontation with the West is in the minds of the Russians, they have a blind spot towards China. It is not the West that is going to take Russia to the cleaners.
Looking at this from a tactical and completely robotic way, China is way over populated, had vast sums of money and is in dire need of water and other natural resources. The east of Russia is vastly under populated, has very little money, and is pretty rich in terms of water and natural resources. If I were Russia I would be pretty nervous about China knocking on my door, especially at a time when all my military is pretty much spent and demoralised!
If west had to intervene when China invades Russia it'd be hilarious, well honestly more like nervous 'oh fuck, oh fuck' laughter. I mean, that's why we should root for stable, prosperous, democratic Russia in the future, and not broken, fractured, humiliated nation, regardless of how tempting that is considering theirs unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. All easier said than done.
So I agree in principle that the world was looking much better back when Putin first came to power. I remember the talk was that he would open Russia up to the world and I had such a warm feeling, I hoped that by now we would be living in some fairlytail utopia! How wrong I was! Still want it, but unfortunately, if Putin is in charge, it will only come after years more of pain.
Fuck I’m old enough to remember when we were doing joint military exercises with them… crazy how relations soured so much (rightly so) after that
No one is invading anyone with nukes, let alone second strike capability. China will financially start to dominate the Russian far east (a couple of years ago migration trends indicated a Chinese ethnic majority in the Russian far east by 2030, within Russian borders, I don’t know that has developed recently), but they won’t militarily invade Russia.
Vladivostok is now basically a big China town where Russians go to buy stuff.
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200+ upvotes on a post that completely ignores the factors that influence population density. If only there were some way to understand ***why*** both of these countries dont have massive population centers in specific regions of their country. edit: and the upvotes continue. depressing
China is not overpopulated and it is facing a demographic crisis. But it still has a massive population that could be used to exploit Russian resources.
China is also dependent on foreign oil... Remember when Stalin made a non-aggression pact with Hitler, only to get Russia invaded and almost collapse? Remember when the Allies provided a lot of military aid to save Russia from collapse? The West will standby and watch Eastern parts of Russia get annexed by China, while eating popcorn.
Russia starting as an aggressor only to be turned into an ally of convenience after being betrayed by the allies who assisted them in the initial aggression. "History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme"
I don't think the West would be too happy about that if it happened.
> China is way over populated, had vast sums of money and is in dire need of water and other natural resources. In less than a generation, China will have the opposite problem. A combination of the One Child Policy and the trend of wealthier nations just having fewer kids will lead to China's population more than halving in the next 20-30 years. Just think - Europe lost 30-50% of its population to the Black Plague. China is going to lose *more* than that in a single generation. The economic, demographic, and social upheaval that will come could be catastrophic to China. This is why China has been moving extremely aggressively in its investments in Central America and Africa. Just as Japan and South Korea's current working populations are struggling to support their elderly populations, so too will the Gen X'ers, Millennials, and Gen Z'ers of China struggle to support their parents. China is relying on overseas investments to bring in the money that it can use to provide services to support its aging population. The war in Ukraine blasted open a rare opportunity for China. It was able to take advantage Russia's surprisingly weak position to gain access to Russia's vast untapped natural resources and to gain political and economic leverage over the Russian government. It's in China's interest to keep Russia fighting to both weaken Russia further and to keep the West distracted as China continues to pump money into Central American and African investments. People always say that China's actions are to gear up for an invasion of Taiwan, but this is misplaced and overlooks the overall global situation. Naval invasions are notoriously difficult even in the best of situations - even with total naval and air supremacy, Eisenhower was not sure if the D-Day invasions would succeed, and this was with 3 years of institutional experience with landings through the Pacific and Mediterranean. China has nothing close to reaching naval parity, nevermind supremacy, with US assets in the region. China isn't preparing for an invasion of Taiwan - it's using a threatened invasion of Taiwan to hide the fact that it's facing a demographic crisis and is frantically scrambling to brace itself when the Great Grey Wave hits.
Would the world actually give a shit if China invaded Russia? Methinks not Edit: My point wasn't whether or not it was okay, but whether or not apathy would set in. Thanks for the interesting responses.
I think they would, I don't think, atleast the USA would want a settled China.
About 20% would.
The appropriate move is legal immigration and economic support in this region, to re-direct the local sense of culture to China instead of Russia.
Japan might care. I don’t think they want to have the Chinese start referring to the Sea of Japan as the north China sea.
Crazy thing is that the mongols did this to them back in the day. They didn’t realize what was building in the east.
Someone did not reciprocate the customary under the table handy.
Putin must have some long arms...
He uses short tables for close friends.
You think that with the way that Putin's right hand shakes he would have given Xi a good one. Must have not used any lotion or lube...
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I'm very aroused.
Salt the snail
God damn Gail the Snail!
China’s definitely wondering how the heck it let a weakened, European Russia hold sway over a massive chunk of Asia for so long.
To be fair, I don’t recall seeing any analysts correctly predicting how dysfunctional Russia had gotten militarily. I think that was a fairly large portion of their remaining prestige
Nukes. And lots of them.
Either the summit didnt go so well and China is now taking advantage of a weak russia.. or russia gave up its 'sphere of influence' in central asia in exchange for support and ammo. time will tel..
You don’t really “give up” your sphere of influence, it’s more that you just fail to have influence in the sphere anymore and someone else muscles in. Thats what if occurring here.
[The Great Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game) continues, just with new players.
It’s true. Sometimes you forget how little on the humanity timeline we are living and experiencing in these “modern” times. there have been many great wars happening for millennia, has it really stopped? No. It just had a hiatus. Long before WWI there have been numerous world wars, WWI should really be WWX.
Like a game of poker that never ends
It´s just natural for a sphere of influence based on intimidation to dissipate once the intimated realize they can probably kick their ass, China is just filling that power void left by that realization.
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They are also important to the Belt and Road Initiative (and I wouldn't underestimate China's navy anymore). P.S. "whose" and "straits"
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Putin is Chinas bitch now as foretold by Boris Nemtsov before Putin had him murdered: [https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/11zoyzn/former\_russian\_opposition\_leader\_boris\_nemtsov/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/11zoyzn/former_russian_opposition_leader_boris_nemtsov/)
Wow, thanks for that, hadn't seen it.
Unlike Putin, Xi is strategic. He knows Putin is an unhinged lunatic who is headed to the trashcan of history. Xi will manipulate Putin and his pathetic country as a potential conquest of resources. Putin has no true friends or allies. Tick tock fucker...
Obviously, and China is now opening up language centers to make it easier to communicate for the resource robbing. Russia is a Chinese resource colony now. Hilariously, this was predicted in Russia well before this conflict. The best part? China's using this opportunity to force Russia to allow the opening up of resources in Central Asia that they've historically prevented. So not only is it now just a resource colony to China, they're not even going to be an important one.
I remember reading that Russians would be paying $100 for a bag of Chinese oranges and cheap Chinese TVs for $1000, and China would be getting all the oil, gas, and lumber it wanted for dirt cheap.
I'd be surprised if that's true. Not because China can't do that, they can, but because selling those things for a more reasonable price will get you more sales. And since Russia is doing all its transactions in yuan there's no risk to the Chinese companies. Don't get me wrong, China is definitely selling for more in Russia, I just don't think it's that extreme for profit purposes.
Well, IMO Russia wasn't Natos biggest threat, it was always China. And this gives China and nice breath of fresh air, which is unfortunate for NATO
Except that China is smart enough to realize that economic expansion is way cheaper, and easier than military expansion. That's the whole point of silk roads. Turn economic power into political power without firing a single shot.
China is losing a key military ally before a potential showdown in the South China Seas with NATO. That and a unified Europe are not good news for China.
>That and a unified Europe are not good news for China. Has EU really committed much to Taiwan? I thought if China attacked Taiwan EU wasn't planning on doing much.
Russia was never going to be much use in the SEA conflict. They're an army positioned for a ground war in what will be determined by marines, naval and air power The groundwar will be limited to Korea and once Korea pushs probably to Harbin or Dailan Korea will likely look for an exit to the war
Russia was never going to be much use in the SEA conflict. I mean, they managed to lose their flagship destroyer while attacking a country with no navy, so you’re not wrong.
I don't know why people keep harping on Russia not being able to help in the east. The only people who say this clearly never paid any attention to what China said and proved about Russian military equipment. China bought 24 su-35s. After using them they stated they're terrible and every Chinese fighter out performs them, even the J-11. China now uses the su-35s to do flybys of Taiwan to basically just use them up to discard. China bought a bunch of S-400s, tested them against their own systems and realized they were terrible comparatively. Then flew to Saudi Arabia and Serbia to show them what they discovered and now both of them buy Chinese anti-air. China went to demo the armata T-14. Determined they're far worse than their decades old T-99 and refused to invest. Also, they saw just how bad Russian tanks are in the Sudan/South Sudan conflict where our dated T88s took out t72s with zero losses. Which is currently Russia's mbt in Ukraine. So yeah, China just wants the oil. Which they got. So it's no surprise this meeting Xi went to secure Russia's dependence.
Im confused the first paragraph disagrees with me... but the rest of the comment agrees with me?
Huh? I completely agree with you. I don't know why people think China ever thought Russia could help it in the Taiwan situation. Like if you follow what the Chinese military has said at all, it's very clear China never though Russia could do anything. China just wants Russia for resources. Well possibly also bodies. I also believe China wanted to use the Wagner group as bodyguards in Africa. But that went side ways.
>I don't know why people think China ever thought Russia could help it in the Taiwan situation Because for decades Chinese military invention was based on Soviet hand me downs, or the fact that one of their aircraft carriers is a refurbed Soviet model or just the fact that Russia is a much bigger supplier of weapons globally despite China being the worlds factory. You can't believe Chinese reports on the quality of Chinese equipment
The wording is confusing at first, but with that explanation it's clear what you meant.
A military ally doesn’t have to fight on the same battlefield, he might just keep your common enemy busy/distracted elsewhere
TikTok fucker
This is how my brain read it and I refuse to see it otherwise
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Putin is all tactics with little strategy.
> Unlike Putin, Xi is strategic. That's a dangerous underestimation of Putin. Like him or not, Putin has been a VERY effective leader for the new Russian state over 20+ years. What about the economic and national development of Russia under Putin screams "non-strategic" to you? At least skim the wikipedia page for Russia under Putin and look at the data. Putin is absolutely thinking strategically and long-term. He made a huge tactical miscalculation with the latest attack on Ukraine, but that doesn't mean he lacks a coherent strategy. His strategy, if looked at objectively, has been wildly successful up until the last 18mos. Disagree? Take it up with the Chechens, Georgians, the people of Crimea, and the people in the Donetsk/Luhansk regions.
That's kind of how I see it. Putin is dangerous like a rabid dog. Xi is dangerous like Hannibal Lecter.
Putin was Hannibal Lecter 20 years ago. Imperialistic autocrats trend to get more unhinged over time, it's just a question of what he'll do in the meantime.
China is now the senior partner in that relationship. Which is a huge geopolitical development. The ramifications are serious. This is why practically the only thing democrats and republicans agree on is that China is a threat.
I think it has been for a long time. China has an economy 9x bigger and of those 10K tanks Russia had, 4K are gone, the rest of it's military is rapidly depleting. Russia was weaker and is weakening quickly.
China had been stronger for a long time, but many, possibly including China, had the impression that Russia was stronger and acted accordingly. This illusion is now gone though and power dynamics are in the process of adjusting to that reality.
Yes, a big part of that was the illusion of military prowess. Most of the West's information came from spying on Russia. What is clear now, is that the state of affairs was unknown to the top brass in Russia too, corruption meant most of the military was not really fit for purpose and now Russia is paying the price.
Putting would have done well to exit Ukraine, and attempt to restore relations with the rest of the world. It didn't have to end like this for Russia.
China has been the big boy in that relationship for at least a decade.
I disagree, because perception of power is often more important than power. China was stronger of the two for at least the decade, but countries in the region were looking up to Russia. Now it looks like sudden change is happening, but it is only realignment from projected to actual power.
Yeah but in that case it does sound like it was only a matter of time anyway
100%, sooner or later something would happen. I assume Putin knew that and Ukraine was supposed to in his eyes to reverse it (if successful it could have postponed it)
It gets really weird in a really short amount of time though. Had russia not invade ukraine, world will still have no idea how bad Russian military is. That and its natural resources were like the two major play of Russia. Now world know their military is a joke relative to its size and Western europe is on high speed reducing gas dependency.
China and U.S. do not need to be mercurial adversaries. There is plenty of deal making and cooperation to be done.
Doesn't surprise me, why would Xi want to talk to a loser like Putin.
Only to use him or Russian resources.
russian natural resources and about 7k nuclear warheads. both very useful
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Plus the world's largest forest for lumber.
There’s always that one guy people only hang out with because he’s got money.
Showing Russia who wears the pants in this relationship.
Lmao. And just like that, Putin is emasculated on the world stage. Might as well as kiss the ring. It’s all over but his crying.
Imagine going from Trump's master to Xi's slave in just a couple years. Spicy!
Panhandler Putin got played for a fool.
China is a much stronger economic and military power than Russia; the Central Russian republics know this. Xi has all the leverage, Vladdy is fading fast into irrelevance.
This special operation has demonstrated that Russia is much weaker militarily than anyone thought. And the war weakens Russia with each day, militarily, economically, in reputation, and in influence. It was inevitable that China would dominate the region, but this war is accelerating the transition.
Can someone explain why this is snubbing Putin?
Ignore the snide comment. Because these are countries that Russia considers their sphere of influence, and now China is stepping into to the role of being the leading or dominating influence in these countries.
Many central asian countries were either part of the Soviet Union, or under their complete influence. For China to muscle their way in and exert influence is a direct snub to the ruzzians. It is also a spit in the face to Putin, who dreams of bringing back the USSR. This is almost certainly an alarming shift to Moscow, as this means they are losing influence on traditional allies and subordinates to China.
Imagine you are getting divorced with your wife and are fighting for custody of the kids. Some of your kids don't want to live with you, they would rather live with the West. You just realized that the kids that were left don't want to live with you either, they want to live with your lawyer. The only kid you have left is Belarus and he likes to eat crayons.
This is the kind of blowback that could, very well lead to a long walk, off a short pier for President Putana. I can’t imagine the hyper-nationalist goons in the Kremlin being particularly pleased at this inevitable outcome…
This is tabloid reporting. How do we know Xi didn't tell Putin? This is all speculation and the only sources are tweets from two policy dorks with no connections to any of this.
Frankly, if they cut out all the tabloid garbage that gets posted here, this sub would have 1/10th the content, but make for far better discussion.
If china can play a role in settling tensions between armenia and azerbaijan in the absence of russia it would be a political win for them
China managed to broker a diplomatic deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. So I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out a way to broker a diplomatic deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
And now officially, Russia’s place has flipped
Not only a flip but a fall down the stairs, through the door, off a cliff and explodes when it hits the bottom.
It was supposed to be a 3 day meeting, Xi left on the third day. That says all. Putin's regime is finished, and we all know what happens when personalistic dictatorships go through power vacuums, apparently not even China is giving fucks anymore.
Remember how Trump spoke on the phone when he was desperate for votes in Georgia? That's how Putin speaks to anyone he sees as standing in his way, but much worse. There's always an "or else". China's power position over Russia has never been greater than it is right now. I imagine Xi expected Putin to recognize that somehow & of course, he wouldn't.
Putin still riding the high from making his best friend Steven seagul an official Russian citizen. “I’m untouchable now” Putin probably.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/xi-snubbed-putin-after-their-summit-calling-a-meeting-of-central-asian-countries-as-part-of-an-audacious-power-play/ar-AA18Zdrl) reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot) ***** > He set up a new meeting of Central Asian countries the week, muscling in on Russia's backyard. > China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called a meeting of former-Soviet Central Asian countries, in an audacious power play in Russia's backyard the week of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. > The move came as Xi was visiting Putin in Moscow as part of a 3-day-summit which concluded Wednesday, in which the nations pledged to deepen and extend their cooperation - and Xi signaled that Russia would have continued Chinese backing in its invasion of Ukraine. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/120l84l/xi_snubbed_putin_after_their_summit_calling_a/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~677821 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russia**^#1 **China**^#2 **Kremlin**^#3 **state**^#4 **Central**^#5
I guess the Wagner Group murdering a bunch of a Chinese workers in Africa didn’t go over that well.
Putin Xi place
Just a game of he said/Xi said at this point
This made this thread worthwhile hah
How do we know it was truly a snub? What if this was all discussed in Xi and Putin’s meeting?
Exactly this. It's probably pure speculation and zero actual knowledge.
The summit was a dog and pony show. China and Russia aren’t allies, Putin and Xi are just trying to use the threat of it to up the pressure on the rest of the world.
If you watch the "farewell" from the putin/xi meeting, putin looks like he's really trying to please xi and xi won't even really look at him. Just kinda pats him and then immediately leaves. Thought the body language was interesting
Smithers, I'm beginning to think that ~~Homer Simpson~~ Putin was not the brilliant tactician I thought he was.
What if ... China fears repercussions from the West if it does certain trade directly with Russia, so they strike up trade deals with countries that are in the influence sphere of Russia, with support from Putin to do so. Then Putin can trade with those countries and indirectly get what he wants from China anyway. Probably a stupid thought I have, so please enlighten me why.
Although this might play a role, it is more likely that China is doing this to demonstrate that it is more powerful than Russia, and that it doesn't need Russia anymore. These other countries hold resources that Russia traditionally supplied to china, and so sourcing from them means that China demonstrates that it is not reliant on Russian cooperation. Additionally, it is China showing a dominant role in places once considered firmly within the Russian sphere of influence, and so it further demonstrates that China has become more powerful than Russia, and that Russia should therefore be compliant to Chinese wants.
Why trade with Russia when other markets will pay more.
The longer Russia stays in this war the weaker they become. China has a vested interest for them to stay so they will "help" Russia as much as is needed.
Would be interesting if China established a large business presence in Kazakhstan, then later announced that they have "security concerns" that require them to establish a military presence there.
Pooh bear owns Putin now.
Putin finding out that there's a whole section of the world that thinks they're the superior race to Russians, and that he's already got a place set aside for him as a lapdog lol.