13.05.2024_editorial

Vladimir Putin is visiting China again this week. There is no country where he is more welcome than his fellow autocrat, Xi Jinping. Yet numerous Chinese academics have recently been highly critical of Russia and its long-term prospects of success. Christiane Kuehl resolves the contradiction in her analysis: The bottom line is that from Xi’s point of view, the advantages of Russia weakening both itself and the West simply outweigh the disadvantages. And in China, it takes only a word from Xi to end the debate.