{"id":2315,"date":"2019-02-18T02:46:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T02:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackopspartners.com\/?p=2315"},"modified":"2019-02-18T02:46:01","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T02:46:01","slug":"russia-to-china-together-we-can-rule-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackopspartners.com\/russia-to-china-together-we-can-rule-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia to China: Together we can rule the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Only Europe can prevent an Eastern bloc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europe\u2019s obsession with Russia is unrequited. Moscow just isn\u2019t interested in the Continent anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It doesn\u2019t care about European integration, or moving toward Europe. But neither is it interested in Europe\u2019s predicted disintegration, or in pulling countries away from the West and closer to its way of thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the halls of the Kremlin these days, it\u2019s all about China \u2014 and whether or not Moscow can convince Beijing to form an alliance against the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s obsession with a potential alliance with China was already obvious at the Valdai Discussion Club, an annual gathering of Russia\u2019s biggest foreign policy minds, in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At their next meeting, late last year, the idea seemed to move from the speculative to something Russia wants to realize. And soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every Russian speech \u2014 from obscure academics to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself \u2014 played that note and no other. There was even a new sense of desperation in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Sergey Karaganov, a former adviser to Putin, explained to me at breakfast, now everything must be about China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s view of China has shifted significantly over the past five years. Moscow has abandoned any hope that the Chinese economy is an example it might emulate. Instead, foreign policy experts now talk of how Russia can use China to further its geopolitical goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no doubt at Valdai that China knows how to do economic growth, and that Russia does not. Russia\u2019s elite \u2014 always so ready to resist any sign of Western hegemony \u2014 have no problem admitting China\u2019s economic superiority. Their acceptance reminded me of the way Britain gave way to the United States as the world\u2019s dominant economic power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n