Carnegie Moscow Center
Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia has high value in the wake of the Ukraine crisis and the West’s response.
The Russia-China rapprochement is a sign of the changing world order, in which the West is still very relevant, but no longer dominant.
According to Russian military experts, the new S-400 missile system can reach distances of up to 400 km. This range signifies a fundamental change in the rules of the game in Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands, two potential hot spots where China is involved.
The rising relationship between China and Russia is based both on a common resentment toward Washington’s world dominance as well as on shared interests.
The Sino-Russian entente—with its unstated, but transparent goal of reducing U.S. global dominance—is easily the most important result of the Ukraine crisis and the preceding deterioration of Russian-Western relations. The West needs to take this seriously.
Russia is tilting toward China in the face of political and economic pressure from the United States and Europe. This does not presage a new Sino-Russian bloc, but the epoch of post-communist Russia’s integration with the West is over.
The story with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which ended to the benefit of Russian national interests, nevertheless exposes the weakness of the Russian decisionmaking process in relation to the Asia-Pacific.
Russia should give the green light to the establishment of an SCO Development Bank where China takes dominant positions in the authorized capital and management bodies. In exchange, Moscow could coordinate investment principles on terms that would be most favorable to itself and its partners.
Decomposition of “Russia” into many players provides clues to some aspects of the relationship between Moscow and Beijing. While the most important decisions are made by Putin himself, the views and interests of other players may influence the final policy.
A Greater Asia, stretching from Shanghai to St. Petersburg, could transform the entire continent of Eurasia and have a significant impact on the global balance of power.