President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a state visit in a position of relative weakness.
His army is struggling to move in Ukraine. His seat of power, Moscow, has been increasingly vulnerable to Ukrainian drones. Russia’s economy is under severe strain. More Russians are growing tired of what increasingly looks like a fruitless and endless war.
Even in better times for Moscow, its relationship with Beijing has been defined by economic imbalance. “China has massive leverage and can dictate exactly what it wants from this menu of bilateral cooperation,” said Aleksandr Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
Still, Russia is not content being relegated to junior partner to China. Its nuclear arsenal, far larger than Beijing’s, could make it an important ally in any superpower conflict, including over Taiwan. The invasion of Ukraine has positioned Moscow as a leader of an emerging non-Western world order supported by Beijing.
And then there is the opening provided by the war against Iran waged by the United States and Israel.
