The end of sanctions against Russia in exchange for the return of the entire territory of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese proposal to end the conflict could be a valid starting point for negotiations, although only some of its 12 points convince him. “We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan presented by China are consistent with Russian approaches and can be taken as a basis for a peace agreement if they are ready in the West and in Kiev,” the Russian leader said at the conclusion of his summit in Moscow pledged with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The leader of the Asian power presented his candidacy as a great international mediator in Moscow. Ten days after Saudi Arabia and Iran were persuaded to resume diplomatic ties, the Chinese leader has spoken personally with the Russian president about ending the invasion of Ukraine. Initially, both sides did not like his twelve-point plan: Beijing proposed lifting the sanctions against Russia and offering it security guarantees vis-à-vis NATO, while at the same time calling for the restoration of Ukraine’s absolute territorial sovereignty, which also included that of Moscow illegally annexed Crimea belongs in 2014.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of both delegations at a welcoming ceremony in Moscow on Tuesday SPUTNIK (via Portal)
“I would like to emphasize that in the Ukrainian plan we are guided by the principles of the UN Charter and adhere to an objective and impartial position,” said the president of the People’s Republic of China, a nation that has not even recognized the annexation of the Black Sea Peninsula or the four occupied territories in eastern Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
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In any case, the parties to the conflict are skeptical about a peace proposal that could be a concession to the Russian army. In addition, after the meeting, Putin reiterated that the war was going on. When asked about Britain’s delivery of depleted uranium ammunition to Kiev, the Russian president asserted that “the West has decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, not with words but with deeds.”
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“Russia and China are not an alliance”
This summit is an important milestone in the Russian roadmap in the medium and long term. The meeting began with the live performance of the anthems of the two nuclear powers, accompanied by Putin and Xi, accompanied by two giant flags and the main representatives of their governments. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stood out from the Russian delegation; Defense Minister Sergei Lavrov; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiúllina. After the official dinner, Putin called his circle “to a few internal meetings,” according to Russian President Dmitry Peskov’s spokesman.
In one of the two joint statements, Putin and Xi noted that their countries maintain a relationship of convenience. “The parties point out that the relations between Russia and China, although not a military-political alliance similar to those formed during the Cold War, are superior to this form of interaction between states, but do not have a bloc character confrontational and directional not against third countries,” the document says.
The spirit of that partnership carries over into the rest of the statement. In it, Moscow recognizes that Taiwan is an integral part of China, but Beijing in return makes no mention of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine and only calls for security guarantees in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday SPUTNIK (via Portal)
Xi Jinping’s official trip was treated as a historic event by Russian propaganda. In fact, the traffic slump in the Russian capital was bigger than the traffic jams during celebrations of the September 30 annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories. Traffic in central Moscow was virtually blocked for the second day in a row due to the massive deployment of security points in the city’s first ring road, the Sadóvoye Koltsó.
Xi didn’t hesitate to shake hands with Putin on camera as soon as they met at their first informal meeting on Monday. This gesture was very important to the Kremlin. The Chinese leader’s visit comes days after the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest of the Russian president and his advocate for minors, Maria Lvova-Belova, for forcibly transferring Ukrainian children to Russia. “China does not see Vladimir Putin as an international outcast, and Xi Jinping will increase his personal contact with him, or at least keep him on the same level,” said Dmitri Suslov, an expert at Club Valdai, a think tank with close ties to the Kremlin.
One of the things Moscow and Beijing have in common is their taste for rewriting history. Putin, who called the dissolution of the USSR “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century,” and Xi, who last year symbolically visited the port from which Mao Zedong took power, met in Moscow at the same time as the Russian police interrogated more than a dozen members of the NGO that exposed Soviet crimes “for the rehabilitation of National Socialism.”
The homes of those responsible for the Memorial Foundation, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, were searched by Kremlin agents. Among them are the houses of their President Yan Rachinski and the head of their Center for the Defense of Human Rights Oleg Orlov.
The Kremlin bows to the power of the Chinese currency
For years, Putin toyed with the idea of decoupling the global economy from the dollar and promoting the ruble and other currencies as a means of payment. He did so because of the initial sanctions for the annexation of Crimea in 2014. This Tuesday, however, he gave in to the geostrategic reality that his invasion of Ukraine entailed. “We are in favor of using the Chinese yuan in agreements between the Russian Federation and the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America,” Putin told the Chinese leader.
Putin and Xi Jinping, in the Kremlin this Tuesday SPUTNIK (via Portal)
Sanctions on Russia’s financial system have affected not only Russian exports and imports, but also access to the dollar and euro, and confidence in the ruble. If the yuan becomes Russia’s only reference currency, its dependence on Beijing will increase. “Our cooperation is constantly expanding. We have achieved remarkable results before, and further interactions will be carried out successfully,” the Chinese President said at the beginning of the meeting.
Another important point discussed during the summit was the construction of the Siberian Power 2 gas pipeline, which will connect the Russian and Chinese energy networks through Mongolia. Beijing has partially replaced lost gas exports to the European Union but is far from supplying that market. The new pipeline will be able to deliver 50,000 million cubic meters of gas in the indefinite future. Its predecessor, the Siberian Power 1, will reach its total capacity of 38,000 million cubic meters by 2027. The sum of the two is unlikely to account for about half of the gas exported to the European Union in 2019 ahead of the crisis caused by the pandemic.
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